I am a sucker for a European romance, especially anything set in England. I devoured this book. It was such a great escape from the solitude of the pandemic.

As with all of the other novels by Sarah Jio that I've read, there's a little more than just a good story tucked away in here. You might be up for reading a "light" book (read: not War and Peace or The Iliad), so you choose this one, but she always manages to negotiate a deeper understanding of the Truth of human nature (and love).

We meet Valentina and Eloise, two women who have faced heartbreak that was both embarrassing and painful. It turns out pain on both sides was a result of deep misunderstanding. Eloise is Valentina's mother and left her as a preteen for her native home of London, England, never to return again. Both women had to learn how to be who they are without one another. It proved to be nearly impossible; so Eloise devised a way to fix that, against Valentina's knowledge and will (or so she thought).

Beyond that mother-daughter relationship, Jio explains true romantic love and communicates that soul-connection feeling so effectively, it quenches that need in my romantic heart.

I cried with pain that came from the core of my chest in several spots here. I was angry along with Valentina and prejudged several characters just as I would in my own daily life. Then I learned my lesson about assuming.

I recommend this book to anyone who has ever wanted to live in London, fallen in love, and thought poorly about someone while also loving them beyond your own understanding. Let your heart grow through it.

Bonus: Valentina inherits a bookshop from her mother Eloise, so you can get your bookshop fantasies in, as well.

The premise had potential. Alternating storylines of two women, a mother, and her daughter.. Valentina Baker is a recently divorced American who has inherited a London bookstore from the mother who abandoned her as a child. Eloise Baker is the mother. Valentina has had no contact with her mother since her departure and is understandably hurt and confused about this inheritance. She heads to London to find answers.

A few things that I found were a little "off" for me. The dialogue, especially in Eloise's chapters was awkward. The time frames were odd. Eloise's story begins in 1968. Valentina's story is set in 2013. Seemed like very random years that were not relevant to the storyline. Also, there seemed to be some anachronisms. For example, Valentina describes herself as an established Bookstagrammer with over 40K followers. Bookstagram wasn't a term used in 2013. A Google search revealed the first use of the term a year later, in 2014. Is that a deal-breaker for the book? No. But, little details like that pull me out of the story and send me to Google instead of the next page.

All in all, I think this book would have been much better if it had been about 70 pages shorter. There were a lot of unnecessary scenes that really did not drive the plot.

Thank you Random House - Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

This book was very intriguing. Valentina is a recently divorced woman who inherits her estranged Mother’s bookstore in London. She travels there to sell the store but almost immediately decides not to? The book switches back and forth between Valentina and her mother’s story. Some parts of the story felt unneeded, like Valentina’s ex husband or Millie falling in love with her best friends love. Overall, I was a bit disappointed by the fact that Valentina and her mother never reunited in the story.

Author Sarah Jio drew me in immediately when she mentioned how Maeve Binchy’s meant so much to her as a reader in the 90s in her author’s note. With Love From London evoked so many of the same feelings in me when I read a Binchy novel - joy, sadness, heartbreak, and hope. It was a beautiful novel and I could not put it down until I was 100% done.

With Love from London follows two stories in a dual POV and timeframe. In 2013, you meet Valentina, who lives in Seattle and is nearly divorced and found out she’s the sole heir of her mother’s estate in London. Her mother, Eloise, abandoned her at age 12. Eloise’s story, starting in 1968, is the second POV. Valentina heads to London to see to the estate, which includes a neighborhood bookstore in the cozy area of Primrose Hill.

Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine Group, Sarah Jio, and NetGalley for an early review copy of this book. Review is being left voluntarily; all opinions are my own.

A little slow at first, but once it picked up it was just amazing. I loved the London setting and the little bookstore. This was such a heartwarming and beautiful book.

Thank you Random House and Netgalley for the eARC

First Sarah Jio book and I LOVED it!!

Recently divorced Valentina heads to London after she finds out that she inherited a bookstore from her  mother, Eloise, who abandoned her in LA when she was only 12. When Valentina gets to her mother's store in Primrose Hill, she finds a note from her mother in one of her favorite books. This note starts the beginning of a scavenger hunt, opening Valentina up to the important people from her mom's life and slowly revealing the real reason why she left all those years ago. With time, Valentina learns how much her mom really loved her and how this trip to London was just the beginning.

