book therapy: the Lost and Found Bookshop

There's a building in our community that used to be a charming restaurant. That restaurant went out of business several years ago and the building sits empty and boarded up. Every time I drive by, I imagine it transformed into a bookshop. I can see comfy chairs next to the oversized fireplace, a little coffee shop in the "sunroom", and shelves of inspiring books.

You won't be surprised then to learn that any book about a bookshop is almost an automatic read for me. Add to that long lost artifacts hidden in the bookshop's walls, family secrets, a charming old man, and the possibilities of love, and The Lost and Found Bookshop went right up the TBR pile.

From Goodreads:
Somewhere in the vast Library of the Universe, as Natalie thought of it, there was a book that embodied exactly the things she was worrying about.

In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative—not counting her scoundrel father.

But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem–Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. Natalie adores her grandfather; she’ll do whatever it takes to make his final years happy. Besides, she loves the store and its books provide welcome solace for her overwhelming grief.

After she moves into the small studio apartment above the shop, Natalie carries out her grandfather’s request and hires contractor Peach Gallagher to do the necessary and ongoing repairs. His young daughter, Dorothy, also becomes a regular at the store, and she and Natalie begin reading together while Peach works.

To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations, from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future, and her own heart.

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