Magical Lost Bookshop set in Dublin, Paris and Bronte Country

Submitted: 14th July 2023

I have spent a week reading this book. Normally, I don’t take a week as I read a lot and very quickly but after the first chapter of this I slowed right down. I knew that this was going to be a special book and one I had to savour as this book was going to make me smile, laugh, cry and feel something special.

It did. It surpassed all expectations and I had one of the loveliest and immersive reading experiences I have ever had.

BookTrail Travel to The Lost Bookshop

Boarding Pass Information: Dublin Bronte Country and Paris

Author guide: Evie Woods and Emily Bronte to some extent!

Genre: magical

Food and drink to accompany: You’ll be too excited and swept away to read

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BookTrail Travel to The Lost Bookshop

Sometimes a book comes along that really touches a nerve. This is that book for me as it came at a time I needed its magical story with its mystery, literary connections and heartfelt emotions.

Where do I start with this review? Well, in one sentence, I would urge you to read it. It’s a heartfelt read with magical realism, sprinkled with literary references, a search for a missing Bronte manuscript and a visit to Shakespeare and Company to name but a few marvels of this story!

The Lost Bookshop itself though it just Mwah! It’s set in fictional Ha’Penny Lane in Dublin but not everyone knows its there or can even see it. That sent shivers up my spine from the start! Tingles of excitement led me on where I met Martha who is living in the same house where the bookshop is said to be….

Paris next and we meet Opaline who flees an abusive marriage and gets to work in the iconic Shakespeare and Company. She starts work as a book dealer and meets Armand and well, this section is just filled with the smell of ancient pages and exciting bookish finds. It was amazing to visit this shop in the early days and meet Sylvia the owner!

BookTrail Travel to The Lost Bookshop

The two stories interweave with the story of Henry, a British academic who is searching for a lost manuscript. He has a letter from a certain Opaline Grey and a clue to go to Ha’Penny Lane. Here, he meets Martha and enters the lost bookshop only to find himself back outside once again. The shop he has just seen isn’t there anymore. Only waste ground lies ahead of him. But he’d just seen it, hadn’t he? When he meets Martha, that has to be one of the funniest and cutest scenes in the book. I fell in love with Henry from that moment on.

Well, from the very first time I got to peek inside the lost bookshop I was totally and utterly hooked. Martha has a tattoo on her back and it keeps changing….shiver. This is how you do magical realism! Spellbinding.

Another part of the book which was magical was the search for the missing Bronte manuscript and the literary treasure hunt the characters go on to find it. I was utterly immersed in this search and even got my Bronte biographies out to read a little more about Emily in particular.

BookTrail Travel to The Lost Bookshop

There’s so much to fall in love with in this book. It’s a story and an ode to books and their magic, their power. It’s an ode to booksellers and collectors. You can touch the books and smell them and get lost in them. Imagine actually finding a lost bookshop that appears and then disappears?

How the author managed to weave so many magical elements into a story and make it flow, excite and captivate I don’t know.

Evie Woods will always be the author who introduced me to my literary husband, Henry. Read this story and fall in love with the magic of it all for yourself. Not Henry though. We’re married now.