This book is told in two timelines from two point of views- Valentina in the present and Eloise in the past. The writing is clear, concise and easy to follow. I felt SO touched when reading this story and LOVE how everything came full circle in the end. Honestly, if you are looking for a fiction book, with a bit of romance, that will draw you in with a beautiful setting, well defined- characters, a perfectly constructed ending, I highly recommend this.

Read if you like:
-London setting
-Bookstores
-Scavenger hunts
-Love triangles
-Supportive communities
-Alternating timelines

*If you are looking for a book club read, I think this book would be perfect

I was lucky enough to receive a digital copy of With Love from London by Sarah Jio. Despite the fact that Sarah has authored 10 USA Today bestselling novels, I'd never had the opportunity to read one of her books. But when I saw her ARC available for request on NetGalley, I was charmed by its blurb and immediately wanted more.

This Women's Fiction/Romance book begins with a letter from the author. She includes a wealth of information regarding her inspiration for the novel and the time in which she was writing, but my favorite part is when she talks about the book's setting. I'm atrociously bad at remembering names, whether they're people or places. However, with a little help with a movie reference (Love Actually, to be exact), I was instantly taken back to the quaint little spot of Notting Hill which inspired this story.

Sarah weaves a tale of dual timelines and point-of-views as easily as ivy twining on a quaint English cottage. We're first introduced to Valentina in 2013, a recently divorced 30-something from the US who must settle her late mother's estate in a wealthy, picturesque village outside of London. She's heartbroken not only from her divorce but also having to delve into her estranged mother's secret life which has remained a mystery well before her mother left when she was still a child. In the second part of the narrative, we follow Eloise, Valentina's mother, as she navigates the perils and pleasures of dating in the late 1960s, marriage and motherhood in later years. Their timelines are connected by a cozy bookstore, The Book Garden.

I'm not a crier when it comes to reading, but this book definitely tugs at the heartstrings. As I approached 90% of my eBook advanced reader copy, I found myself unwilling to leave the world Sarah created. I'd grown so attached to Valentina, Eloise, their cast of friends, and Primrose Hill (which is as much a character as the rest of them), that I wished I could fly out to Notting Hill and read that last 10% so that I might bask in the best warm hug a book has ever given me.

This heartwarming tale also features stargazing and snowfall, two of my favorite things in romance. There's just something so special about the world going silent while snow falls or when the sounds of nature trickle in while staring up at far off worlds.

Okay, but is it spicy? Believe me when I tell you this book delivers on the pining. However, if you're looking for steam, you won't find it here. This is a story of two women who rediscover their tenacity in the face of heartbreak and forge lasting relationships with friends and lovers alike. The story still achieves an emotional catharsis—twice!

Overall, I gave With Love from London 5/5 stars. It's charming and lovely, and best of all, it reminds us that love is patient.

Books and a small bookshop made this a bittersweet & lovely book. Great writing with two points-of-view and dual timelines made this an enjoyable read. This was my first Sarah Jio read, but it won't be my last!

Extremely perfect, couldn't imagine not reading this book.
It was heartfelt and extremely incredible.
It was a little slow at first but it picked up and got my attention back.
Everyone read this the second it comes out.

Sarah Jio always weaves a heartfelt story. This one is no different. Engaging characters and a dual timeline. Plus it’s set in a cozy bookstore, in London no less, where strangers become friends, a long awaited answer is revealed and hearts are healed.

Valentina is at a crossroads, her marriage is ending in divorce and her estranged Mother has died and left her a bookstore in London. Heartbroken, she moves to London where she is faced with a failing store and many questions about her Mother, who abandoned her when she was young. The story flows seamlessly between Valentina’s modern day and Eloise’s life 20 years earlier. Curl up and enjoy this story.

Thanks to Ms. Jio, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

This book was so beautiful and heartbreaking. It was so sad to read about Valentina's journey to learn more about her mother and why she left. I loved the London setting and that the story revolved around a bookshop. If you love stories about books and mother/daughter relationships, this one is definitely worth reading!

Being a fan of Sarah Jio's, I was tickled pink to receive an advance copy of With Love from London. And what a lovely story! With characters I enjoyed spending time with. Good friends and books, what more could one hope for in a novel?

I loved this book--partly because I love books and I liked that this novel shows how books can bring people together. Val is a middle aged American woman whose husband has cheated on her and then she discovers she has inherited a book store in London from the mother who had deserted her. Once in London at bookstore, she accepts some used books from a woman who is clearing our her husband's library. One of the books was one of Val's favorite, so she kept it to re-read, and in the process finds a note from her mother. Through a process of following her mother's clues she discovers much about her mother that she did not know, found a group of people who became true friends, and found a new love. I read this as an ARC, and was not pressured for a good review.

