Bookshop Blog Tour: Reviews for How to Find Love in a Bookshop & Astley Book Farm

Today I’ve teamed up with Orion and the Books are my Bag campaign to bring you a special post all about bookshops! I’m reviewing the new novel by Veronica Henry, How to Find Love in a Bookshop and am also featuring my own local independent bookshop Astley Book Farm for Independent Bookshop Week.

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry 
Publisher: Orion
Release: 16th June 2016
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review



Synopsis:

"Nightingale Books, nestled on the high street in the idyllic Cotswold town of Peasebrook, is a dream come true for booklovers.

But owner Emilia Nightingale is struggling to keep the shop open. The temptation to sell up is proving enormous - but what about the promise she made to her father? Not to mention the loyalty she owes to her customers.

Sarah Basildon, owner of stately pile Peasebrook Manor, has used the book shop as an escape from all her problems in the past few years. But is there more to her visits than meets the eye?

Since messing up his marriage, Jackson asks Emilia for advice on books to read to the son he misses so much. But Jackson has a secret, and is not all he seems...

And there's Thomasina, painfully shy, who runs a pop-up restaurant from her tiny cottage. She has a huge crush on a man she met and then lost in the cookery section, somewhere between Auguste Escoffier and Marco Pierre White. Can she find the courage to admit her true feelings?

How to Find Love in a Book Shop is the delightful story of Emilia's fight to keep her book shop alive, the customers whose lives she has touched - and the books they all love."

Review 
I’m a sucker for books about books so I couldn’t resist How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry. This is my first book by the author and it won’t be my last! I loved this charming tale of a family owned bookshop set in a Cotswold town.

Julius Nightingale lives and breathes books, after the death of his young wife he’s a single father bringing up their baby daughter Emilia alone. He opens a bookshop ‘Nightingale Books’ and creates a happy home full of stories for his daughter. Julius’s warmth and passion for books soon draws in the bookish locals looking for some escapism and therapeutic advice from the kindly bookseller.

Thirty years later and Julius’s untimely death leaves a gaping hole in the local community. After inheriting the book shop, Emilia struggles financially to keep it open and running – but books have a special way of leaving a mark on our hearts and those Julius has touched over the years with his recommendations are determined that Nightingale Books isn’t going down with a fight. Can a community of book lovers save their beloved bookshop?

How to Find Love in a Bookshop follows a large cast of characters. As well as Julius’s chapters set in the past and Emilia’s chapters set in the present, we also follow the town’s locals whose lives Nightingale Books has touched in some way. I really enjoyed reading about how books bought these characters together and loved how their individual stories tied in with the main plot. Julius was by far my favourite character, he was such a sweetheart and I felt the impact of his death just as much as the characters in the book. He’s everything you want in both a bookseller and a friend.

Any book lover will enjoy spending time in Nightingale Books, the independent bookshop that is the beating heart of this story. It’s everything you envision a good bookshop to be. I wanted to crawl inside of the book and spend hours exploring this little shop.

How to Find Love in a Bookshop is a wonderful story that shares a special message with its reader about how books have the power to bring people together. It’s a celebration of reading, bookshops and booksellers demonstrating how it only takes one story to change your life forever.

Follow the rest of the blog tour!

Astley Book Farm 

A Playground for the Bookish 

I am lucky enough to live a ten minute drive away from Astley Book Farm – the largest second hand bookshop in the Midlands and home to 75,000 books. Situated in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside it’s the perfect place for book lovers to escape the hustle and bustle of city life in favour of a day amongst books.

The bookshop itself is far bigger than one might expect, you can easily lose an entire day getting lost in a maze of books as you wander the shops corridors. The bookcases are crammed with books new and old, ranging from popular bestsellers to out of print rarities. The décor is homely and rustic with old books propped along the ceiling beams, funny and inspirational decorative quotes hang on the walls and a squishy armchair can be found around every corner to tempt customers to snuggle up and read for a while.

Once you’ve finished perusing the main shop floor, there is a separate Children’s Hayloft where young readers can discover the joys of a good bookshop for the very first time. Back outside there’s the Ten Bob Barn, a treasure trove of mismatched books selling for a mere fifty pence each. It’s the perfect place to get lost for anyone who loves a good rummage around looking for hidden gems.

Every book lover knows that book shopping is hard work and the onsite coffee shop is the perfect place to sit down and read with a nice cup of tea and a doorstop slice of one of their delicious fresh cakes. The coffee shop also extends out into the garden so that customers can enjoy a light lunch in the sunshine during warmer seasons.

With friendly, knowledgeable staff and enough books to last even the most avid reader a lifetime, Astley Book Farm is a truly special bookshop with a huge amount of personality. Whether you’re visiting on a daytrip with friends or just stopping by to find your next great read Astley Book Farm is a playground for the bookish with something to offer every reader.

Check out Astley Book Farm's website here for more information

Follow them on Twitter and Facebook

What Kind of Book Buyer Are You?

As a book lover I tend to visit a lot of bookshops regularly (as we do) and I’m also friendly with a few booksellers. Over time I’ve come to find that there are six (to my knowledge) types of people who buy books from a book shop. I thought that it would make a fun post to share with you my findings today.

The Researcher:- 
First off we have the category that I myself fall into. The Researcher knows what they like and what they want from their books. They spend hours reading reviews and have a carefully selected wish list. The Researcher rarely picks up books on a whim and they tend to know an awful lot about a book before reading it. The Researcher goes to a bookshop on a mission with a list of books in mind. Nothing beats the satisfaction of finding the book that they want in stock nor the disappointment on discovering that they don’t carry the book in question.

