The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories #3

The Gibson sisters weren’t expecting to speak to each other ever again after Isabel ran off to New York and left Sophie alone.

But here they are, years later, running the family bookstore together on Brinkley’s Island, Maine. Isabel also thought she’d left Johnny Lenox behind, but whether or not she knew it, Johnny was always going to be there for her.

Five years into their happily ever after, Isabel and Johnny are making the most of their second chance at love. Then one night, Johnny awakens from an extraordinary dream…and their world is irrevocably altered. Isabel does her best to give Johnny space as he struggles to accept the new chapter life has opened for them. But Johnny can’t do it alone—no one can. As the whole family is soon to discover, seasons change, but love never does.

My Review

A mixture of sad and happy in the third book in the Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories. Sisters Isabel and Sophie are still running the family bookstore, which is now so successful that book lovers come for miles to visit. They are both married and living contentedly nearby.

But one day Isabel’s husband Johnny faces a sad event and Isabel must let him work through his grief. In the meantime Sophie’s daughter Violet is coming home having graduated from university and has something to tell her mother. She can’t face it and confides in Isabel instead.

It’s another beautiful short story from one of my favourite authors, that examines love, grief and family. I read it in one sitting with my puppy on my lap (yes I finally gave in after three dog-free years) and enjoyed every minute.

About the Author

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The World That We Knew, The Rules of Magic, The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, The Red Garden, the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on Earth, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, and The Dovekeepers and Magic Lessons. She lives near Boston.