Damaged souls overcoming their past with the help of books! A delight!
I was fully expecting to be immune to the charms of Lost for Words on the basis of my usual dislike of novels described as “charming” and set in novelty locations, but when it comes to the world of books together with a story with emotional depth and full of perceptive insights, it turns out I am just a much of a sucker for a beautiful tale as the next person! Beware of the sugary sweet book cover, for inside lies a captivating story full of damaged souls and a story of overcoming your past, all narrated by an endearing bibliophile!
Prickly twenty-five-year-old Loveday Jenna Cardew has worked in the idiosyncratic secondhand Lost for Words bookshop in York since she first set foot inside as a damaged fifteen-year-old teenager. A self-confessed loner, over-thinker and avid reader, Loveday, has found solace in the non-judgemental company of the written word as she tries her best to go unnoticed despite her love of bookish tattoos and nose ring. In fact she hasn’t even opened up to her exuberant eccentric boss, portly pensioner Archie Brodie, despite her obvious devotion to him. As Loveday’s dryly witty first-person narrative states, “I work hard, but I know that I’m also hard work”. Having spent ten years trying to escape from a past that has gone unconfronted, an ill-fated attempt at romance with a bi-polar and obsessive university lecturer who hasn’t taken kindly to the end of the relationship has done little to convince her of the merits of others. But beneath that sarky, unwelcoming exterior there is a wounded soul and as Loveday’s story travels back and forth between the defining moments in her lifetime to date, her vulnerability becomes painfully clear. From her distress as a ten-year-old caught amidst the events that shattered her happy family life in Whitby, to the scars at the hands of a man who reminded her of her traumatic childhood past, Lost for Words is Loveday’s traumatic story.
Recovering a carelessly dropped poetry book on her journey to work one morning it comes as second nature to bookworm, Loveday, to attempt to reunite the book with its errant owner by advertising on the notice board in the shop. Handsome close-up magician and performance poet, Nathan Avebury, is that careless owner and when he enters the bookshop and eventually makes a friend of Loveday, her life slowly begins to change.. Still as vulnerable as the day she set foot in the shop, Loveday is fragile and lacking in confidence and as the reader sees the actual events of her childhood it makes their affect on her all too apparent and justifies her reluctance to emotionally invest in thirty-year-old Nathan. What she doesn’t yet realise is that below Nathan’s dapper exterior and over-confident manner is a man whose own painful experiences have informed his capacity for understanding. Can Loveday make peace with her past, recognise the kindness of her long-term foster-carer, Annabel, come to terms with the memory of her father, reconnect with her mother and learn to trust Nathan?
Stephanie Butland delivers a beautifully honest account of what can go wrong when love is put under the very real strain of unemployment, domestic abuse and low self-esteem. Astutely observed, full of book related poetic one liners and vividly characterised, Butland’s story tackles Loveday’s painful memories with sensitivity and does well to avoid tipping Lost for Words into mawkish territory by keeping the characters credible. Warm, witty and a compelling love story filled with books all accompanied by an emotive first-person narrative and a very unconventional heroine! A delight!
Prickly twenty-five-year-old Loveday Jenna Cardew has worked in the idiosyncratic secondhand Lost for Words bookshop in York since she first set foot inside as a damaged fifteen-year-old teenager. A self-confessed loner, over-thinker and avid reader, Loveday, has found solace in the non-judgemental company of the written word as she tries her best to go unnoticed despite her love of bookish tattoos and nose ring. In fact she hasn’t even opened up to her exuberant eccentric boss, portly pensioner Archie Brodie, despite her obvious devotion to him. As Loveday’s dryly witty first-person narrative states, “I work hard, but I know that I’m also hard work”. Having spent ten years trying to escape from a past that has gone unconfronted, an ill-fated attempt at romance with a bi-polar and obsessive university lecturer who hasn’t taken kindly to the end of the relationship has done little to convince her of the merits of others. But beneath that sarky, unwelcoming exterior there is a wounded soul and as Loveday’s story travels back and forth between the defining moments in her lifetime to date, her vulnerability becomes painfully clear. From her distress as a ten-year-old caught amidst the events that shattered her happy family life in Whitby, to the scars at the hands of a man who reminded her of her traumatic childhood past, Lost for Words is Loveday’s traumatic story.
Recovering a carelessly dropped poetry book on her journey to work one morning it comes as second nature to bookworm, Loveday, to attempt to reunite the book with its errant owner by advertising on the notice board in the shop. Handsome close-up magician and performance poet, Nathan Avebury, is that careless owner and when he enters the bookshop and eventually makes a friend of Loveday, her life slowly begins to change.. Still as vulnerable as the day she set foot in the shop, Loveday is fragile and lacking in confidence and as the reader sees the actual events of her childhood it makes their affect on her all too apparent and justifies her reluctance to emotionally invest in thirty-year-old Nathan. What she doesn’t yet realise is that below Nathan’s dapper exterior and over-confident manner is a man whose own painful experiences have informed his capacity for understanding. Can Loveday make peace with her past, recognise the kindness of her long-term foster-carer, Annabel, come to terms with the memory of her father, reconnect with her mother and learn to trust Nathan?
Stephanie Butland delivers a beautifully honest account of what can go wrong when love is put under the very real strain of unemployment, domestic abuse and low self-esteem. Astutely observed, full of book related poetic one liners and vividly characterised, Butland’s story tackles Loveday’s painful memories with sensitivity and does well to avoid tipping Lost for Words into mawkish territory by keeping the characters credible. Warm, witty and a compelling love story filled with books all accompanied by an emotive first-person narrative and a very unconventional heroine! A delight!