"I let myself wonder how things would be different, if they would be different, and most importantly, if they should be different. Maybe it isn't for me to decide what should have been. The world simply is, and we must do our best to make the most out of it."

I didn't expect to love this book as much as I did. While my Bookstagram and Goodreads may suggest I love many, many books, that's not the truth. I like many, many books. I love very few. Very, very few. In forty years of reading thousands of books, love is something I reserve for Anne of Green Gables, As I Lay Dying, and an old, tattered copy of Girl by Blake Nelson. That's not an exhaustive list, but I think we understand each other better now when I tell you I loved this book.

Written as an epistolary, this book takes you into the life of Fawn Birchill, a 50-something bookstore owner living in Philadelphia. Her used bookstore is quickly going downhill, as is her social life and bank account. When newcomer Mark opens up a trendy, cozy bookstore in her neighborhood, one that sells coffee and hosts hip events, Fawn's fear of losing her business leads her down a path that has the reader laughing out loud, gasping in incredulousness and, at times, even wiping a tear or two away.

Is Fawn the most likable character? No. She's frustrating and pitiful for much of the book. I found myself shaking my head at her antics more than once. But Green - a remarkably good writer for having only one novel under their belt - seemed to sense where the line was between "I really hope this character gets it together" and "Forget it, she's a lost cause." They also showed great balance between "I can't believe she did that!" vs "Okay, there's no way she did that."

As Fawn struggles to understand her present, heal from her past, and embark on her future, I was impressed with the way Green managed to tackle heavy emotional themes (e.g. family, death, loneliness, failure, envy) without sacrificing the lightheartedness of the novel. While I would have liked some of the supporting characters to be a little more developed or to even play a little bit larger parts in the plot (I really liked Angela the bookstore employee), the lack of other key characters serves to reinforce the loneliness that envelopes Fawn more and more as the novel continues.

Overall, I found this book to be quite enjoyable. I have seen so many requests for a light-hearted, fun recommendation in the midst of all we've endured in the last year and I have now found my go-to recommendation. I loved this book and am looking forward to reading and reviewing many more Elizabeth Green novels in the future. The talent is definitely there - can't wait to see what they do with it.

This was so boring it was borderline unreadable. There is no saving grace here. There is no plot. Ok, I can live with that. As long as we have fascinating characters? Nope, not that either. Okay. Is it funny? No. Does it make you feel anything? Only irritation.

The story of the Conversations of a curious bookseller is told in a series of emails, letters, and journal entries where you will get to know about the characters where you will know about the bookseller Fawn who makes a living through a bookshop in Pennsylvania suburb.

The protagonist is quite unlikeable who lies often and is not flexible where she is stucked to her past instead of moving on.

I am someone who loves to read different writing style when the narration is in the form of letters and emails as it keeps you moving to know more about the plot, but this story lags the strong background of narrating it. The introduction of characters felt quite jumpy and flat. The title totally misleads the reader as it’s not the reflection of what it says but it’s quite opposite.

I would have enjoyed the story if it was cheerful and fast paced. I felt it’s not quite a read for me.

The book is an epistolary novel and the title, really really made me want to read this. The entire book is written in form of letter. We all know, we love books that are related to bibliophile or Bookstores and we are all in.

Our main protagonist is Fawn Birchill, who is the owner of the a local bookstore. She is struggling to keep her father's legacy of this bookstore running smoothly.

Enters a new bookstore in the neighborhood block. So she is kind of stretched and pissed about the same thing. The new owner of the new shop sends her a very nice email and gesture to have coffee with her.

She refuses that with a very huge email bolstering about herself and her store. I mean I just want to tell her one thing, "girl, who will never succeed by demeaning others." I just hated to read this in the book.

Next comes her dynamic with Richard, a fellow librarian and her ex boyfriend. She has been very mean to her and has been practically tagging him along with a lie about his father's death.

Fawn is definitely not a great role model and if I have booksellers like her, then I am sorry I would choose not to visit a bookstore in future. However, the writing style is great. But the main character is who I have a major problem with in this book.

