Rambling About.. The Bookshop on the Corner by Rebecca Raisin

Title: The Bookshop on the Corner Author: Rebecca Raisin Publication: 17 June 2014 -- Carina UK Amazon Description: Who said that only real heroes could be found in fiction? Sarah Smith had an addiction – she was addicted to romance novels. The meet-cute, the passion, the drama and the gorgeous men! Now this wouldn’t have been such an issue if she hadn’t been the owner of the only bookshop in Ashford, Connecticut. Ever since her close friend Lil, from The Gingerbread Café, had become engaged she had been yearning for a little love to turn up in her life. Except Sarah knew a good man was hard to find – especially in a tiny town like Ashford. That was until New York journalist, Ridge Warner stepped into her bookshop… Love could be just around the corner for Sarah, but will she be able to truly believe that happy-ever-after can happen in real-life too!

First Lines: Snuggled in the cozy bay window of the bookshop, I looked up from my novel as the first golden rays of sunshine brightened the sky. Resting my head against the cool glass, I watched the light spill, as though it had leaked, like the yellows of a watercolor painting.

Ramble:

Ashford was buzzing with good news recently, love affairs, weddings, babies, but I was still the same old Sarah, nose pressed in a book, living out fictional relationships as if they were my own. (4%)

Sarah first appeared in the second book of the Gingerbread Cafe series. She's the one who organized the chocolate festival that Lil and CeeCee were so wrapped up in. She's the one who owns The Bookshop on the Corner that I so desperately wish was real so I could go visit. Sarah feels like a kindred spirit from the very beginning. She's a woman who gets completely lost in books and cherishes them. When an elderly gentleman who had been to the shop years ago calls to tell her that he would like to send her his departed wife's collection, she immediately knows that she won't sell the books but, instead, place them in the shop's reading room for others to enjoy at their leisure. She's just my kind of person.

In spite of being the only bookshop in town and being memorable enough to visitors years later, the shop is still struggling. She knows that something has to change for her business life and, hopefully, her love life. Her best friend, Missy, tries to tell her that she's perfect just the way that she is but Sarah still feels like a change needs to happen somehow.

She decides to start a book blog for the store (Heh. See? Told you she's my kind of person!) and it's an immediate success.  It gives her a business boost, a new sense of confidence, and a new group of online friends who understand her and her love affair with books in a way that most people couldn't. She even uses my favorite (non-pirate-related) book quote: Ernest Hemingway's 'There is no friend as loyal as a book."

Just as this part of her life is taking off, in walks the cover of one of her beloved romance novels. Well, he wasn't really from the cover of one of her books but is Ridge Warner, a journalist from New York in town do a "feel-good piece" about Ashford and its specialty shops -- like The Bookshop on the Corner. He also knows all about Sarah and her blog already -- and, therefore, her love of romance novels. They do some flirtatious bantering (and I regret wearing a white shirt to work because I spurt coffee out of my nose) before she realizes that he had researched all about her. This doesn't sit too well with Sarah and things get real tense real fast. And then they don't.

(24%)

And then, of course, they do because the confidence that Sarah has garnered from the blog only apparently applies to her business life and not any potential love life -- which is all that she can think about when she sees him. She turns him down for an interview which baffles and intrigues him and thus begins the woo-ing.

I loved the Gingerbread Cafe books immensely and you'll be able to read all about those here, but my heart belongs in The Bookshop on the Corner. It was wonderful (and oftentimes hilarious) seeing CeeCee and Lily support Sarah and attempt to break her out of her shell and right into Ridge's arms. Of course, Missy is also on-board with the whole idea ... as is the vast majority of Ashford. As is Ridge himself.

I sighed. I swooned. I hugged myself tight. I laughed until I cried. I thanked the heavens that cardigans can double as protective coverings over white shirts (seriously -- they're like huge stylish bibs).

And then .... then came the twist and I &^%&%^* #$#%$% $#%$^%& #@$%$#@ ^%$&^%&                        and I almost DIED when FGS EHY^^  REG                                                     BYYHY!!!

Right .... like I would actually tell you. Get the book and read it yourself. Just remember to wear a protective covering in case you're prone to spurting, too.

I leave you with more gems of bookishness to tide you over:

"There's a certain pull books have on a person if they listen hard enough." (9%)

*** 

 "You look more like a romance reader to me."

I squared my shoulder. "And what exactly does a romance reader look like?"

"Let's see." He scratched his chin as if he was contemplating. "She's tiny, like a doll. Has perfectly cut black bangs, which highlight her mesmerizing doe eyes. Nervous around strangers, unaware that her hands flutter like the wings of a butterfly when she's thinking things she doesn't want anyone to know..." (20%)

*** 

 I imagined the books exhaling, stretching their bindings, as they relaxed, not on show anymore. And once I left for the night, I pictured them moving around the shop, their pages fluttering, as if they'd come to life. (40%)

*** 

I wasn't a neat person; I subscribed more to disorganized chaos. Time cleaning was less time reading, so I usually just did the minimal amount, and left it for another day, a day that would never come. (68%)

***

The books seemed to swell with pride as they sat solemnly on the old wooden shelves. They knew they were going to be well loved here, and read again, maybe a few times, in the years to follow. (75%)

***

It was so much easier to hide behind the covers of my books because there was no chance of being hurt that way. Books were my sanctuary, my escape and a place to dream without judgement or criticism. (88%)