This was such a lovely read! I adored the story of Madeline, Janet and Claire. I love how deftly the author incorporated books, and her love of reading clearly shone through. I do wish, though, that we had gotten each woman’s book list in the end, instead of a general list of all books mentioned. This was a well-written, thoughtful book that shows the power of a bookstore to use reading to connect us all. Highly recommend.

Things got a little hectic and I wasn’t able to read as much as normal. I picked up this ARC over the weekend and wondered what took me so long. What an enjoyable story. The premise of a high powered executive inheriting a small town book store is straight out of the Hallmark Christmas movie vault and I was looking for such an uplifting book. You can comfortably read the story without worrying that something horrible is going to happen and when conflicts arise, there is comfort in knowing a satisfactory resolution will follow. The main characters are nicely developed with different backgrounds but enough commonality to have the same morals and goals. It supports the premise that people are basically good and kind and care deeply about each other. I wish there was a bookstore similar to this in my neighborhood! For those who read to escape just a little from everyday issues, April can’t come fast enough ( pub date). This is a great way to grab a cup of tea and a blanket and settle in for a few hours! I loved all the local Chicago references!
#netgalley #katherinereay #thomasnelson

All bookish people will love this story. It’s fun, intriguing, has a mystery and a splash of romance. The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay is the story of three women drawn together after the death of the owner of the bookshop. Each woman is trying to find her place in the work with the bookshop at their center.

Unfortunately I found this book to be rather slow and a struggle to get going but once you make it through the initial “hump” it turned beautiful.

A story of 3 women and their each individual struggles.

All bookish people will love this story. It’s fun, intriguing, has a mystery and a splash of romance. It takes place in The Printed Letter Book Shop a place I’d love to hang out in and work at. The author does a brilliant job of placing readers inside the shop as the customer and then as an employee/owner of the store.

Maddie is the founder and creator of the shop, Janet was an artist and put up inviting window and end cap displays. Claire was great at running the business end of things. Madeline (Maddie’s name sake) just inherited this special book store that the community embraced and adored. They didn’t want to see it close.

Here's a peek at the store, Claire asks her customer, “Have you read The Secret Garden?”
“Too long ago to remember it.”…Claire opened the book and said, “Mary Lennox begins her journey in a new and unfamiliar land, but makes her mark on it. She transforms it and reviews the people around her as well as herself. She blossoms…And when you’re finished come back, we’ll talk some more.”


I love that the author invites the reader into this special place and the reader is also on the receiving end of book recommendations, where they describe books, give quotes from books and talk about books Maddie has recommended to the three people who run the book store, Janet, Claire and Madeline. Each list was personally handpicked by Maddie herself and given to each of them after her death by her attorney Greg Frankel.

The author states, “Maddie’s list to each woman was a love letter – so I’ll let Janet, Claire, and Madeline keep them private. On the other hand, I can’t help giving a peek behind the curtain….” .Quote from book, Madeline says, …”I remember Aunt Maddie saying you could lose yourself in a book and, paradoxically, find yourself as well.”

Madeline was a lawyer in a prestigious firm and worked hard to hopefully make partner. She didn’t want anything to do with this book business. It was her Aunt’s thing. But Madeline’s life takes a sharp turn into an unexpected zone and she finds herself getting to know her Aunt Maddie and her family in ways she never thought possible. It changes the way she looked at her Aunt, parents and herself. She begins to question what’s important in life.

All three women realize that The Printed Letter Bookshop is more than a book store it’s a place where they can bloom and grow in friendship and in healing for themselves and the community. Things change for these three women as their friendship develops and they start to trust each other.

I had a hard time getting into this book at first because it seemed slow and it started off at a funeral. The author shows the funeral from all three women’s perspective Janet, Claire and then Madeline. It was a little confusing until I got my bearings as to who was who and how it related to the scheme of things. The author clearly labels the chapters, so you know who is talking.

