Y’all, I know I wrote a review yesterday, but I was so engrossed by this book that I read it in one sitting, and I just have to share my excitement!

My excitement actually started when this book was announced. Paula Brackston is one of my favorite writers. Probably top three. Her books are a little niche-ey, but they are right up my niche.

Fear not, dear reader, this book breaks out of the niche and into full out universal appeal!

It has a lot going for it–time travel, true love, historical richness.

Xanthe, our protagonist, has grit, determination, and a tender heart that pushes her to do extraordinary things. She is at times hapless, but that made me root for her even more.

This is a love story, but not just one of romantic love. Love is woven into all parts of this book; there is the familial love that Xanthe has for her mother, Flora. The love that is shown by the cast of characters that welcome them into their little village, and the love that pushes Xanthe to fight for justice in a world 400 years in the past.

Brackston is a great story teller and one of her strengths is world building, but in an understated way. The magic is subtle and the descriptions of time and setting place you into the fantastical nature of the story seamlessly.

I especially recommend this book to those of you who like historical romance. Samuel Appleby, the architect Xanthe meets in her travel back to 1605, reminds me vaguely of Mr. Darcy, and what woman can resist that?

I’m very thankful to Thomas Dunne Books for providing me with an ARC for this title. The publish date is a little far out (October 2nd), but I wanted to get my review up here and on Goodreads as soon as possible, so as to get the good word out.

This a hands down 5/5 for me and I hope is for you, too!

Brackston, Author of the beloved Witch series turns to time travel in her newest book. Xanthe and her mother take over a charming little antiques store in Marlborough, England. Xanthe has a special affinity for old things, she can tell who they belonged to and where they’ve been. When she picks up a seventeenth century chatelaine, she’s transported back to 1605, where she meets a ghost who demands that Xanthe fix a wrong that was done 500 years earlier. If she can’t put right the wrong, Xanthe will die. Bloodshed, tyranny, treachery and love await Xanthe in the past, a place she may decide she doesn’t want to leave.

This is the first book I have read by Paula Brackston, but it definitely will not be my last. The Little Shop of Found Things is an engrossing, cozy mystery. What makes it unique is that traveling through time is an essential element of the plot. There is a touch of romance in the story, but that is secondary to the main storyline which involves the main character, Xanthe Woodlake, and her attempts to save the life of a young servant girl. At the end of the book, the mystery has been resolved and the reader is left to hope that she has not heard the last from Xanthe.