Author: Amy Meyerson
Published: June 12, 2018 by Park Row
Format: Paperback 397 Pages
Genre: General Fiction
Blurb: A woman inherits a beloved bookstore and sets forth on a journey of self-discovery in this poignant debut about family, forgiveness and a love of reading.
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt.
My Opinion: In my ongoing quest to clear off the long ignored corners of my TBR shelf, The Bookshop of Yesterday was next in line. And maybe it’s me, maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood, but this one was boring from the start and, frankly, obvious in all the ways I didn’t want it to be.
Bookstore settings usually give a story an automatic boost. Readers love them; I love them. But the secrets, the literary clues, the scavenger hunt style breadcrumb trail… none of it added any real spark here. Especially when the main character is someone you wouldn’t willingly spend an afternoon with, let alone follow through a maze of “mysteries.” She’s distant in that way that makes you feel like you’re reading from the outside looking in, never quite invited to care.
As the story went on, it felt like the author kept tossing more and more elements into the mix that didn’t need more family drama, emotional revelations, and bookish puzzles, in hopes that something would deepen the narrative. But everything stayed surface-level, as if the book were trying to convince me it had layers without ever actually revealing any.
By the halfway point, it had become an overlong slog of predictability. Honestly, it should have been a DNF. But because it had been sitting on my shelf for ages, I felt obligated to give it a fair shot. In hindsight? A waste of time. Some books reward your patience; this one just drained it.
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt.
My Opinion: In my ongoing quest to clear off the long ignored corners of my TBR shelf, The Bookshop of Yesterday was next in line. And maybe it’s me, maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood, but this one was boring from the start and, frankly, obvious in all the ways I didn’t want it to be.
Bookstore settings usually give a story an automatic boost. Readers love them; I love them. But the secrets, the literary clues, the scavenger hunt style breadcrumb trail… none of it added any real spark here. Especially when the main character is someone you wouldn’t willingly spend an afternoon with, let alone follow through a maze of “mysteries.” She’s distant in that way that makes you feel like you’re reading from the outside looking in, never quite invited to care.
As the story went on, it felt like the author kept tossing more and more elements into the mix that didn’t need more family drama, emotional revelations, and bookish puzzles, in hopes that something would deepen the narrative. But everything stayed surface-level, as if the book were trying to convince me it had layers without ever actually revealing any.
By the halfway point, it had become an overlong slog of predictability. Honestly, it should have been a DNF. But because it had been sitting on my shelf for ages, I felt obligated to give it a fair shot. In hindsight? A waste of time. Some books reward your patience; this one just drained it.
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