With Love from London
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When a woman inherits her estranged mother’s bookstore in London’s Primrose Hill, she finds herself thrust into the pages of a new story—hers—filled with long-held family secrets, the possibility of new love, and, perhaps, the single greatest challenge of her life. When Valentina Baker was only eleven years old, her mother, Eloise, unexpectedly fled to her native London, leaving Val and her father on their own in California. Now a librarian in her thirties, fresh out of a failed marriage and still at odds with her mother’s abandonment, Val feels disenchanted with her life. In a bittersweet twist of fate, she receives word that Eloise has died, leaving Val the deed to her mother’s Primrose Hill apartment and the Book Garden, the storied bookshop she opened almost two decades prior. Though the news is devastating, Val jumps at the chance for a new beginning and jets across the Atlantic, hoping to learn who her mother truly was while mourning the relationship they never had. As Val begins to piece together Eloise’s life in the U.K., she finds herself falling in love with the pastel-colored third-floor flat and the cozy, treasure-filled bookshop, soon realizing that her mother’s life was much more complicated than she ever imagined. When Val stumbles across a series of intriguing notes left in a beloved old novel, she sets out to locate the book’s mysterious former owner, though her efforts are challenged from the start, as is the Book Garden’s future. In order to save the store from financial ruin and preserve her mother’s legacy, she must rally its eccentric staff and journey deep into her mother’s secrets. With Love from London is a story about healing and loss, revealing the emotional, relatable truths about love, family, and forgiveness.
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I read a book from this author in 2015 and rated it 1 star and did the same for this one. I had a REALLY a hard time with this one, I think too much about Eloise's choices were glossed over wayy too much. I found it frustrating. And I have the same gripe I did in 2015 about how this author writes about soulmates. I just don't find it believable. Just really struggled with this one. I will definitely avoid this author from now on.
ETA: I had a lot of issues with a lot of plot points but as well but the way Fiona was written?? Just why do we have to have the bookish girl be the morally superior one to the shallow woman who cares about her looks? Just gross
With Love From London is a women's fiction with dual timeline and I loved it so much! It was a beautiful, inspirational, emotional, heartwarming story of a woman and her mom and about following your heart. Filled with charm, cozy feels, a ton of love of books, and a little bit of mystery, this is a book I won't soon forget.
This was ultimately a story of family, loss, love and change. I found it inspirational, especially how it focused on second chances in life, that it's not always too late to go after what you want, but to also listen to your heart when you find someone or something meaningful.
Be aware that the story is not all happy. There's actually some pretty heartbreaking things that happen to the characters, some missed opportunities, unfortunate decisions, bad timings. But the overall note is still hopeful, I didn't come out of the book with a broken heart, if anything by the end, I felt my heart was mended, and I was filled with warm feelings.
There was so much book love in this book, it was impossible not to appreciate it as a book lover. Such great messages about how books can be healing and how they can bring people together. And the MC is a bookstagrammer! I especially loved that the main character and her mom use books to find their way to one another. And almost every relationship in the book has some literary tie.
I liked so many of the characters in this book. The two main characters are great, flawed and three dimensional, but so are all the side characters in Primrose Hill. Their best friends, their love interests, all a little quirky, but all unique and people I'd love to be friends with!
My only nitpick of this book was the tiny plotline towards to beginning of the book, where a woman sells her husband's rare books, behind his back! The fact that we don't see her get her comeuppance is truly a travesty! I really hope he divorced her.
