Synopsis:
With just two weeks until Christmas, everything in Clove Lore should be perfect. But the latest holidaymaker to the Borrow a Bookshop is feeling far from festive…
Icelandic ex-bookseller Magnús Sturluson might be surrounded by love stories in the Bookshop, but he’s nursing a sadness that not even fiction can fix.
When Alexandra Robinson finds herself stranded in Clove Lore, she finds a safe place to hide from heartbreak. After all, all that’s waiting for her at home is a cheater boyfriend and the memories of her parents. As Alex finds herself embraced by the quirky village community, she finds her tough exterior thawing – and as she grows closer to Magnús, she finds an equally soft heart under his gruff shell.
It seems that Clove Lore is working it’s magic once again – until a great flood on Christmas Eve brings devastation in its wake. It’s up to Magnús and Alex to batten down the hatches and help bring the village back together again, while also introducing the locals to the Icelandic tradition of the jólabókaflóð – Yule book flood – where families and friends gather on Christmas Eve to exchange books and read together.
But can Magnús and Alex truly rescue the ruins of the village, and salvage their Christmas spirit? Or is there another complication lurking even closer than they thought?
My reading experience:
Playing at being a festive bookseller in Clove Lore when you’re a failed, bankrupt bookseller in your home town seems a strange thing to do, but our holidaymaker at Borrow a Bookshop was gifted it during better times and now it just resembles a perfect opportunity to get away. Magnús Sturluson looks like a Viking to the locals making him a curiosity, and instant attraction in the village.
When Alexandra Robinson literally bashes up against the harbour wall in her late Dads beloved boat, our two protagonists have their meet cute moment, and the warming, uplifting, Christmas story begins.
The rest is a Christmas romp through a budding romance, with baking and books (who wouldn’t want that!), with an unexpected event that brings a community together in the only way a crisis can, all set in a beautiful village laid with cobblestones and strung with twinkling lights.
I highly recommend Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop by Kiley Dunbar.
Appletree Books 