Book Review: The Bookshop on The Corner by Rebecca Raisin

The Bookshop on the Corner is book 2.5 in The Gingerbread Café series and book 1 in the overlapping The Bookshop series. It follows Sarah Smith who runs the bookshop in small town Ashford, Conneticut. Sarah plays a minor part in The Gingerbread Cafe series and in this overlapping The Bookshop series, we get the chance to learn her story. She can usually be found amongst the shelves, buried in a pile of books, living her life through fiction. Sarah’s life and heart are shaken up the day that New York journalist, Ridge Warner, steps into the bookshop. Sarah starts to question whether romantic heroes actually exist in real life, outside the pages of her beloved books.

The heroine, Sarah, is sweet, loyal, quiet and single. She looks at her friends and thinks that she must be missing out by not having a ‘significant other’, however she won’t settle for anything less than a dashing hero, like those out of her much-loved romance novels. Sarah’s love of books and her daydreaming make her very relatable as a character. The hero in question turns out to be, Ridge – charming, funny, gorgeous and determined to play a part in Sarah’s life. The supporting characters are the same wonderful characters that we have met already in The Gingerbread Cafe series – Lil, CeeCee and Damon, along with Sarah’s best friend, Missy – all warm, friendly and infinitely likeable.

Rebecca Raisin is a gifted writer and manages to transport the reader into the story, leaving you immersed into the close-knit Ashford community. Her descriptive writing-style creates a vivid picture of the town and its inhabitants.

The references within the story to books, reading and blogging were utterly delightful. Rebecca Raisin is well-known within the book blogging community and it felt as though The Bookshop on the Corner was almost a tribute to those within the community. The way in which books are such a huge part of Sarah’s very existence would leave a lot of us nodding along knowingly as we read.

The Bookshop on the Cornercarries with it that same deliciously cosy feeling as with The Gingerbread Cafe series – it’s a bit snuggly hug-in-a-book. I instantly wished that I was curled up in front of an open fire with a mug of hot chocolate!

This is a tale of friendship, community and of sweet, idyllic romance that will melt the most icy of hearts! Another great book from the lovely Rebecca Raisin.