Wbat a great story 😊 anything involving books and libraries/bookshops, is a win for me!! Great characters too, glad I finally got round to reading this one.

Dear Lost for Words,

What a wonderful surprise you were! I wasn't sure what to expect, having (intentionally) not read any books set during the time of the Covid Pandemic, but here I was with an ARC I was sent too many years ago, and some Audio book hours to use up.

Firstly, I instantly liked your writing style and the narrator is very good - that says a lot from me as someone who doesn't get on with most narrators!

Secondly, I love me a wholesome bookish story with some depth and grit to it, and so you definitely delivered. Like any other domestic drama you gave us insight into the lives of several different people, all dealing with their own personal difficulties within their own private lives, as well as the pandemic lockdown. They are all linked my you, the bookshop 'Lost for Words', and Loveday's decision to open a 'book pharmacy' where people can write in to ask for books to be picked out for them - for collection or delivery if local.

I would like to say that I enjoyed reading you immensely, and would like to read your previous book please as I didn't realise you were a sequel!

All the best, and here are 4.5*

This book really makes you appreciate what you have and I found myself really thinking about things afterwards and how lucky I am.

I thought I was quite well read until reading this ! And I definitely don’t have such a phenomenal memory of every book I’ve read. I recently started one id already read without realising !!

I loved how the plot developed, the now alien and strange feeling of the pandemic .
Huge amount of description and definitely a book you disappear into

Thank you so much to all I’ve throughly enjoyed this

York is a beautiful city, a place I have visited many times. It has quite a history, with lovely streets to boot and is a great setting for Found In A Bookshop as basically some of those streets lend themselves wonderfully to this. You can truly picture a bookshop on a quaint street and want to work there.

Loveday Cardew sets up her bookshop, Lost For Words (which incidentally actually made me remember a fantastic children's book of the same name of the shop by Natalie Russell, that I have read to many children). Anyway, back to the book in question.

The year is 2020 and lockdown has happened as Covid sweeps the nation. Loveday Cardew comes up with an idea of recommending books to people in certain situations, whether the author was piqued by part of what librarians organise, who knows or some Indie bookshops do too.
Anyway, as you read the book, it becomes something quite heart-warming as this adds some soul as, in a sense it shows a little of community spirit. It shows that, whatever you do, even in business, you can do something to help people's lives a little in times of uncertainty.
It's also interesting getting to know customer's lives and not all are happy ones as there's some real hardship for some of them, with broken relationships and loneliness playing a part.
There's also a love story as Rosemary and George, married for 50 years set on a wonderful journey and "travel" for miles, through books as they come closer to the end of their life. For me, they were most endearing and it is them that kept me the most hooked.
Books play a big part, one way or another in the character's lives, to remedy them, be part of them etc. It is, after all, true to say that there is/was a time when books were prescribed and certain places held lists and stock of what to read for wellbeing and certain circumstances and this book touches a bit into this.

Overall, it's an interesting book with succinct narratives that intrigue and give a feeling of warmth. It may even make you wonder what you might find in a bookshop and which one you'll be found in.

This is a sequel to ‘Lost for Words’ This book is set in the middle of the pandemic. The characters are wonderful and it was good to look inside their life’s. This book is perfect for book lovers.

Although a sequel, I read as a standalone and did not feel like i was missing any information as the book covered the basics.
It covered running a bookshop in Covid lockdown, a slightly tired topic for myself however it was still an enjoyable read.

This book was pure joy from start to finish! The author shows us the healing power of literature and I’m here for it. A wonderful story with great characters.

This is my first book by the author and I went in unaware that it was a follow on from ‘Lost For Words’ - which didn’t matter as this book nailed it as a stand-alone for me.

Set during the lockdown, when Covid was rife. When people needed books and bookshops for escapism more than they have before.

We first off follow Loveday, the bookshop owner, and Kelly the manager, each from their respective POVs. Both worrying about the shop, their jobs, and their community, including their own social situations.

Then we follow Rosemary & George, and elderly retired couple living by the sea, cut off from everybody else, reflecting on their lives and their love and their love of reading books together.

The bookshop decide to start a ‘Book Pharmacy’ - to prescribe people books based on what they feel they need from life in that moment.

Lots of characters are introduced. We hear how Covid is affecting them individually. Nurses, paramedics, domestic abuse victims. We see neighbours who wouldn’t usually talk making acquaintance. The book encapsulates the value of community and people pulling together in times of need.

This book brought it all back, what lockdown was like, it made you feel the hardship for the whole world and what people had to go through.

