The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan is an adult fiction Scottish Bookshop book.
Zoe is a single mother who desperately needs something to happen. She’s living paycheck to paycheck, rents a crumpy studio in London, has to deal with a crummy ex and her four-year-old son Hari, still hasn’t started speaking. So when the opportunity to get out comes around, she takes it.
Moving to the Scottish Highlands is quiet a change for the pair. Wide open spaces, close knit communities, who don’t always welcome outsiders, and two jobs that weren’t quite what she expected.
Zoe is to run Nina’s bookmobile while she is on maternity leave and she is to live in a house–more like a mansion–where she will do light nanny work for three children. But both jobs turn out to be much more involved and challenging than she expected.
Will Zoe make a new life for her and her son or will she buckle under pressure and return to her old life of cramped living and penny pinching?
Technically, this is a sequel to The Bookshop on the Corner. But is it? Yes, Nina is in it and the bookmobile makes an appearance but the story is entirely Zoe’s. I almost wish Nina and Lenonx and the rest of the town weren’t in the story because just having them on the outskirts, made me want more of them. At the start, it seemed like Nina was going to be a big part of the book and I was disappointing at how little she was. It bothered me that one of the main reasons Zoe comes to Scotland, for the bookmobile job, was basically pushed to the side.
And I cannot get over the absolutely horrible editing. I really hope this was just in the ebook because it the physical book is that bad, shame on the editor. At one point, they even used the wrong characters name. The story clearly meant Jaz and Hari but instead it was Jaz and Shanti. Wrong words were used, or if not wrong words, misspellings. It was just really hard to overlook while reading.
I don’t mean to bash this book, with the exception of the editing, because many people will find it a light, enjoyable read. But there was just too much to overlook for me to enjoy it fully.
This one gets 2 stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-