- Title: The Bookseller’s Secret
- Author: Michelle Gable
- Genre: Historical fiction
- Rating: 4 out of 5
In 1942, London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics.
Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war. Between the shop’s brisk business and the literary salons she hosts for her eccentric friends, Nancy’s life seems on the upswing. But when a mysterious French officer insists that she has a story to tell, Nancy must decide if picking up the pen again and revealing all is worth the price she might be forced to pay.
Eighty years later, Heywood Hill is abuzz with the hunt for a lost wartime manuscript written by Nancy Mitford. For one woman desperately in need of a change, the search will reveal not only a new side to Nancy, but an even more surprising link between the past and present…
Nancy and her family were a bit of a dumpster fire. I really didn’t care for them. Nancy was very wishy-washy and I frankly just wanted her to grow a pair, make a decision, and follow through. I actually enjoyed Katie’s story in the present-day far, far more than Nancy’s, although she had her own set of issues (more of a campfire than a dumpster fire).
There were some parallels between the two women, with their writer’s block and indecisiveness, but it was fun to see Katie’s journey. The blurb makes this seem like everyone in London is talking about the possibility of a lost Mitford manuscript, but in reality it was basically three people, so there’s that.
Michelle Gable is a bestselling author. The Bookseller’s Secret is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Graydon House in exchange for an honest review.)
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