Thank you to Vicky at Head of Zeus for my invitation to the tour and for my gifted copy of the book via NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review.

I was attracted to the title of the book as I do not read a huge amount of historical fiction I was intrigued to find out more.

Poor Kate has not had a good start in life, her Mother was killed in a fall and her Father left her with her awful Aunt who cannot wait to send her out to work at the age of fourteen. She gets a job in a factory soldering but a horrific incident at home loses her home and her job.

Poor Kate she really does have it tough but she has a huge tenacity and doesn’t let it get her down. She is a strong woman and she has to borrow money from a money lender, and she gets into further trouble. She gets the job at the bookshop as a cleaner and  she begins to meet new people, including John Rasher who she had been at school with.

I enjoyed reading the book it was really well written and drew me in from the start. I  instantly liked Kate she reminded me of a Jane Eyre with her awful family and the abuse that she has to endure.

I was so relieved when she starts to experience kindness from Miss Gutman’s the bookshop owner and also I loved how the bookshop is a sanctuary for the working class to continue with education and classes just like a library.  I was really interested to read about the real Ethel Gutman and her wonderful bookshop.

A great read with so much history and its gripping and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thankyou to NetGalley,  Aria, Head of Zeus and the author,  Mary Gibson, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Bermondsey Bookshop in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion. 
I was completely lost in the narrative of this book. It is what I can only describe as exquisite.  
The storyline was well thought out and written with intriguing characters.  The scenery was highly descriptive and captivating.  I was hooked from the start and had to read this book in one sitting.  It was so easy to get lost in 1920's England. 
Well worth a read.

I would like to thank Aria and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book before release. The word bookshop in the title got me excited to read this and then after reading the blurb I knew I was in for a good read.
In The Bermondsey Bookshop we find Kate Goss struggling to survive and with the backdrop of 1920s London and Mary's use of language it brings to the mind a very grim existence for poor Kate. However she has her dreams and memories of her late mother to keep her going. When the factory she works for needs to lay people off she finds herself a job in a bookshop and this quite literally opens doors for her taking her life in a new direction. 
Mary Gibson has written a compelling read. One that is inspiring and had me totally hooked. Even if I wanted to stop reading I couldn't. There is drama at every turn and the bookshop is a slice of heaven in a very bleak place and time in London. While reading the scene where the bookshop is first introduced to the reader I got an Alice in Wonderland feeling about it. You could go in there and not be quite sure who you would meet or what you might find. I enjoyed getting to know the characters through Kate's eyes and how she sees them and the different classes of people rich and poor. Mary's way of story telling is really good and her use of language sets the tone of the era brilliantly.   
This is an outstanding historical read and one that will stay with me for some time, which is why it has Chells and Books highest rating of three leaves.

Set in 1920s London, this is the inspiring story of Kate Goss's struggle against poverty, hunger and cruel family secrets.

When her mother dies and her father leaves to find his fortune, Kate is raised by Aunt Sylvia. Her Aunt and cousins are particularly cruel to Kate who is cold, given barely enough food and forced to leave school to work in a foundry. It is there that Kate makes friends and learns a trade.  The factory where she works lays off people seasonally and Kate must search for a way to make money to eat and pay her rent. Kate's only choice seems to be to borrow money from an unscrupulous money-lender while looking for work. 
A job cleaning a most unusual bookshop, where anyone, from factory workers to dockers, can learn to read and then buy books cheaply opens up a new world for Kate. Even on her darkest days, she holds onto the dream that her father will return and save her from squalor and hunger. Kate has two love interests, Johnny, her childhood friend, and Martin, who wants nothing more than to save her. When Kate finds her father, she isn't prepared for the flashbacks to her mother's death and the violence that she unleashes. 
Based on the true story of the Bermondsey Bookshop, this is a grim look into poverty in the 1920s and the hopes and dreams of the people who survive it.
This historical fiction opens a window into the past without sugar coating the grimness, hunger, and violence towards women and intolerance towards the physically disabled. Kate's hope and goodness shine throughut the story and serve as an inspiration to her friends and co-worksers. Historical fiction is a favorite genre of mine and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Gibson's characters ring true and add a realism and relevance to the time period portrayed. This is the first one of Gibson's books I have read, however, it won't be the last. 
#bermondseybookshop

I very much enjoyed this book.  I thought it was well written and it kept me reading even though I did find it a little slow. It did take me a bit of time to get into the book but it was good enough to keep reading and I am so glad I did because I liked this book.   

Would this be one I would read again? Probably not but I will look for more books by this author. 

I give this 3 out of 5.

The story moves at a pace that allows plenty of opportunity for the author to provide detail about daily life for working class families in 1920s Bermondsey. The contrast between their experience – poor and overcrowded housing, ill health, insecure work – and that of the wealthier and more privileged is vividly depicted. In a neat inversion, it is Kate who lives in a garret and Martin, the artist for whom she models, who lives in a swanky flat.

