How to Find a Romance in a Bookshop

After a social media post gone wrong, a literary agent runs away to look after a seaside bookshop for the summer--and forms an unlikely friendship with a charming novelist struggling with his latest idea.

Petra doesn't like books anymore--not since her career as a literary agent imploded after a social media typo went viral. Now she is stuck for six months, babysitting a little bookshop by the sea--surrounded by books that just remind her of her failure.

Ross McCloud's award-winning debut novel blew the minds of the world's literati, but that was five years ago. Now Ross and his keenly awaited second work have vanished. Something has gone wrong--horribly wrong--and Ross doesn't want to talk about it.

Marooned in Capelthorne's Bookshop miles from London, Petra can't stop thinking about all the ways she has let people down. Then she discovers Ross lurking, incognito, in the second-hand books section. Misery loves company it seems, and a kinship tentatively forms.

In the meantime, the magic of the bookshop slowly begins to enchant Petra. Soon, her book recommendations assume legendary status; she is chairing the newly formed Beach Reads Book Club; leading a weekly writing group and hosting a series of popular talks and signings by local authors. She is even starting to read again.

Petra is also finding time to help her new best friend Jess--owner of a local telephone box library--to launch the inaugural Portneath Literary Festival. What better opportunity to put the Festival on the map--says Ross--than for Petra to unveil his second novel to the world there, before re-launching her career representing him at the Frankfurt book fair? What a comeback! But can Petra find the courage to help the man she loves?

Their love of books may be re-ignited, but is that enough to save them both from their own worst enemy--themselves?

Tropes:

Friends to loversGrumpy x GrumpySmall-town romanceSlow burn

Poppy Alexander is the author of The Battle of the Bookshops, The Littlest Library, Storybook Ending, 25 Days 'Til Christmas and The 12 Days of Christmas She wrote her first book when she was five. There was a long gap in her writing career while she was at school, and after studying classical music at university, she decided the world of music was better off without her and took up journalism instead. She takes an anthropological interest in family, friends, and life in her West Sussex village (think The Archers crossed with Twin Peaks), where she lives with her husband, children, and various other pets.