The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods, Evie Gaughan

"Lost is not a hopeless place to be. It is a place of patience, of waiting. Lost does not mean gone for ever. Lost is a bridge between worlds, where the pain of our past can be transformed into power. You have always held the key to this special place, but now you are ready to unlock the door."

Opaline, Martha, and Henry have been side character in their own lives but when a vanishings/magical bookshop intervenes they discover they are more of main characters of an extraordinary story. Unlocking and discovering more about themselves they also uncover the truth of the bookstore and how it came to be. Dual storyline between the past and the present which is always a favorite of mine! Opaline. who narrates the past, escapes her arranged marriage by fleeing to Paris and gets work in a bookstore as a bookseller of rare books. Martha of the future is escaping an abusive marriage and takes work as a housekeeper in the same timeline Henry is looking for a lost manuscript and a bookstore that happens to disappear. When Martha and Henry meet, they are immediately drawn to one another, and Henry asks for her help in finding the manuscript and bookshop.

It was such a wonderful story that both felt magical as well as realistic. It doesn't go too far into magical but the elements that are in it are beyond fantastical. I wish there was a little more but what we got was lovely. It really gets you invested within the first few chapters and makes you not want to put it down. The woman in this book suffered so badly but once again it was very realistic but handled wonderfully and shone some light in the institutions women were wrongly sent to in the past. It was a wonderful book, full of love, magic, self discovery, and it will just sweep you right away.

"No one is coming to save you. People don't suddenly change, say they're sorry and begin to treat you with respect. They are a jumble of hurt and pain and they will take it out on whomever they can."

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