This is such a fun book. The emotions that the characters experience are so real and raw. Loved the story!

Madeline has it all. A high-powered career as an attorney in Chicago, a chance to make partner and a beautiful condo full of gorgeous antiques. But then her estranged aunt dies and she inherits her book shop along with its debt. It's the beginning of a series of events that will upend her life and force her resolve long standing personal issues with herself and her relationships with others.
Told in three alternating voices, that of Madeline and the bookshop's two employees Janet and Claire, the novel weaves through the women's lives and loves.
This was a sweet, gentle story and while the plot and resolution were somewhat predictable, the journey was enjoyable and emotionally satisfying. Initially, having three narrators was a bit overwhelming and it took some time to sort out the different voices and stories. Having the action take place primarily in the small town of Eagle Valley and the Printed Letter Bookshop was delightful and created a yearning for small town life. And watching the characters grow and change by reading the personal booklists left for them by Maddie was a treat. In the end, the novel was uplifting and a very pleasant read. Anyone who loves books, and libraries and bookstores will enjoy this novel. And, the list of books referenced in the novel is a gem for any reader.
I will definitely recommend this title to my library patrons. 4 stars

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a gem of a novel about three women at very different times in their lives who are united by their connection to the Printed Letter Bookshop. Madeline who is a young woman who is in the rat race to make partner at her law firm, inherits the bookshop from her Aunt. Madeline's family is estranged from this aunt and she starts to realize that assumptions that she made about her aunt were not true. Working at the bookshop are Claire and Janet. Claire is the mother of two teenagers who has recently moved to town and finds solace in her work at the bookshop. Claire is feeling disconnected from her husband and kids and is looking for a sense of who she is. Janet is divorced from her husband of many years because she made a horrible mistake. Her kids want no connection to her and she still has deep feelings for her ex-husband. Janet needs to reflect on her flaws to learn how to forgive herself as well as how to learn to express her sorrow. Along the way, there is a bit of romance and a lot of friendship. The only suggestion that I have for the story is that I would have liked to see a bit detail drawn into Claire's marriage. I didn't really get a sense of her marriage until the end and then I wished to know more.

This book is written in first person by three different main characters. It's nice to get into each one's head and truly know what they are feeling and thinking. At first, I found the book confusing and hard to follow. It would take me a page or two to remember who was speaking and their background. But after a while, I found myself being drawn back to the book and wondering how things were going to work out. Maddie, the book store owner who dies in the first of the book, plays a magical part throughout the book. It makes you want to have that type of person in your life. Get into this book and learn the lessons that are taught in its pages.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed this book. It was taking me a little longer to get through than normal, but I'm not sure why. I loved the characters and hoped for a good outcome. I think this story was complete and I don't need a sequel. It was just a feel-good story that takes place in a bookshop (the best kind)!

I loved this book. I have read a lot of book store related books lately for some reason. This one was different int that it had three well described characters and worked in romance, family, and mystery. It would be great for a BookClub. I enjoyed it immensely for the story and characters.

Being a librarian, I knew I would love this book! It's about loving friendships, imperfection and forgiveness. I felt for these women and related to some of their struggles with the pain in their lives. The ending was very satisfying - this book will stay with me for a while!
Thanks to Katherine Reay, Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ARC of this great book!

I loved this book so much :) It felt a bit like a love letter to all bookish people. The writing was amazing, and Janet, Claire and Madeline’s stories were exactly what I needed in my life right now. It was about friendship, love, loss and basically just life. It was so charmingly written, I didn't want the book to end. I will definitely go and read some more books from this author.

A book about the importance of looking deeper, searching for your true place, and finding friends where you never thought to look are themes that run deep in this glorious novel by Katherine Reay. I was overwhelmed by the delight of having a bookstore be its center since so many are dying out because of big stores and the ebook craze. This is a prefect tale for those who want a feel good book about a jaded woman in need of friends and someone to love her when she can't love herself. It also reminds us that friendship is a very powerful force that sometimes becomes all someone older or lonelier has. Definitely a great read.!!

