So you know how sometimes when you read a book, you can pick up patterns, themes, and/or structure similarities from other books?
There really is nothing new under the sun.
This review contains spoilers, so if you haven’t read the book yet and you want to, you might want to skip this review for now.
The Bookshop on the Corner is a warm, quaint, summer day kind of read. It’s sweet, and the main character, Nina, is a superbly likable character that I can see myself being friends with IRL. You know, if she was IRL. I also have a faint desire to move to Scotland after Colgan’s description of the farm and village, which is a first for me. It was pleasant and it will stick with me for a little while, and sometimes, that’s really all I need from a book.
As other reviewers have said, the love story is a little flat in the last half of the book – kind of predictable and I would have loved to have seen more development in the relationship, honestly.
One of the reasons, I realized, that the love story seemed a bit predictable is because it closely resembles (in structure) one of the most-loved novels of all time: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Check it:
Heroine: Nina (Elizabeth Bennet)
Both begin the novels a little silly and shy, but are quickly molded into autonomous, independent, and witty women. Both have a dear love of reading, engaging in “the improvement of her mind by extensive reading,” and are highly courageous. My favorite kind of heroine.
Hero: Lennox (Mr. Darcy)
Tall, overtly handsome, and wealthy with a taciturn personality (both authors actually use this term). Both are heavily respected in the community and misunderstood by our Heroines. Even the reader is convinced early on that both Heroes are curt, uncaring, and even a bit harsh at first (thus foisting prejudice even upon the reader). As we see both men throughout the novels, the onion is slowly peeled back to reveal kindness and tenderness (towards the lambs in Lennox’s case; towards his younger sister, Georgiana, in Darcy’s, for example) and deeply abiding passion beneath the rough exterior. My favorite kind of hero. 😉
Friend who cordially parts ways suddenly
Griffin (Charlotte)
Both were instrumental in the lives of our Heroines, but life changes removed them from the story. In both situations, the life changes were they (Griffin and Charlotte) took the road more commonly travelled for the sake of security (Griffin took the job Nina didn’t want; Charlotte took Mr. Collins as a husband – who Elizabeth had turned down). Both Heroines were determined not to settle for “safe” choices.
Closer Friend/Family who convinces Heroine to look more closely at Hero
Surinder (Mr. & Mrs. Gardiner)
In P&P, the Gardiners (her aunt and uncle) talk Elizabeth into going to Pemberly to visit Darcy’s home while he is away. In that trip, Elizabeth is forced to see Darcy in a new, softer light from what her prejudice of him allowed before. When Surinder comes to visit Nina in Scotland, she’s the first to point out how “hot” Nina’s landlord is. Not exactly Austen-esque, but it is what it is.
Love Triangle
Marek (Mr. Wickham)
As with Mr. Wickham in P&P, the Bookshop reader is early on convinced that Marek is a quality love interest for the Heroine. He’s romantic, offers small, personal gifts, mysterious, and relatively handsome. In both stories, though, the reader becomes privy to a past (and in Wickham’s case, additional character traits) that make them unavailable to the Heroines, at best. Despicable at worst.
Demanding Female Foil
Kate (Lady Catherine De Bourgh)
Lennox’s ex-wife, Kate, is a beautiful but whiny, spoiled, hot-tempered woman who holds their divorce and farm (read: livelihood) over Lennox’s head for the sheer game of it. Lady Catherine is Darcy’s bossy, privileged, and snobbish aunt who looks down her nose at Elizabeth and her middle-class family with contempt at the thought of Elizabeth pursuing her anointed and well-bred nephew.
Young troubled girl – special interest
Ainslee (Elizabeth’s sister, Lydia)
Obviously, Elizabeth has a connection to her sister, Lydia, from the onset. Nina develops her attachment to Ainslee through books. Lydia, just 15, has developed unseemly traits that mark her as immature and selfish. Conversely, Ainslee is about the same age (16) but has been in a difficult situation with her sick mother and small brother to care for that has caused her to inwardly be underdeveloped in many ways. As Lydia’s plight is unravelled, Darcy steps in to rescue Lydia from ruin and the family from Lydia’s painful and selfish actions. This is where we see the similarity: as Ainslee’s situation with her mother is discovered by Nina, Lennox then steps in to make things right. Both men are acting out of their concealed love. Both of these efforts break down the prideful walls around the hearts of our young protagonists.
The lack of development in the relationship between Lennox and Nina is really just the difference between the 330 pages of Bookshop and nearly 500 pages of P&P. Jane Austen is a pretty high standard, so I’ll be okay with the Bookshop’s shortcomings to have been able to visit Scotland for a while and, in some sense, relive a modern version of a timeless classic.
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