Post written in Feb/Mar ’21

Though it was published in 2016, I ordered The Bookshop on The Corner by Jenny Colgan just last year (2020), and only got around to reading it after the holidays, when I thought the world would be calmer. As it turns out, the world is never calmer, and this book ended up being a delicious escape, a fluffy, chick-lit getaway in January. I literally curled up with tea on several different occasions to let myself fly away on this thoroughly enjoyable read.

This particular yarn made me want to move to Scotland, and that’s saying something, given that I joyously fled the snowy wilds of Idaho as fast as I could when I was 21 and never looked back. Being so close to the Arctic Circle (relatively speaking, of course), Scotland gets a lot of tough weather, and as a person prone to seasonal depression and general winter blues, I found the heroine’s acknowledgement of her own reasons for being willing to move there a welcome dose of reality: “Perhaps if it had been rainy that spring weekend, everything would have been very different.” That the author is addressing the inclement weather of Scotland, rather than glossing over its difficult economics and climate, is refreshing in a romance book.

Besides the brief does of enjoyable reality, our heroine, Nina, gets two love stories–what a bonus! Though it’s pretty clear to the reader which story will endure the test of time, it was nice to witness Nina breaking out of her shell and giving in to a fanciful romance, even if it was impractical from the start. These two storylines within the novel serve to keep the majority of the plot PG, but we get a few racy scenes towards the end that make up for the lack of physical intimacy throughout the rest of the book, giving the reader a sense of satisfaction anyway.

Also, I loved the hero in this book–to keep from spoiling it for others, I’ll leave his name out. Though he conforms to the usual romance book hero’s mold, he is way more like other men I’ve met and dated, who usually eschew the ridiculous dialogue in which romance characters are usually drowning.

Surinder is another highlight to the novel. She is a sassy addition to a plot that could have gone saccharine and a character who helps give us a clearer picture of Nina by virtue of their shared interactions. She’s also something of a saint, having put up with the amount of Nina’s books in the apartment.

The only real drawback to the book was the subplot involving the moral, economic, and social salvation of a teenager in town, who would have been lost without our industrious, kindhearted, and nosy heroine. While it warmed my heart to know that Nina would fit in and care about all of her new neighbors in Scotland, I cringed a little at this part of the book. It smacked of the savior complex of some teachers when they come from a different class or culture than the students they serve. Nothing is more obnoxious than a person who takes it upon themselves to deem who needs to be saved, as if everything in the poor person’s life is wrong, simply by virtue of the heroine’s narrow lens of experience.

Therefore, I give this read an 8.5 out of 10. Aside from the cringey subplot, I have to say my soul didn’t soar with this one, and that’s my requirement for a 9 or above. I also forgot the names of the characters within a couple of days of reading the book–I had to look them up again in my notes. And while I’d love to blame that on my 43-year-old brain, I’m pretty sure it’s because this enjoyable piece of fluff served its purpose and then floated out of my mind, leaving only a few pleasant, if ephemeral memories behind.