Published By: HarperCollins
Pages: 368
Released On: 01/03/2025
In the shadowy aisles of The Lamplighter’s Bookshop, secrets lie as thick as the dust …
When Evelyn Seaton answers an advertisement for an assistant at a forgotten bookshop in York, she is not the only one with something to hide.
There she meets the enigmatic and prickly William Morton, an aspiring writer keeping secrets of his own. But when the walls of Evelyn’s carefully built defences start to crumble, there is only one person she can turn to.
As the layers are brushed away, Can Evelyn and William find the courage to write the next chapter of their story?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I really wanted to love this book, but it didn’t quite hit the high notes, but still very enjoyable. Let me explain why.
It’s a mixture of genres; it’s an historical piece, and there’s romance (although at times that felt a little forced), but most importantly, it’s about books and a bookshop.
The start was very bewitching and beguiling, I will admit. I was really sucked in to begin with.
I really liked Evelyn as a main character. I love it when female characters are tough in times where t hey should have been subservient. She was loud and honest and she almost had to be the man of the house and I loved her for it. Even more so because she’s like a foil to all the traditional elements of the time.
The male characters didn’t really gel with me. I know they are of their time, but I didn’t get on with any of them for various reasons. For me, this is a woman’s story – Evelyn, her mother, her aunt, her friends. The men are almost surplus to requirements, just making the reading a little awkward. Although I will concede that the majority of them did work their way through by the end, but they still didn’t match up to the women.
Did I want more about the bookshop given that it’s the title? Yes I did. What is there is enjoyable and I liked it, but maybe just a bit more focus on the bookshop, because it isn’t introduced to about 1/4 of the way through. Having said that, to contradict myself, I do understand you need some time to build up the character and the story, otherwise you wouldn’t care what happened.
I do wonder if there were maybe one too many storylines happening. I didn’t dislike that completely because they were all interesting, but I thought if she’d chose a few of them then they may have been developed further, as some felt a bit like skimming the surface.
It was a really lovely ending. Sometimes it can be hard to wrap everything up, and I was worried it’d perhaps fall a bit at the last hurdle, but it was a really pleasing finale. I think the beginning was really good, and the ending; it was just the middle where it sagged a little.
At nearly 370 pages, it’s not a short book – not is it overly long – but it flew by and I read it over one evening. This is Sophie’s debut, and whilst in my opinion there were some pacing issues, I will definitely look out for her future work. There was even a taster of her next book, The Memory Binder, which sounds enchanting.
Books By Your Bedside 