The Vintage Cinema Club

the BEST choice you could make for a pick-you up read this summer

Jane Linfoot is solidly planted in my ‘authors to watch’ list and The Vintage Cinema Club, a quintessential chick lit story, makes that choice one of the best I’ve made in the past years.

I’m used to Linfoot’s use of humor and characterization that build and develop a romance theme, but this broadening of her scope: three main characters, a common goal, vintage items, forays into romance for all three characters and the use of multiple points of view to move the story forward was a delightful read and one of my favorites this year.

Izzy, Luce and Dida have opened a multi-vendor vintage-inspired shop in a disused cinema building in the Derbyshire Dales. With Dida’s husband Aidie putting the up for sale, the women are struggling to find a way not to lose their space or the connections they have. More than ‘just’ a space, the VCC has become all-consuming for these women: it’s their social outlet, their support system and the only source of income for Izzy and Luce.

Each of our three characters is given their own voice, point of view and challenges above and beyond the possibility of losing the storefront. Dida worries that she’s traded financial security for independence and happiness, and her involvement in the VCC has brought her oodles of personally fulfilling opportunities as her marriage is disintegrating beyond its already fractured state. Luce is a single mum, pining over her best friend Izzy’s brother who left because of her own fear of commitment. And Izzy: working herself to death or exhaustion to avoid thinking about the past or her own issues: Izzy refuses to allow thoughts of love or a man enter her head.

These three diverse yet engaging characters all find something more in the struggle to discover an answer to keeping the VCC open. Each character interacts with the others, and then has their own moments to share their perspectives, fears and secrets with us: bringing them life, breath and breadth as the story progresses. With descriptions of gorgeous dresses, French castoffs, rehabbed reclaimed items and pieces that bring life to a vignette, the visual input enhances the joy. Opening the lives of Dida, Luce and Izzy to new possibilities, and in their struggles to find a way to save their space and not lose their market each woman finds that their possibilities are only limited by their own willingness to let go of the past and move forward.

The Vintage Cinema Club by Jane Lightfoot is the BEST choice you could make for a pick-you up read this summer. With plenty of heart and heat, and a touch of drama to push you to the last pages, I can’t recommend this book or author highly enough.

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