At the surface I thought maybe this story was just going to be pure fluff and fun being in the book store sharing favorite books and book quotes but once I got my bearings the author takes readers deeper.

I was amazed at what each character had to deal with and how natural the spiritual thread was intertwined throughout the story and the trials, healing and forgiveness. It choked me up in parts. The author naturally lets the light shine in the dark places. Showing that sometimes it’s harder to forgive yourself and at other times it’s harder to forgive what’s been done to you. These ladies give each other the grace to take one step at a time as they recapture their lives, their hopes, dreams, worth and loves.

I highly recommend this book as a book club pick. It’s a rich story with characters you care about and all the things we love about books. This was the first novel I’ve read by this author it won’t be the last. This books a keeper.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins! www.bookfun.org
The Book Club Network blog www.psalm516.blogspot.com
Book Fun Magazine https://www.bookfun.org/page/past-issues-book-fun-mag

The Printed Letter Bookshop is a beautiful story of love, loss, misunderstanding, friendship, and joy. I'd love to have a bookshop like this one in my neighborhood. The store itself is an amazing character. The two ladies who work in the shop create the perfect tension to carry the story through to the end. I enjoyed watching Maddie grow into the person her aunt knew she could be. And I love the gardener. He's a sweetheart. Katherine Reay's books always captivate me, this one was no exception. She adds in so many wonderful literary references. This is definitely a story for book lovers. It would make a wonderful gift for the avid reader. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a beautiful story about women and bookstores. How could anything be wrong with it? Great story with lovely characters and I couldn't put it down!

This was a wonderful and touching novel full of intrigue and family life. It really touched my heart.

Madeline is a high powered Chicago lawyer, until she gets passed over as partner. At the same time,her aunt Maddie dies, leaving her a house and a well loved bookshop. Janet and Claire both work at the store, and are facing their own issues. There are multiple references to books that enhance the story of these three women who become friends. I really enjoyed the individual stories and the atmosphere of the bookshop. Recommended.

I had a hard time putting this book down. Once again Reay has done a skillful job of weaving together the stories of three women, of different ages and situations, bound together by their ties to a fourth, who has just died as the book begins.

There are good insights into confession/repentance and forgiveness, assumptions and the truth, our plans and God's, relationships and commitment.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the bookshop setting, and the resolutions as each of the characters grow and mature and start anew.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I throughly enjoyed this book. Maybe because I work at a bookstore, but it reminded why I love my job. A wonderful read for anyone who loves bookstores and or women’s fiction.

As a lover of all things books, I find it difficult to pass a book about a bookstore.
This is about a 3 women, each at a crossroads in her life and each involved in the store in a different way,The owner of the Printed Letter has passed away leaving the 3 women to manage. There are many challenges and I enjoyed seeing the women develop and become friends and confidants. This was a sweet book with more depth than most on this topic. I really enjoyed it.
I’d like to thank Thomas Nelson and Net Galley for the ARC is this novel.

Katherine Reay’s latest masterpiece is like soaking in a hot tub and then stretching out on the massage table. You want it to never end, although at times its honesty makes you uncomfortable. Sometimes, you turn the page and bump into yourself as words and thoughts spill out of Madeline, Janet, and Claire.

It’s not often that a book serves as both entertainment and springboard for soul searching, but The Printed Letter Bookshop qualifies. The story takes us into the angst of a young woman who unexpectedly inherits her Aunt Maddie’s bookstore—an aunt Madeline hasn’t had a lot of contact with since that fateful summer when something happened between her dad and his sister.

Along with the bookstore, Madeline inherits the shop’s two employees. Janet, a bitter divorcée who can’t forgive herself and whose secret estranges her from her adult children. Claire, the consummate stay-at-home-mom who has to go back to work to help ends meet and suddenly can’t figure out how to repair the relationship with her oldest daughter.

The fourth character, Maddie Carter, leaves a legacy in the town the extends beyond the walls of her bookstore. Madeline, Janet, and Claire each seek to discover how Maddie’s legacy will shape her future. An unlikely alliance turns into a friendship as the three women Maddie cared for face their pasts, their dreams, and their futures.

