The Bookshop of Second Chances - Jackie Fraser

 

"An Absolute Joy", Caroline Cantrill. 08.08.21

Ok, I admit I wasn't going to review this because I didn't feel like I could be totally honest if I knew the author was going to read what I said but as it turns out I have nothing but positive things to say about it so I'm happy to share my thoughts!

As per Caroline's quote above, the book is an absolute joy from the very start. I mean ... it starts with a twat of a husband having dumped the protagonist for another woman so that's not totally joyful but you know what I mean.

So ... Thea's husband, the aforementioned twat, has been having an affair. Thea has left and then she finds out she's inherited a house in a small village in Scotland so she moves up there (temporarily). The house is on the grounds of the local laird and then she ends up working in the bookshop which is owned by the brother of the local laird. There is obviously far more to it than just that but that's me briefest of summaries.

I love the way it's written. I love the style of language. It's real. I don't know, people in romantic fiction (and I don't like to use that categorisation - it doesn't feel right for this - but I think that's how it would be filed) don't talk to each other like people in the real world. It's all either very angsty, or very dramatic or, I don't know, too thought out. I don't mean that Jackie hasn't thought things out in writing this! I just mean that she is so clever she makes it seem like real conversation, genuinely off the cuff, clever and more quick witted than I will ever be of course but still real. The swearing is perfect. It makes it more reall, more natural. Or maybe that's just me and my friends?!

The fun bit about reading a book by someone you know is all the bits where you go, "oh that is so Jackie"! For example, there's a bit where Thea talks to Edward (the bookshop owner) about finding some inscribed rocks (pg80 of my copy, should you wish to check it out!). I'm not sure it's the exact type of stones that Jackie talks about often but it still made me smile. Another bit where Thea is on the beach, "I love a beach. A beach with shells and driftwood.... A good beach has beach glass, worn smooth, in unusul colours; and pieces of of Victorian china, with patterns on." Totally Jackie. 

Another reference I liked was, "It's fun to go on a road trip with a girlfriend. As long as no one gets shot and you don't have to drive off a cliff, it's all win, right?" Not particularly a film I associate with Jackie, as such, but it's such a familiar cultural reference for me it properly made me lol.

Slight spoiler alert for this paragraph. If you haven't read it yet, skip along to the next bit. ... One thing that it never even occured to me might be an issue in my life was the horrible discomfort of thinking you might be about to have to read a sex scene written by friend. The creeping unease as it becomes obvious that this is the direction the relationship between the characters is taking. I will never be able to express my gratitute enough that Jackie does not disclose any details what-so-ever! I could not have coped with that. To be honest, I think most sex scenes in books are really, very stupid. Lots of absurd words for various lady parts and there no possible way of describing an erect penis without inducing copious giggles or projectile vomit.

Anyway... on to safer ground. And I mean literally the ground! Well, the locations. Jackie is able to make them sound so lovely. I want to visit the beach and the town! I'm hoping they are based on somewhere real that I can visit one day!

Jackie, I cannot wait for the next one!!!