The Bookshop on the Corner

October 1, 2016

For young librarian Nina Redmond, nothing brings greater satisfaction than placing the perfect book in the hands of eager readers. To her dismay, her library in Birmingham, England, is downsizing and changing its focus. This presents petite, timid Nina with an opportunity to follow a dream of creating a bookstore on wheels. Relocating to the Scottish Highlands is an uncharacteristic act of daring for her. Driving an unwieldy mobile bookstore and living in a modernized remote barn introduces her to a world of small towns and stunning wide open spaces, along with a community of hungry readers. Nina blossoms as she matches books with both the young and old, all while engaging in two romantic flirtations. Who will win her heart, Lennox, a brusque sheep farmer working through a bitter divorce, or Marek, a lonely Latvian train engineer who leaves her romantic notes? VERDICT Colgan's latest (after Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery) gently acknowledges the UK's recent library funding problem as well as the new roles libraries are assuming. Scotland is a bonny setting for this funny, winsome novel that will appeal to fans of Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop.--Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
All Nina has ever cared about is helping people find the right book. When she's downsized from her job as a librarian in Birmingham, England, she decides to open up her own bookshop, a bold move that ends up changing her whole life. It begins with an old bakery van she finds in a small Scottish village, which she converts to a bookstore on wheels. She then moves into a converted barn on a Highlands farm and begins selling at local market days, getting to know the villagers through their reading tastes. She even finds romantic options, with both a charismatic train conductor who passes through town and a gruff but caring farmer. Colgan's latest shares many themes with her popular Little Beach Street Bakery (2015) and Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery (2016): a heroine who strikes out on her own, a picturesque setting, and charming small-town dalliances. Most of all, though, this cheering tale celebrates the many ways books bring people together.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 15, 2016
What's a shy English librarian to do when she's downsized out of a job and her only hope for remaining employed is to become a social media-savvy coordinator of online content?For 29-year-old Nina, it's time to pursue her dream of opening a small bookshop. After all, since no one reads anymore, the library system is practically throwing away its books, and no will mind if Nina rescues them like orphans and finds them new homes. Certainly her roommate, the beautiful Surinder, will be pleased to rid their apartment of the architecture-imperiling weight of piles of novels. But real estate is expensive, so Nina decides to buy a van and travel around in a mobile bookstore. She locates the perfect vehicle in Kirrinfief, Scotland, where her real adventures begin. Soon enough, she's relocated to the Highlands, and her life is newly populated with delightfully quirky characters, including Marek, a Latvian train engineer and romantic hero, who begins exchanging love letters and books of poetry with Nina on a tree at a railway crossing; Ainslee, a mercurial teenage girl eager for a job yet wary of revealing anything about her home life; and Lennox, Nina's grumpy landlord, who's separated from his posh wife and who increasingly occupies Nina's thoughts. Amid the gorgeous scenery of Scotland, Nina sets out to find the right book for everyone in her new town. With a keen eye for the cinematic, Colgan (Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery, 2016, etc.) is a deft mistress of romantic comedy; Nina's story is laced with clever dialogue and scenes set like jewels, just begging to be filmed. A charming, bracingly fresh happily-ever-after tale with playful nods to the Outlander series.

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