**thanks to Thomas Nelson for the Arc. These opinions are mine alone.

Katherine Reay's newest novel is a beautiful story about friendship, fresh starts, healing, and second chances, and a beloved bookshop becomes the perfect setting for three women beginning this journey.

Katherine Reay has a beautiful way with words that feels like she was able to incorporate a style reminiscent with the classics into her own unique contemporary setting. I don't think she could write a bad book if she tried, and The Printed Letter Bookshop may just be her best work yet. I tend to really enjoy books that have a bookstore setting, especially when the bookstore plays an integral role in the story. That's definitely the case here, as the bookstore becomes interwoven with each women's story, and plays a central role in the friendship that eventually forms between them.

Often when you're reading a novel with three different main characters, one or two will stand out above the rest. I'm happy to say that with this one I actually enjoyed each woman's story equally, and never found myself bored or confused with who's point of view I was currently reading. Madeline's beloved aunt Maddie owned the bookstore, but thanks to familial issues, she never had the chance to know her aunt the way she truly wanted to. When Madeline is left the bookstore, her first thought is to sell it, but when she's passed over for promotion at her big time law firm, she decides to take a step back to reevaluate her life, and decides to spend some time working at the bookstore. Janet has been working at the bookstore for quite awhile, and thanks to a huge mistake she made, the bookstore and Maddie were all she really had left in her life. She's bitter about the way her life's gone, and she can't imagine what will happen if Maddie's niece decides to sell the bookstore. Lastly, Claire has come to feel like her family no longer appreciates or needs her in their lives, and she's begun spending more and more time at the bookstore. She's determined to help Madeline make a go of The Printed Letter bookshop, but they may have bitten off more than they're able to chew.

This is the type of Christian fiction novel I really love. It's about real people facing real problems, and learning that only by turning to God, and truly letting yourself heal that you can move forward and overcome past hurts. The bookstore setting is perfect in this novel, and makes an already amazing story even more of a stand out. I especially enjoyed the way many popular book titles are featured throughout, and the way that Maddie uses many of these books to help the three main characters deal with their grief.

I couldn't have enjoyed this one more, and I gave it five out of five stars. I think it would be a perfect book club read, and it'll be one that get the highest recommendation from me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I was not required to give a positive review.

The Printed Letter Bookshop is a softly elegant and invitingly intricate ode to books and the power of their communal solace. With the charm and insight of Nina George and the sheer reckless book love of Jenny Colgan, The Printed Letter Bookshop enfolds the reader in a welcome literary embrace. Reay’s natural talent of putting the reader at ease in her fictional world is evident from the first page. But the story is also deceptively accessible, for the moment you fall into its continued spell, you are confronted by a mature narrative that allows three remarkably different women to become the unlikely heroines of their own stories

This is a stunningly, beautiful contemporary novel that stayed with me long after I finished reading it. It's the kind of book that just needs to sit in your soul for a while before you can really talk coherently about it...or at least that's how I felt about it. I absolutely loved the journeys this book took me on with all four of the women featured, one of whom dies before the book even starts but she nevertheless plays such a pivotal role in so much of the book that you feel like she was your best friend! I will read this book again and again. I absolutely loved it, and I have no doubt that I will love it over and over again for different reasons each time.

Madeline's relationship with her Aunt Maddie, her namesake for being amazing, fizzled out when a disagreement occurs between her aunt and father. She never knew what the cause really was but she stood alongside her father nevertheless. She never knew her aunt was sick, let alone dying, until she had passed and left everything to her. Everything meaning her home, her book shop and her debt.
Having just quit her job as a lawyer, Madeline decides that selling everything for a profit would be more beneficial than at a loss and steps into the world of her late Aunt Maddie to try to raise the profit of the Printed Letter Bookshop before the sale. When she does that, her live becomes entwined with that of the community and the two employees Claire and Janet.Entwined in a way that slowly begins to make her question the things that she believed about herself and her aunt... that makes her begin to question how she wants the rest of her life to look, what she values.

This was an excellent book. It felt light and a bit like a warm hug. This book is about learning being brave enough to learn the truth and experience new things. To do things that maybe you aren't trained to do. How to forgive and the importance of community. So many good things.