Ultimately, books reveal truth about us, and Reay’s masterpiece is no different. Book lovers will love this book—not just because of the references to other masterpieces, but because it affirms within the reader the power of story to change and heal.

Firstly, I love the title! I love it!
I chose that book because the title mentioned “bookshop” (also because I was tempted by the summary but mainly because of the word “bookshop” in the title). I didn’t regret at all!
It was a real heart-stopper for me.
It’s the first time I read a book from this author and I loved the way she writes, her style. It made me want to read other works from her (especially as her titles contain words such as “Brönte”, “Lizzie and Jane”, “Austen”, etc. Everything I like!)

In this book, we follow the story of three women. One of them is in her fifties, another is in her forties and the last one in her thirties. One thing binds them: the bookshop. This bookshop was run by a woman loved by all, Maddie, but she died before the book starts. She is the friend and employer of the two older ones and the aunt of the younger one. When she died, she let a letter to every one of them. In every letter, there was a list of books that would help them to discover themselves and to move forward in life, not necessarily in the way that they expected.

The older one, Janet, is divorced, still in love with her ex-husband and her adult children don’t speak really with her anymore, the bookshop made life worth living again when she felt completely depressed. Claire, as for her, is married to a husband too absent because of work and her two teenagers are not that easy to live anymore. She was a housewife for too long, the bookshop gave her a purpose too.
For Madeline, it is different. She hasn’t talked a lot to her aunt since a summer from her childhood, when a family tragedy took place, but at the time, she didn’t really understand what was happening. She is a lawyer in a great law firm in Chicago. So she is astonished to learn that her aunt, a childless widow, left her everything: house, car, bookshop and debts. What would she do of a declining little store in a little town whereas she is formed to be a great lawyer? She has to sell, of course. But before that, she must get the bookshop back on its feet, to make profit.
And that’s when the adventure starts.
We follow the story in a three-voice narrative where every chapter follows a different heroine. The character development is really interesting and it is very well written. We can see friendships, love stories… Nothing is ever black or white. They all have flaws and strengths and I loved every one of them without favoritism.
There is a lot of literary references and that was really enjoyable! It made me want to discover a great number of books (the writer made a list, at the end, of all the books that are quoted or talked about in her story).

It’s beautiful, it makes us think, it makes us want to read (and to run a bookshop but not everyone can do that), it talks about the woman (her feelings, her thoughts, her questions…), it’s encouraging and feel-good. It definitely is one of my favorites!

what an amazing book. Loved it from beginning to end
I loved the authors style of writing and will be looking for other books by this author.
I would recommend this book to friends and family

I enjoyed this book. It was predictable and the one time where there was a twist I felt it was handled in a rather weak manner. However, it was a fun woman's read and I certainly wanted to see where it would go.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
I love to wander around bookstores, discovering new authors and old favorites, taking in the atmosphere. Katherine Reay describes that cozy atmosphere perfectly, so I can almost smell the new books and picture the three friendly booksellers. All three women feel out of place in their personal lives and each has their own struggles with family while coping with the death of a beloved friend and relative. But all three women find their home in that wonderful bookshop and with each other.

The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay, tells the story of 3 women in different stages of life, who are joined together by the passing of Maddie the beloved owner of the Printed Letter Bookshop. Although the book was a bit predictable at times, the story was really sweet. I loved getting to know each character and see their story unfold.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchanged for my honest review.

A thoughtful and compelling portrayal of three generations of women linked together by the love of books and of the Printed Letter bookshop. Each woman benefits from Maddie, a bookshop owner whose death draws them together and helps them with friendship, love, marriage, and motherhood. Five stars!!

I agreed to review this book for Netgalley in return for an ARC.

The Printed Letter Bookshop is the story of three women at a crossroads who are trying to save a bookshop. the writing style is unique told from three different viewpoints, but the characters are enjoyable.