The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is a British writer; if I counted correctly on her website, this is her nineteenth novel. I previously read about half of Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan, and then stopped because classes started. I never picked it back up and haven't finished it. The Bookshop on the Corner follows a similar plot from Little Beach Street Bakery and at least one other of Colgan's novels: a woman must leave most everything behind and start over again in a location where she finds a new home, love, and friends. The Bookshop on the Corner is Colgan's love letter to readers and book lovers everywhere (she says so in the foreword of the book). And the main character is very much a reader and lover of books.

When Nina's library is downsized and closed, the book loving librarian loses her job. But her misfortune presents Nina with the perfect opportunity to chase her dream of opening a small bookshop. And that's exactly what she does. She finds a van for sale online;unfortunately, it's in rural Scotland. However, Nina purchases the van and stocks it with her personal library of books as well as the liquidated stock from the library closure, and she pours everything she has into making her mobile bookshop a reality.

Luckily for Nina the book starved Scottish countryside (its libraries and bookshops have all closed) embraces both her and her bookshop. And Nina falls in love with the community, the countryside, and its people. She also hopes she might find some Scottish romance and in a place where the men outnumber the women, the odds are in her favor. This is a heartwarming, humorous story of what it takes to start over in a place you don't know when your life falls apart.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

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