The Browser:- 
The Browser is my personal favourite kind of book buyer. They treat bookshops as their own personal cave of wonders. They can lose hours perusing the bookshelves, occasionally pulling out books that catch their attention. You can often find them sitting in one of the comfy chairs flicking through their findings before deciding if they want to buy. The Browser loves bookshops and the art of book shopping almost as much as they love reading itself.

The Cover Lover:- 
Whilst it’s true that the cover lover will often fall victim to a beautiful cover design it’s also the marketing on the outside of the book that can catch their attention. I’m talking about a snappy synopsis, a quote from a favourite author and award winner stickers. Cover Lovers can often be found in bookshops near public transport looking for a cover that catches their attention with promises from the press to be a great read. After all, they don’t have time to investigate much further; they have somewhere to be and are looking for a good book to pass the journey with.

The Bargain Hunter:-
The Bargain Hunter is perhaps the most easily recognisable type of book buyer. They are the ones clutching tightly to their smartphones blatantly looking for a cheaper offer online and comparing prices. If they are shopping in a group or with another person you may overhear them say “I think I’ll leave it, it’s cheaper on Amazon.”

The Newbie:- 
The Newbie can be a person of any age who has just discovered a book (or new genre) they love for the first time. Wide eyed they’ll excitedly dash over to the area in the store where they discovered their first love looking for something similar. Booksellers are the newbies new best friend as they ask for more books by the same author or similar titles.

The Wanderer:- 
The Wanderers are a diverse bunch. They usually exclude book lovers altogether and tend to come into a bookshop with their last intention being to buy a book. I’m talking about the civilians off the street looking for free Wi-Fi, coffee, shelter, and a toilet amongst other things. You know the type. They’ll do a full rotation of the shop whilst exclaiming to their friend that they “don’t really read.”

 So there you have it. The six types of people I’ve encountered whilst book shopping. Which group do you fall into? Have you ever come across a different type of book buyer?

Blog Tour: Melissa Hill's Dream Bookshop and Giveaway for a signed copy of A Gift to Remember!

Today is my stop on Melissa Hill's blog tour for A Gift to Remember which is out in paperback today! To celebrate publication day I have a very special post for you from Melissa talking about her dream bookshop and I'm giving one of you the chance to win a signed copy of the book itself! But first it's over to Melissa...

My Dream Bookshop by Melissa Hill 

My ideal bookshop is pretty much Chaucer’s in A GIFT TO REMEMBER. Since childhood I’ve always felt most at home in a bookstore, and being in a space cocooned by books is my ultimate comfort zone.

The shop of my dreams is again very similar to how I describe Chaucer’s. Out front, Victorian paneled bay windows would evoke old-fashioned storefronts of times gone by, as would the wrought iron scroll-effect purple-on-gold store sign (purple being my favourite colour).

Inside would be a snug and inviting space with an olde-worlde vaguely Dickensian feel - oak wooden floorboards and high floor to ceiling hardwood bookshelves.

The interior itself would have quirky panache, but with a certain tattiness too; a lived-in, homely quality with separate areas for new as well as old books, and unusual genres. Quiet little nooks to get lost in, making browsers helplessly lose their bearings in the way any great bookshop should. 

Ultimately it would have a homey comfortable atmosphere - the perfect place to spend an afternoon wandering amongst the shelves or hunting down elusive titles.

Primarily the store would carry an eclectic mix of carefully hand-picked modern literature in a variety of genres, early edition classics as well as popular bestsellers for both adults and children. It would also have its own special children’s nook, a space to curl up and read on their own or with storytelling parents, and surrounded by a choice of classic favourites that would make their eyes grow starry and their imaginations run wild.

For adults, the store would be a quiet and contemplative space as well as making it a pleasurable browsing experience for both booklovers and gift-seekers. Though bookshelves are so beautiful in themselves that they need little adornment, it would be good to create occasional displays of themed titles according to season. For example, books that would make perfect Christmas or Valentine’s Day gifts would be presented in ways that made them as irresistible as jewellery or chocolates.

The sales floor should ideally feel small and intimate, yet there would be an area to provide space for public readings, book groups and launches. Authors from all walks of life; both international bestsellers or locally published would be more than welcome to stop by for a visit or signing and have a coffee at the upstairs café, which handily turns into a wine bar or tapas bar at night.

Finally, my perfect bookshop is a space that feels as comfortable filled with people as it does if you’re the only shopper in there, with nothing but the best kind of company – walls upon walls of amazing books.

 END 

Thanks for stopping by today Melissa. I find myself regularly daydreaming about what my own bookshop would be like and whilst I was reading A Gift to Remember I though that Chaucer's sounded heavenly, it's great that your own dream bookshop would be very much the same!

 Giveaway 

I'm giving one of my UK readers the chance to win a signed copy of A Gift to Remember! 

Simply read the rules and fill in the Rafflecopter to enter. Good luck!

Giveaway Rules 

To enter you have to fill in the Rafflecopter 

Open to UK residents only 

End date: 14th July 2014 

One winner will be drawn and contacted by email with 1 week to reply else another winner will be selected 

Make sure you complete what the form asks of you - I do check! Any winner who has not completed an option will be disqualified

  a Rafflecopter giveaway 

A Gift to Remember is available to buy now in all good bookshops 

For more of my thoughts check out my review here.