The Bookshop Ladies by Faith Hogan

I hadn’t read any of Faith Hogan’s books before but I will certainly be looking out for others. A lovely, well written story, set in a beautiful sounding village in Ireland. I felt fully invested in the characters and wanted them all to succeed.

When Joy Blackwood’s husband died, just after his retirement she was distraught. More so, when just before he died he told her that he had a child  – something he and Joy hadn’t managed to have together. After the reading of the will, Joy finds that he has left a very expensive painting to his daughter, and she decides to travel to Ireland and give the daughter the painting personally. When Joy arrives in Ballycove, she finds that the bookshop that Robyn runs is in complete disarray, and so far from profitable that Robyn may have to close it down. Robyn thinks that Joy has come to volunteer in the bookshop, and Joy doesn’t  dissuade of that idea. Slowly, Joy comes to find something in Ballycove that she had been missing all her life – family. However, when Robyn and her mother Ferne find out who Joy really is, will her happiness come crashing down?

A really lovely story, which is wonderful for a summer’s afternoon, and will leave you feeling warm and happy.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6537069997