I don't think that this book will become classical literature but it makes my heart warm to read about Madeline and her walk to understanding, forgiveness and friendship. Sometimes the best things for us are the things that we might not have ever considered.

I received a complementary copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

In June 2017, I reviewed Veronica Henry's endearing How to Find Love in a Bookshop. My exact words at the end of the review stated that this book "is the novel that people need right now...period." It's no surprise to me that "bookshop" books are practically their own genre now. People long for an escape from negativity and derision to a place where the characters are like long-lost friends and there aren't really a whole lot of surprises. That, in a nutshell, is a bookshop book.

Katherine Reay's The Printed Letter Bookshop is all that and more, with three women brought together by circumstance and changed forever. Madeline is a young lawyer, and yes, she is making a lot of money but has all the stress that comes with it. When her aunt passes away, she leaves everything to Madeline, including the beloved bookshop that she owns. Madeline gives up her high-powered lifestyle and meets Claire and Janet, two women who work at the bookshop but who are far more than employees. Along the way, she finds what she has been missing all along -- love, as well as a sense of purpose.

I especially enjoyed that the reader sees many events from all three perspectives. While I didn't think the characters were as well developed as they could have been, I still devoured The Printed Letter Bookshop. Want to feel better after a bad day? Brew up a cup of tea, cozy up under your softest blanket, and read a bookshop book!

MY RATING - 3.5

* I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A great book, full of emotions and engaging.
I loved the style of writing and the well written characters.
There's a lot of food for thought and it's a book I'll surely read again.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

"Good characters let us live their lives vicariously, and bad ones tell us about the authors."

It's really true. I've always sensed it but i actually read it in this book. This story is all about books ,people and relationships and so much more. At first i wasn't that hooked. The lives of Madeline, Janet and Claire are so different from each other and yet as the story unfolds they intertwine together and it's so beautiful.

Some stories have so many twists and turns and yet they wouldn't affect you or your heart. But stories like this are different. This story is fictional but it has changed my views on so many things. And as the characters are all older than me and also going through different stages of life, it's like gaining experience or to learn something for me.

Maddie who is Madeline's dead aunt is so beautifully written i can always feel her in the story although she wasn't there directly delivering it. And another thing i really liked that the main 3 characters aren't perfect nor the author tried to force that. They all have their flaws and they are trying to be better persons which i really liked. Because we all know nobody's is perfect, not even fictional characters.

And yes! There is a great list of books (that are mentioned throughout the story) at the end. So thanks to the author for that!

( Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me the Arc in exchange of an honest review.)

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful book about imperfection, forgiveness, and friendships. I hurt for all of the characters and their struggles with the pain in their lives. The ending brings redemption--very satisfying.

The Printed Bookshop tells the story of a woman who inherited her aunt’s beloved small-town independent bookstore.
I loved the idea of this plot, but it ultimately failed to hook me and I did not finish the book.

I was excited to get this ARC on my Kindle because this author's Dear Mr. Knightley will be on my yearly re-read shelf for many years to come. I love that book! Unfortunately, this one didn't come close to that feeling for me. I mildly enjoyed most of it and ended up liking it, but it didn't grab my emotions and make me feel like I was living every second with these women. I wasn't very invested in any of the 3 - once again, mildly liked them. However, Katherine Reay is an excellent storyteller and while I wasn't emotionally invested it was still very read-able and I wanted to find out what would happen to the characters.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Katherine Reay's books always intrigue me, but this one surpassed several of her others in its plausibility and real-life issues..

The struggles her main character faces are completely relate-able, and I found myself hoping, struggling, wishing for her throughout the book. The setting is cozy and pulled me in as I read, leaving me wishing I could visit the town, look at the bookshop, etc.

There were a few times that the author's omniscience felt annoying..in that I wished I could have had a little more suspicion about the outcome rather than seeing where it was going. I wanted to see things even more through the character's eyes in those places rather than being able to see the clues and guess where things were going.

All in all, though, this is book I remember with fondness, that I'm sure I'll go back to read again, and that I look forward to seeing on shelves.