The Bookshop on the Shore
Ratings15
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings15
Average rating3.6
A grand baronial house on Loch Ness, a quirky small-town bookseller, and a single mom looking for a fresh start all come together in this witty and warm-hearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan. Desperate to escape from London, single mother Zoe wants to build a new life for herself and her four year old son Hari. She can barely afford the crammed studio apartment on a busy street where shouting football fans keep them awake all night. Hari’s dad, Jaz, a charismatic but perpetually broke DJ, is no help at all. But his sister Surinder comes to Zoe’s aid, hooking her up with a job as far away from the urban crush as possible: a bookshop on the banks of Loch Ness. And there’s a second job to cover housing: Zoe will be an au pair for three children at a genuine castle in the Scottish Highlands. But while Scotland is everything Zoe dreamed of—clear skies, brisk fresh air, blessed quiet—everything else is a bit of a mess. The Urquart family castle is grand, but crumbling, the childrens’ single dad is a wreck, and the kids have been kicked out of school and left to their own devices. Zoe has her work cut out for her, and is determined to rise to the challenge, especially when she sees how happily Hari has taken to their new home. With the help of Nina, the friendly local bookseller, Zoe begins to put down roots in the community. Are books, fresh air, and kindness enough to heal this broken family—and her own…?
Featured Series
3 primary booksScottish Bookshop is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2016 with contributions by Jenny Colgan.
Reviews with the most likes.
Truthfully, maybe this book isn't so bad as one star, but when I noticed it was some percentage points higher rated than the first book in the series, I needed to punish it. And one of the most glaring Bad Things about it was that there didn't seem to be an editor available to give this book a once-over. Misspellings, sentences that seemed to start with one idea and finish with another and make no sense at all, the wrong damn character name used at least once? YUCK.
If you came to this book from The Bookshop On the Corner, you'll find that Nina is a dick now :( Look, we've all been enormously pregnant and cranky because of it - having what is essentially a parasite literally kick your butt from inside of your body sucks, ok? - but I don't recall being mean to a helpful stranger (at least to their face) when I was knocked up, so it was gross to read someone else doing it. I also kind of felt like her having any sort of story here was a bad choice. You already had your book, girl! Go rest.
I did appreciate the Jane Eyreness of the ex-wife-gone-mad thing, but this reveal didn't come about until 90something% into the book, and was rushed through, and confusing, and didn't make me feel sympathy for any party involved in it. I think it was supposed to, but my main takeaway from that plot, and most of the book, is that every parent in this story was shit. Oh, your “common law wife” (which, couldn't it have just been wife?) went crazy and so you locked yourself away in your giant library (congrats) and let your kids live on literal toast and never bathe or go to school? I am the wife who went crazy and I still manage to stress myself out making sure my picky eating child eats some fucking fruit. And Jaz? How dare we share a nickname! That dad was dead. beat., and I kept wishing he'd just go away forever, but then I think I was supposed to forgive him at the end because he finally introduced his parents to their grandchild? (The kid was four, by the way.)
Zoe was a fine protagonist. I'm drawn to stories about mothers and young sons (there aren't many that don't involve ~rooms~) because I am a mother with a young son. I loved how much she loved her kid, I loved the memories she had of giving birth to him, being with him when he was a baby, and how fiercely she wanted to do what was right by him at all times. She deserved better than her baby-dad, and better than the Mr. Rochester dad who was for some reason completely absolved of his child neglect because he had big hands and kissed good. Did his not-daughter almost kill Zoe's kid? Yes, but wasn't he super tall, just like, so so tall, you never stop reading about how tall he is, and also he had a lot of rooms to fuck in? Yes 2.
Good luck to all of these characters who are fictional and made me so mad anyway!
I won an advance copy of this book from Goodreads and it is so good! What a great summer read, with great characters, twists and surprises, and more. What I loved the most, though was the setting in Scotland where my grandparents were born. It was great to ‘visit' there for a few days while I dove into this story. Highly recommend!
