Thank you to Netgalley, Stephanie Butland and Bonnier Zaffre for my copy of Lost for Words.
Title: Lost for Words
Author: Stephanie Butland
Publication Date: 20th April 2017
Page Count: 352 Pages
Rating: 5*
Quote: 'I think window seats are one of those things that are always better in books, like county shows held in fields on bank holiday Mondays, and sex and travel and basically anything you can think of.'
Cover:
Summary
Loveday Cardew is the perfect bibliophile, she works in a bookshop in York and has tattoos of the first lines from her favourite books all over her body. In fact, Loveday much prefers books to people, unless people is Archie the bookshop's owner, a kind, portly, eccentric man who took her under his wing when she was 15. Loveday has a dark past which has made her adult relationships pretty much impossible. But all that is about to change.
Review
Lost For Words is a very fitting title for this novel because that's exactly how I feel. I don't often request books these days which aren't either a) on my tbr or b) likely to go on there, but something drew me to Loveday's story, and as is often the case with that, I loved it.
Loveday is such a great character, yes she's a little tortured but she's also smart, and clever and good. A prime example being that even when she notices something bad about someone she sees this as a good thing, a way to make her more comfortable around them because they're not perfect.
I loved Archie as well, he's such a perfect guy, everyone's ideal boss, I feel like I just want to wake up tomorrow and go find a little bookshop and my own Archie to take care of me.
There was a lot of sadness in this book too, some that pretty much broke me and some that left me feeling angry and hurt on behalf of the characters who I felt like I knew. You know that rare feeling when you slip into a character's skin and become them, feel their feelings and see the story through their eyes? That's how Loveday felt for me, I can already feel the Book hangover coming on. It's always so amazing when you stumble across a book which is not only a great story which holds your attention but makes you feel all the feels too.
What a truly beautiful novel.