I might have wished for a little more of the story to be focused on the Bermondsey Bookshop itself (which actually existed, founded in 1921 by Ethel Gutman, who also appears in the book). Instead its main role is to act as a location for Kate to meet other characters that she might not otherwise have encountered. For example, wealthy French teacher, Nora, or Martin, the aforementioned artist.

In Kate, the author has created an incredibly engaging main character – spirited, independent-minded, intelligent, and resilient. She certainly needs to be all those things because the author gives her plenty of trials and tribulations to face including homelessness, unemployment, debt, intimidation and cruelty from people who should treat her better. Happiness is indeed precarious. Through it all, you can’t help rooting for Kate – or forgiving her the odd purloined sticky bun or fisticuffs with her cousin Stan.

Initially, I couldn’t warm to Kate’s childhood sweetheart, Johnny, despite his own unhappy situation, but later I was forced to reappraise my view.  I also thought Kate’s idealised picture of the father who’d abandoned her as a child, although evidence of her generous nature, showed more than a little naivety. I wasn’t completely surprised by how things turned out.

As Kate learns, it’s not merely distance that separates Bermondsey and Belgravia, money doesn’t necessarily buy you happiness, ‘wealth is not the same as worth’, and dreams are sometimes just that. ‘She’d learned the folly of pinning her hopes on someone else to give her a better life, but she’d also learned her own power.’

The Bermondsey Bookshop has all the ingredients readers look for in this brand of historical fiction: a well-crafted story with great period atmosphere; moments of melodrama; a varied cast of characters, some likeable, others definitely not; and an inspiring message of the possibility of triumph over adversity.  Cinderella meets My Fair Lady, if you like.

I really enjoyed this book and was right up my alley! It has a strong female lead character Kate Goss and I found her very much endearing, strong minded and cheeky but also vulnerable in a lot of ways from her past and living with her aunt did not go well as she was treated terribly.

The overall story just flows really well and contains a lot of page breaks which makes the book feel so much shorter, not sure I liked that style but I can't say it took anything away from the reading experience.

Really recommend if you like Historical fiction and this should be on your TBR List!

This is a totally enjoyable novel; it's been well planned and is just that bit different to others of the genre.

Kate is an 'almost orphan'; after her mother's tragic death her father leaves her with his sister, Sylvie, and Kate's life takes a turn for the worse. Treated no better than a slave, she endures a miserable childhood and once her aunt sends her out to work as soon as she has turned fourteen, things barely improve. But Kate never gives up hope that, one day, her father will return for her . . .

This is a very engaging tale, depicting the hardship and deprivations of the working classes during the period in which the book is set. Whilst most of the 'educated' folk looked down upon the poor it's excellent to come across some who gave them every opportunity to rise out of poverty. This is heartwarming, exciting and heartbreaking, all at the same time! A beautifully written story and one which I flew through, absolutely desperate to find out what happened next! I've read several of Mary Gibson's novels previously, and she consistently publishes work of a very high standard. Completely enjoyable, and a book I'm delighted to recommend. 4.5* and well worth them all!

My thanks to publisher Head of Zeus for my copy via NetGalley; this is my honest, original and unbiased review.

This was a very interesting story.  Heartbreaking at times with an authentic feel for the era.  I struggled with the length and felt it dragged and could have been a little shorter.

But all in all an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Net Galley and Aria, Head of Zeus for the chance to read and review this book. This story takes place in 1920's London, and is based on a real Bookshop. It is about Kate Goss, who has had many struggles in her life. One day she gets a cleaning job at the Bermondsey Bookshop and her life begins to change for the better. I liked this book-it kept me reading and wanting to find out what happened at the Bookshop. It was very well written with lots of twists and turns. Recommend!

I enjoyed this historical novel.  Very evocative of time and place, with an exciting plot and a very engaging and likable heroine, it was a real page turner. Recommended.  Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

This book is set in the early 1920's. London.....Bermondsey to be exact.  It is based on the true story of the Bermondsey Bookshop... a place where where anyone from dock workers to factory workers on up can come learn to read, buy books, listen to lectures, and learn all sorts of things.  It is here that young Kate Goss gets her start in life.  Kate's mother died when she was a young child and then her father abandoned her.  She spent her life living with an aunt and family who despised her and treated her cruelly.  She had to quit school to go work at the tin factory and then after a particularly bad argument she was forced to leave her aunt's house and find a new place to live.  In order to survive she had to work multiple jobs, and one of those was cleaning the Bermondsey Bookshop.  It is there that Kate's story truly begins.
I loved this book.  The author did such a good job with the descriptions that I felt as if I was actually there watching it all unfold.  I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves historical fiction, or even just loves books about bookshops and books.

