The British Booksellers
A Novel
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- 8,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
Inspired by real accounts of the Forgotten Blitz bombings, The British Booksellers highlights the courage of those whose lives were forever changed by war—and the stories that bind us in the fight for what matters most.
A tenant farmer’s son had no business daring to dream of a future with an earl’s daughter, but that couldn’t keep Amos Darby from his secret friendship with Charlotte Terrington…until the reality of the Great War sobered youthful dreams. Now decades later, he bears the brutal scars of battles fought in the trenches and their futures that were stolen away. His return home doesn’t come with tender reunions, but with the hollow fulfillment of opening a bookshop on his own and retreating as a recluse within its walls.
When the future Earl of Harcourt chose Charlotte to be his wife, she knew she was destined for a loveless match. Though her heart had chosen another long ago, she pledges her future even as her husband goes to war. Twenty-five years later, Charlotte remains a war widow who divides her days between her late husband’s declining estate and operating a quaint Coventry bookshop—Eden Books, lovingly named after her grown daughter. And Amos is nothing more than the rival bookseller across the lane.
As war with Hitler looms, Eden is determined to preserve her father’s legacy. So when an American solicitor arrives threatening a lawsuit that could destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to preserve, mother and daughter prepare to fight back. But with devastation wrought by the Luftwaffe’s local blitz terrorizing the skies, battling bookshops—and lost loves, Amos and Charlotte—must put aside their differences and fight together to help Coventry survive.
From deep in the trenches of the Great War to the storied English countryside and the devastating Coventry Blitz of World War II, The British Booksellers explores the unbreakable bonds that unite us through love, loss, and the enduring solace that can be found between the pages of a book.
Split timeline: WWI and WWIIStand-alone novelBook length: 118,000 wordsIncludes discussion questions for book clubs
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this memorable blend of romance and WWII history, Cambron (The Paris Dressmaker) chronicles the devastation of the Coventry blitz and its impact on two budding couples. Widowed Lady Charlotte Terrington-Holt and Amos Darby own rival bookshops in 1940 Coventry, England, but put their competing interests aside to offer tea to residents recovering from nights spent in air raid shelters. As they work together, Amos's feelings for Charlotte reignite: he had once hoped to marry her, but then the Earl of Harcourt swept in. Meanwhile, the arrival of Detroit lawyer Jacob Cole adds to the chaos. He's in England to prevent Charlotte's grown daughter, Eden, from claiming a mysterious inheritance left to her in his father's will—but he finds himself taken with the young lady and soon joins the efforts to keep the Holt estate operating while the farm hands are off at war. Both couples hope for futures together—if they can survive the bombing. Cambron brings a great deal of authenticity to her rendering of Coventry's "Forgotten Blitz" (which took place almost 100 miles from London), as the tumult and trauma of wartime make class disparity and past misunderstandings wash away, leaving only authentic emotion. Readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough.
