Published By: HQ
Pages: 272
Released On: 04/06/2026
Max always felt too ordinary for the magical village of Lampton. No place more so than her mum’s bookshop, where the recommendations are more than just a matter of taste – they’re magic.
When Max’s mum dies suddenly, she leaves her daughter Lamplight Books and makes one last wish: that Max would spend a year working in the bookshop before she sells it.
Max has no desire to uproot her busy life in the city to return to a place that always made her feel inadequate, but she can’t ignore her mum’s last request. So she decides on a trial run of two weeks – if she can’t even last that long, then a year would be impossible…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
My mind was blown when I found out that August Bloom is a fantasy pseudonym for crime writer Anna Britton, and I believe this is her debut fantasy novel.
This is glorious! I cannot say anything negative about it. It was cosy and warming but not sickly sweet; magical but still familiar.
I expected it to be this fun, magical, quirky, uplifting, feel-good fantasy story, and it was, but it had a lot more depth to it than I thought it would, particularly around grief.
It’s about grief, loss, bereavement, loneliness, fear, choices, belonging, love, friendship, community, magic – it’s got so much packed into its relatively small page count but it never feels overwhelming.
I know it’s not as easy as it sounds but this idea of running a small bookshop, organising shelves and recommending the perfect book for each customer just sounds blissful.
I read it in the spring and whilst I think it would work at ay time, it felt like it would be perfect for the autumn or winter. Some time where it’s dark and cold and you want to curl up under a blanket with a hot cuppa. I may even save it and re-read it in the winter just to see if I get a different feeling from it.
It’s quick and easy to read – I had it finished within a matter of hours, but it doesn’t skimp on the detail.
The little town of Lampton is magical in the literal and figurative sense and I wish to move there now please. Each character was a delight, be they human or otherwise. They all work well off of Max’s main story but also within their own stories.
I mean, did I have a fair understanding of how it was going to end before I got there? Yes. But does that matter? Absolutely not. In these kind of uplifting books, I find I’m less interested in what happens but rather the story of how they got there and that’s how I felt here.
As Anna Britton, she is known for writing crime novels, but she’s really hit on something as August Bloom because this is just wonderful. I truly hope there will be more books in this vein.
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