This was funny, interesting and kept me hooked right from the start. Organised as an epistolary, a series of email conversations, a few advertisements, few posts on social media, reviews, chats, and random journal entries otherwise, the story moved on easily, narrating the story of Fawn Birchill, the curious bookseller.Fawn Birchill can be hated by most people, I think because her character can be viewed as a dark portrayal, barring a few entries that show her other side as well, perception matters after all.

There are some beautiful lines on family, lost childhood, priorities, and empathy. We only know parts of the exchanges, and still form a solid image of the characters, develop love and hatred for them, how opinionated and judging we are! That is what I loved about the story too, a very good read, a very critical one too on the protagonist, that doesn't show an all positive or all negative person as the head.

One minus star is for the times when it felt dragging, could have been edited crisper.

The premise and style of the book was very promising, but the story just fell a little flat for me. I ended up feeling bad for many of the characters because they had to deal with Fawn. I felt that Fawn was way over the top and very rude.

Oof. I saw the reviews before I read this where many said the main character is VERY unlikable, and I decided to take a chance because of my love of epistolary novels. I need a half star for this, as I would give it 1.5 stars.

As many have stated, Fawn is extremely unlikable. To give you some context, we see her argue with customers that have left bad reviews, declare anyone that doesn't go along with what she says as being jealous of her, lie to everyone about how amazing her life is (it's not), attempt to swindle customers, steal from her tenant, and be extremely jealous of her new-to-the-neighborhood bookstore/cafe owner. She writes her own Yelp-style reviews for both her own establishment, as well as against her competitors.

I've seen unlikable characters before get their karma and grow from it, and the book was saved. That was not evident here. Fawn never learns from her horrific actions, and the story wraps up without any type of repercussion for her behavior. I think had this been included, the story would have had a much different rating.

The story of an indie bookseller struggling to keep doors open when a competitor moves in has been done before, notably by Ernst Lubitsch. This books promises to be a literary-equivalent of "You've Got Mail" but struggles in a few spheres:

1) The epistolary form. Taking in the footsteps of books like "84 Charring Cross Road," this books tells its stories through means of written communication like letters, emails, and even customer reviews. However, it all feels anachronistic and contrived. For a story based on 2018 and thereabouts, there is a significant amount of snail mail and email which feels more like a plot device than anything else.
2) The plot. There is very little in terms of an overarching plot arch. There is a threat of bankruptcy and closure for the store in the background but what the protagonist does to counter that threat does not have an arc or growth trajectory to it.
3) The characters. There is nothing wrong with having an unlikeable protagonist. That is fine. But it is difficult to read about a protagonist who is one-dimensionally irritating and only has one redeeming feature. This is made especially hard by the fact that the other characters are very flat with no details about their motivations or reactions.

Overall, I would not recommend this book.

Thank you Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC!

I sat down with a mission to finish this in one day as it was a chunky e-book. When I first picked it up, it reminded me of 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which is merely due to the epistolary stylistic of the novel. I did enjoy reading it, however, there are a lot of parts, that could have been redundant. The main character, Fawn Birchill, is somewhat an annoying character judging everyone except herself, which is what almost everyone does. On the other hand, she goes to the extent that it starts to harm herself.

When a new bookstore opens right in front of her bookshop, she starts to turn her hate towards Mark, the owner. At that moment, I cannot stop thinking about the movie "You've Got Mail" because everything reminded me of that movie except there is hardly anything romantic between the two.

I did finish it in one sitting, took me around 5 hours without any break. To be honest, I enjoyed reading it, which is why I sat down to finish it in one day. It is to people, who would not mind reading an epistolary novel about a slightly depressed bookseller, who is trying to stay alive in the business without seeing what is right in front of her.

Elizabeth Green’s Confessions of a Curious Bookseller grabbed me from page one. The letters Fawn, the main character, pens to her co-workers, competitor, and other people who enter her life expose her strained family relationship, passion for used books, and struggles to keep her store thriving when a rival book store opens down the street. As a book lover myself I liked Fawn and her quirkiness. However, as the story progressed, Fawn became less likable as her bitterness consumes her.
The story has a good premise and is an easy read. It becomes bitter in the middle but redeems itself by the end of the story.