Trigger warning: miscarriage

American librarian Valentina's mother left when she was a child and never returned. Valentina harbors feelings of resentment for the mother who never visited, never called, and never wrote. When Valentina receives a bookstore in her mother's will, she must travel to London to deal with the inheritance.

Valentina's life in the States is far from charmed -- her father is dead and she's also dealing with her divorce. While Valentina thinks she knows why her mother left; the truth is not what she expected. Mother Eloise's story slowly unfolds as Valentina makes her home in London.

At the start, both women seem unlucky in love but their narratives unfurl and show that first impressions (and first marriages) aren't the end of one's love story. Eloise loses her best friend Millie when she moves to California, and Valentina gains a mother figure in Millie decades after. Each character is fleshed out and while all readers may not understand their decisions, their logic and thought processes are clear.

Recommended for readers of women's fiction and family sagas.

This is a cozy setting with lovable characters and fun dynamics between them. There's a lot to like! It tells the story of an adult daughter moving to her estranged and deceased mother's flat in London and thereby gaining an understanding of her mother and their separation that she previously lacked. Interwoven in the present day chapters are chapters in the mother's perspective set beginning in the 1960s.

For me, it's 3 stars (instead of 4 or 5) because of some foundational plot points that I could not suspend disbelief enough to accept. The two major plot points (one having to do with tax bill, and the other having to do with a 20-year separation between mother and child) were both critical to accepting the narrative of the book and also really difficult for me to go along with. My inability to fully accept the premise of the story kept me out of it.

Despite that, though, there were many lovely moments, some nice human connection, and a lot of love. For readers more willing to suspend disbelief and get swept up for the purposes of plot advancement and synchronicity, it's an enjoyable read.

With Love From London by Sarah Jio was absolutely fantastic!!! Great story and beautiful characters. I love the way Eloise is telling her past story while alternating with current Valentina tying it all together in the end. My heart hurt for the daughter and mother that were torn apart by a calculating father. However sad that is, the book was still a feel good read! I will definitely be recommending it to everyone I know! Thanks NetGalley for my ARC!!

I really enjoyed this book!

When Valentina finds out that the mother who left her years ago when Val was in her teens has passed away, leaving her a bookshop and building in London, she decides now is a good time to take a trip. Val is also recently separated, working toward a divorce, and a change of location is just what she needs.

Val doesn't expect much, but hopes to get answers as to why her mother left her so long ago and never looked back. What she finds out is so much more insightful than she could have imagined! Val gets to know her mother on a different level, and she finds out things about herself along the way.

This book is told in two time periods, one from Eloise, the mother and current day, from Val. We meet key people in Eloise's life, and we are folded into her emotional journey. The only slight bit of discomfort I had with the story was that Val wasn't more upset with her father for deceiving her for all those years. If it were me, I'd have been terribly mad!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

So many feeling with this book. Valentina left her life behind after divorce and then moved to London where she inherited her estranged mother's book store. She moves and learns all the things she didn't know about her mother after her mother suddenly left her with her father to move back to London. The author brought out all the emotions in me and I loved all the friends Valentina also inherited. I just kept asking myself why would her mother leave her? It was a slow build up to secrets held and the real reasons Eloise was pushed out of Valentina's life. Both Eloise and Valentina build beautiful lives in London with the support of the wonderful people around them. I love a book with alternating points of view, and this Mother/Daughter tale provided that for me. Recommend!

This novel moves back and forth between narration by Valentina Baker, 35 in 2013 and just emerging from a failed marriage in Seattle, and her mother Eloise in 1968. Valentina has just learned that her mother, whom she hadn’t seen since she was 12, died of cancer and left Val property in London that included a bookstore. The store, called the Book Garden, was located in a quaint part of London called Primrose Hill, and was now being run by Eloise’s best friend Millie. But the store is in financial trouble, and Val has so many conflicted feelings about her mother in any event.

It doesn’t take long however for Val to fall in love with the store and the people in Primrose Hill, all of whom recall her mother with deep affection. With the help of Millie and a quirky upstairs tenant Val’s age named Liza, Val gradually learns the secrets of Eloise’s life, why she left Val back in the United States, and what Val herself wants for her future.

Evaluation: This lovely book is very reminiscent of Jenny Colgan but without the snark, naughty language, and sex. Rather, the focus is on books of course, as well as strength in adversity, healing, the power of love through time and space, and new beginnings.