Despite the title, I won't be lost for words reviewing this lovely book. It is full of characters you will take to your heart and I loved the way the story unfolded. Loveday Cardew is a young woman in her twenties, quite a spiky character, who works in an independent bookshop in York owned by the wonderfully eccentric Archie. Some years previously as a young girl, as the story hints at and gradually reveals, she suffered terrible loss. This is one of the reasons she now wants to be so self-sufficient and closes herself off from most relationships. She guards her past secrets well and doesn't discuss them with anyone. So when some books arrive at her bookshop which suggest that someone knows about her past and is trying to send her a message, she feels that her carefully constructed life may be about to fall apart.

As with Stephanie Butland's previous novels, the story takes place over a few time frames. The present day story is related under chapters called Poetry, reflecting how Loveday is beginning to attend poetry evenings and share her own poetry. Chapters from the recnt past looking at her relationship with ex-boyfriend Rob are entitled Crime and chapters dealing with Loveday's childhood are appropriately named History. There was also a particularly poignant chapter called Memoir.

There were a few small details which really caught my attention. I loved the idea that having to finish a chapter of a book is an acceptable reason to be late for work! And I really liked the notice-board Loveday had in the bookshop for things 'Found in a Book'. It made me think about the strangest thing I had ever found in a book but I don't think I've found anything very interesting. I did buy a second hand Nigella cookbook once which had lots of notes in the margins (marginalia as I discovered it is called). Some were just suggested changes to the recipe but some were things like 'this is Mark's favourite' or 'must try this when Jane and Martin come round!'

It is the characters which make this a very special book. Part of me wanted to wrap Loveday in a hug and to look after her but of course there's no way she would let anyone do that. She's a character you want to protect from the heartbreak that she feels she has to hide from everyone. She is scared to let herself love and be loved and with what she has gone through and how she has been let down in the past who could blame her? Could magician and poet Nathan be the one to break through her barriers?

Archie is also a fabulous character. Larger than life with a huge heart and capacity to love. Archie has had the most unconventional life with many hints at the adventures in his past. While reading about him, I had a picture of Simon Callow in mind! He was such a generous, caring character and the quiet compassion he showed Loveday was enough to make me love him.

Lost for Words is a book I adored. It's full of warmth with wonderful characters and it's full of the magic and power of books. If you love books set in bookshops, you'll love it. If you love books about damaged people learning to love again, you'll love it. If you love books with quirky characters, you'll love it. In fact, if you love any beautifully written story, you'll love Lost For Words!

Lost For Words is the story of Loveday, a young woman who, on the surface, seems to have the life that all book lovers long for. She works in a bookshop, has a somewhat flexible schedule and an adorable boss, gets allowances to buy books, and has the time to read all the books she wants to. It goes without saying that Loveday loves books. Why, she even has tattoos of the first lines of some books! As the story progresses, we get to know Loveday a little bit better. We get to know why she is the recluse that she is, and why she isn't comfortable with people.

With a premise like that, how could I resist choosing Lost For Words for review?! I did like the book, but I didn't fall in love with it the way I had thought I would. The first half of the book is superb - it drew me in, captivated me, had me hooked to it. I was drawn into Loveday's world, and was so deep into it that my family would have to tap me on the shoulder and gently tell me that it was time for lunch or to go to bed... The language was beautiful, the prose flowed in a lovely way, in the first half. After Loveday's big secret is revealed, though, almost 50% into the book, the story, the language, everything seemed to go downhill for me. Then, the book began to resemble a melodramatic TV show and Loveday began to look far, far away from the brilliant recluse that she was in the first half of the story. Things begin to progress rather abruptly in the second half - after the rather laid-back scheme of things in the beginning. Things seemed to tie up way too neatly for my liking, in the end.

The book made me think a whole lot, and was, in a lot of ways, an enlightening read for me. For that, I am glad I read the book. I just wish I had been able to love the second half of it, just as much as I loved the first half.

I would still recommend the book to you, for the beauty that part of it is.

While the tittle may be at a loss for words, the book isn't. The book suffers from a character who is surrounded and sputters to many of them, dispersed, just thrown, for the receiver to make sense of them all and feels the need to run before being crushed by them.
Not for me, sorry.