Misericórdia.
Fazia tanto, tanto tempo que eu não via um projeto tão mal executado que fui dormir puta de raiva e até sonhei que a dava três tapas na cara do autor (é, no sonho, Jenny Colgan era um cara, porque, veja bem...).
A quantidade de pontos negativos e falhas nessa história é admirável. Além de mal escrito, o que me leva a acreditar piamente que não escrito por uma única pessoa, além de não passar nem perto dos olhos de um editor, revisor, grupo beta, ou qualquer outra opção da escrita criativa para saber que a sua história em um pouco de pé e alguma cabeça.
O único sentimento é esse:
A narrativa é confusa, entrando e saindo de pontos de vista das personagens nas cenas sem ter sequer uma quebra de pontuação ou fluxo de raciocínio, parágrafos de uma página (dizendo nada); sem contar alguns “interlúdios” da autora no meio da narrativa, do nada, apenas para reforçar o amor pelos livros que ela diz que tão declaradamente ama e lê horrores. Man... se essa foi sua contribuição literária a todos os livros que já leu na vida: se esforce mais.
Nunca escrevi um livro, conto ou algo literário digno de nota, claro, sou uma simples leitora. Só que, veja bem, esse está imperdoável de tão desconexo.
Nem o título tem ligação com o conteúdo do livro!!!!
A sensação que tive é que ela tinha um capítulo terminado (o ultimo) e quis construir uma vida em cima disso. Dentro desse miolo, teve um monte de ideias ao mesmo tempo - babas que salvam vidas (super nannys), sheldons de 5 anos, romance, a livraria, a mentes criminosas, comprotamento bipolar, realismo fantástico (a mãe ser uma fey e o mosntro do lado), crianças assassinas, misterios de esposas sumidas, hermitões atraentes, famílias desconexas, traumas de infância, chefes tirânicos, namorado lixo, super-mães... Bino, a lista é grande - vomitando as coisas.
N A D A · A · V E R.
Gente, e a Nina? Já não gostava dela no primeiro volume, mas nesse ela tá de parabéns. Se mostrou a pessoa petulante, egocêntrica e mesquinha, que por alguma razão ainda desconhecida, casou-se com um cara legal como o Lennox.
Que chefe fica puta com a funcionária que conseguiu gerar lucros e ter uma rotatividade de itens maior em sua livraria? Em prol de manter clientes que a procuram perguntando do raio da capa azul do livro, e você entregar qualquer coisa só para amaciar seu ego literário?
Isso foi ridículo.
Prefiro nem entrar nos detalhes de Zoe e seus super poderes como nanny, o Jaz que se mostrou o cara mais lixo da face da terra, e ainda teve aquele momento de “redenção” no qual ficou tristinho porque Hari ficaria na Escócia (acho que nem para a autora esse amor repentino colou); Mary e suas tendências bipolares/a órfã (do filme de terror mesmo) que quer matar os irmãos e a si mesmo.
A péssima abordagem de temas tão delicados como a depressão, bipolaridade, dependência química (por parte da mãe), traumas infantis (sem explicar porque Hari não falava).
Sem contar o sem fim de personagens expositivas sem qualquer vínculo emocional com ninguém.
Dois pontos positivos: aquela cena da tentativa de date com o Murdo, a biblioteca do Beeches e a cafeteira. Ramsay ser uma pessoa melhor do que o esperado? O romance no final? Talvez.
‘cabou.
A cada frase que escrevo aqui, percebo o quão mais embaixo foi a decepção desse livro. São 400 páginaaas de vários e vários “Oi??”
Fazia tempo que não via algo tão digno de uma estrela (depois de Cinquenta tons, que veio direto do wattap para as estantes das famílias).
Chega, minha gastrite não me permite mais.
The characterization of the heroine's ex played into some unfortunate stereotypes
