Publication Date: 01st March 2025
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
3 Stars
One Liner: Nice but too much drama
1899, York
Evelyn Seaton needs to find a way out of their financial situation. She finds an advertisement for an assistant in a little bookshop. She just wants a job and to keep people away from her personal life.
William Morton is an aspiring writer with secrets of his own. Turns out, Evelyn and William’s paths are destined to keep converging. However, the way to the future is filled with secrets and lies they need to sort out.
The story comes in the third-person POV of Evelyn and William.
My Thoughts:
This is yet another case of falling for the cover and ending up with a mixed read. Sigh!
The first 2-3 chapters were terrific. They establish the FMC’s current situation, her family, and her character attributes. It’s easy to empathize with her and root for her to handle the situation.
The said bookshop doesn’t appear for a while, so when it was first mentioned, I was truly excited. However, it is just one of the places where the story takes place. Yes, it has more importance but would it have been different if books were replaced by something else? Only a little!
The side characters come in all types. My favorites have to the aunt and Naomi. Both are quite different but the kind we need around us.
Despite being a romance, the book is more of a family drama. That’s still okay. We can’t really separate family from individuals, right?
However, my major issue is with the MMC. It’s good to have a guy with flaws. But I couldn’t find anything worthy of him to be a hero. Getting support from others and having someone else literally step in and save the guy from trouble are different. Also, there isn’t anything enterprising about him.
Of course, the FMC is a bit better but all those lies, omissions, secrets, and whatnot made me dizzy. Angst is nice but not when it is unnecessary for the plot. All they needed was a proper conversation which eventually happened (after I got bored).
While I enjoyed the writing initially, it got a bit too excessive at times. This affected the pace along with all that miscommunication. The book would have been better with some experienced developmental editing to get rid of (some of) the fluff.
Also, there’s a mention of possibly something magical about the bookshop but we never know what it is. Was that element removed at some point? If yes, then I have to say it’s a bad decision. Removing the unwanted drama and keeping the bookshop parts would been a better choice.
The ending is nice but by then I was glad to reach that point. I do like how it presented the attitude and snobbery of the ton as well as the importance of having a title.
To summarize, The Lamplighter’s Bookshop has a worthy premise that got lost in too much drama. It reads like a debut book and would have benefited from strict editing.
Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins, for eARC.
#NetGalley #TheLamplightersBookshop
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