A breath of fresh air! Easy to read and highly enjoyable. This tale was a well-written epistolary novel that was both hilarious and endearing.

I wanted to like this book so much. I love books about booksellers (obviously) and the cover and description made this seem like such a good book, I requested bit immediately. However, I couldn't finish it. The writing was well done, but the story was a bit bland, I didn't feel any chemistry, and I just didn't connect to it. I look forward to trying the author's other works.

The cover grabbed me. The description made it sound like something I would love. It wasn't. I just couldn't find anything to like about Fawn except for her tenant. Quite honestly, I'm surprised that I made it to the 45% mark before giving up.

Fawn owns a secondhand bookstore in Philadelphia combining her love of novels and cats. Throughout the book you read her various memoirs and communications with her family members, employees and members of the community, including a rival business owner.

Fawn writes about her childhood, relationships and other daily struggles. You quickly begin to unravel the layers of this complex character, at times I found I had a huge amount of empathy for her, but mostly I laughed at the hilarity and outrageousness of her comments. She is quite a fantasist and tended to be quite rude and outspoken.

Like others who have reviewed this book, I found the layout on my Kindle to be a little disjointed, emails would go over two pages so it wasn’t always clear who the messages were from/ to. I read the unedited version of the book, thank you to NetGalley for this, so this may be corrected once the book is officially published. I have also read how some readers gave up reading the book before the end, but I have to say I am pleased I read to the end. The ending was quite a heartwarming way to end the story.

Confessions of a Curious Bookseller follows Fawn, a grumpy fiftysomething woman who just wants to run her bookstore, The Curious Cat Emporium. This gets harder when a newer, rival bookstore moves in next door.
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This book had one thing going for it. The premise. The premise sounds so interesting! Paired with an epistolary format, this seemed like a perfect book!
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However, it had one major problem. It was so dull. In 488 pages I want something to happen, but it just never did, leaving the ending almost rushed. The format got old quickly as well.
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0.5 of my rating is because of the premise and the other 0.5 of my rating is for Scooch.
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I could not finish this book. It has an unlikable protagonist and felt poorly written and disjointed.

This is an epistolary novel about a rather self-deluded bookseller who, despite her best efforts, seems to be her own worst enemy. Her wacky antics will keep you shaking your head and face palming throughout. Some readers may find that irritating, but I enjoyed the book and wanted to continue on the journey with her.

In the beginning, I was highly entertained by the main character, Fawn Birchill, in Elizabeth Green's new book, "Confessions of a Curious Bookseller." I laughed at Fawn's quirky behavior and truly enjoyed her quick wit and beautiful prose and hyperbole. Halfway through the book, I was filled with sorrow and emotion, realizing how sad Fawn really was. She was a likable character with whom I found myself cheering for throughout her story. By the end of the book, I was back to being enchanted, as Fawn finally faced all of her demons and planned to embark on healthy changes and new adventures. This book certainly delivered on the details, and through the clever writing of emails, journal entries and pen-pal communication, it beautifully unfolded as a story worth reading. Thank you NetGalley, Elizabeth Green and Lake Union Publishing for this advanced copy ebook. I wish you great success and would love a follow-up to Fawn's adventures.

I thought I was in for a great read so was bitterly disappointed with this book. The cover looks great but alas for me this is where the greatness ends. It is written via a volley of emails to the many people who are important in Fawns life, the rival bookstore and her dysfunctional family. I really wanted to like this book and had this book had some va va voom in it and maybe a little romance or something to get my teeth into I think the could have been an amazing book. I liked the style it was written it was easy to read.
Many thanks to both netgalley and the author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

If there’s one thing that stands the test of time it’s simple tradition...hipster indie additions soon die off and become a thing of the past

I loved following in this bookshop owners footsteps as she battled to safe not only her shop but everything else she loved too

If you love Jill Mansell then this is for you!