The Bermondsey Bookshop
By Mary Gibson
I enjoy reading clean historical romance but they often get stuck in a romanticized version of historical life. At a point, it becomes unbelievable or boring. Life is not that simple, or clean cut. The rawness of this saga was what was so enticing and made me love this book. The grit of living in poverty was so well written. I felt as if I were there. I was so sad to see the book end. It was a clean romance but more than a romance it was a story of life overcoming and transforming. I truly look forward to reading more from this author.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review shared here.

What a sad and emotional book.but also heartwarming. Love books and I think this is something that a lot of people could do with in this day. All walks of life come together just lovely

This tells the story of a bookshop that opened in the 1920’s that allowed the ordinary people of Bermondsey to buy books paying them off sixpence a time. It was a great meeting place as it opened in the evening so people could pop in after work to read or take part in the other activities they had going on. Kate had a tough life living with her unloving Aunt and her children and after leaving to fend for herself Kate ends up finding a part time job as a cleaner for the bookshop. Little did Kate realise that as well as helping her to survive this lifeline was also going to change her life forever. I really enjoyed reading about Kate’s rollercoaster life and felt drawn into the story willing Kate on as she copes with everything that’s thrown in her path.

This unusual story reads more like an accounting of daily life than a novel.  I appreciated the way that the author delved deeply into difficult topics like class and spousal abuse, weaving them seamlessly into the narrative to  highlight lived experiences.  The main character, Kate, was charming and wise.  She worked her way through challenges into a happy ending that seemed very believable.  

That said, I found the pace to be extremely slow.  I think that this book could've benefitted from additional editing.  Ultimately the book was about twice as long as it needed to be, and the tension in the narrative could've been heightened for a more engrossing read.

Firstly, to start this review it is important for you to know that the bookshop was a very real place, set down in a very unlikely neighborhood where people struggle to simply make the rent and put food on the table.  The changes wrought in the early 1900’s in Britain not only returned (or didn’t) several men from World War I, a shakeup of the ‘grand houses’, women finding work other than street corners, and a general overlay of grime and soot because of the heavy use of coal for heat and power.  Into this mix comes Ethel Gutman, backed by her husband, with her determination and belief that the class divide is a useless concept, and that true art and literature should (and could) be available to all.  Setting up a series of “subscription plans” to purchase books, as well as lectures, clubs and classes, and allowing anyone to come in and read ‘at will’: the shop defied thought and convention of the day in providing an outlet (and a space) where thought and words were celebrated. 

Enter Kate, our heroine, who we first meet at fourteen and learn that her mother died in a fall, her father left her with an aunt as he went off to ‘find his fortune”. But Kate was always misused at her aunt’s home: from the beatings and cruel words to being banished to the garret, to removed from school to become a ‘tin basher’ at the local factory. Underfed, under loved and hoping for her father’s return, Kate soon finds herself unable to ‘stay’ with her wages being taken and now at 17 far more unwilling to take the abuse from her family.  Struggle and hard work are nothing new, but a sign on a bookshop of all things opens new doors and opportunities for her. 

Three jobs, two suitors: the struggles don’t end and the secrets continue to unfold as Kate’s journey continues. Her talent and ability to work metal into decorative items will be a saving grace for her- giving her options to ‘make her own way’ without the physical effects of the factory. From Bermondsey to Belgravia, Kate is quietly finding a new definition for herself, and answers about her past and family dynamics as she seeks to build her own life that both conforms to and contradicts society’s expectation. Engaging, readable and engrossing, each moment of revelation and remembrance brings Kate more fully to life, and allows readers to better relate to and understand the conditions and constraints of 1920’s London. 

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility. 

Review first appeared at <a href=” https://wp.me/p3OmRo-aC7/” > <a> I am, Indeed </a>

Written in the style of a historical fiction, Mary Gibson gives her readers a view of real life in the 1920’s in Bermondsey.    

I enjoyed the strength, determination and grit of Kate Goss, the heroine of the story, as she fights to survive in an impoverished home with violence as a daily peril.  Ms. Gibson gives her readers a real sense of the harsh realities of life with little too eat, rooms that are cold, drafty and vermin infested, and work in factories where health and safety was an after-thought.

The story is a little bit mystery, a little love interest, and little bit of the fight for survival.  The real Bermondsey Bookshop was a sanctuary for the common people in the town from 1921 - 1930 when Ethel Gutman founded it ‘to bring books and the love of books into Bermondsey’.

The Bermondsey Bookshop, a chapter in the rich, engrossing, dramatic, hopeful lives of the simple yet strong characters in the story.

It is a rich, meaty story to loose yourself in.

Loved this book.
The knowledge that the bookshop existed made this such a great book to read
Thoroughly recommended
Mary Gibson writes such lovely nostalgic books.