A brilliant brilliant poignant story. I couldn’t put it down, and I didn’t want it to end. Loads of book recommendations thrown in too which I loved!

I especially loved the break every few chapters where the author added her own notes on the importance of books and reading. It was absolutely quote worthy. I am definitely going to go back and re-read those regularly. I cannot wait to get my friends to read this, it needs to be shared.

Thank you to @netgalley and Isabelle at @headlinebooks for my spot on the blog tour. Thank you to @stephaniebutlandauthor for this beautiful masterpiece. It made me laugh and it made my cry. A 5⭐️ book I’ll be recommending for years to come.

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me - it’s absolutely a personal issue though, having just lost a grandparent the issue of medical issues and elderly people was too much. If I’d tried reading this at any other point in my life though I’m sure it would be one I enjoyed, I really liked the writing style and found it gave personality to the characters and helped me learn the kind of people they were before the book starts which is always a positive for me.

I loved this book!
Set in York, during the first COVID lockdown. A bookshop struggling to survive financially, people struggling to survive physically and emotionally. Can books make everything better?

This book is heartwarming and heart breaking, at one moment I was laughing out loud and the other I was wiping away the tears. I was truly invested in the characters, and was fully immersed in the world built around this bookshop.

I look forward to reading more from Stephanie Butland. I loved how there were book suggestions within this book, and I shall definitely be working my way through that list! This is the perfect book for any book lover.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this via Netgalley.

What an amazing book! I loved the different view points and the stories about different people’s experiences during lockdown. However the best part of this book was definitely the details about books and good books to read. The idea of a book prescription is so cool! I’d love someone to suggest a book I ‘need’ to read.
There were loads of characters to keep up with but the main ones are just adorable- kind hearted, empathetic, real and inspirational.
I listened to this as an audiobook and loved the narrator. So many voices for each character.

I really loved this book. It took me a couple of chapters to get in to, but when I did I devoured it.
I've already recommended it to friends.

Stephanie Butland excels at writing nuanced characters with thoughtful backstories.

'Found in a Bookshop' features strong descriptions of the pandemic - and many people will find it too difficult to be taken back to that time so viscerally. I found the descriptions of peoples' experiences moving and, although they were difficult to read at times, a powerful reminder of what people endured.

There is an unusual break in narrative voice from time to time, where the author addresses the reader directly but, given the subject matter, it feels completely right.

'Found in a Bookshop' is devastating at times but it ultimately hopeful.

This beautifully written novel will stay with me for a long time.

A really easy and cosy read. The type that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy at the end. I would definitely recommend as a holiday read.

I absolutely ADORED this book! It was the perfect, cosy read I needed at the time. I got lost in the book immediately, and I felt like I was in the story itself.

I loved this book. It's self-help, a reading list and a warm hug wrapped up in one.
The book shop is dying and the pandemic really didn't help! This book of fiction tries to turn it all around. The story of a little shop in York that aims to aid those around it through a love of reading and the hardships we encountered when covid hit putting us all in lockdown.
An easy and lovely read. Thank you!

Second in this series,works as a standalone. Heartwarming telling many stories. Very relatable as we all went through vivid and wondered how to survive.

Books and Covid
Uplifting and heartbreaking.
Well this book connected with all ofmy emotions and bought back memories of covid.
Loveday, Kelly and Nathan still work at bookshop Lost for words during covid, they try to think of ways to help people and come up with a book prescription. Readers email them with requests for books for their particular situation and they get books for them.
Loveday has been left the bookshop and home by the previous owner Archie who died in a fire. Lovedays Mother Sarah Jane lives with her, she was seperated from Loveday in the past and they are forging a close relationship. Loveday's partner also lives with them Nathan, he is a poet and a conjourer.
George and Rosemary are one couple that the bookshop gets involved with, they are both ex teachers with a beautiful garden, George has terminal cancer and the couple want to read some books from their past, we discover their background story of miscarriage and devotion. Jenny is a wife who has managed to escape from her violent husband, she has been helped by Sarah Jane who provided a safe place for women before lockdown.
Kelly has finally met the man of her dreams and he moves in with her, this is another result of covid the decisions that paople hasd to make quickly, probably without enough consideration.
The emails of people seeking books and the answers they recieve are riveting, it made me remember books and wonder if I would recommend the same ones.
All of the story takes place against a background of covid and lockdown, there are parts which made me remember the reality of the time, news broadcasts, daily figures, new rules but mostly not being able to see loved ones and the devastation that covid left.
"Some times a book will sing to your soul, your pain, your being" this quote says it all.
Thank you Stephanie for this amazing read also for the list of recommendations that you repeated at the end of the book. Thank you NetGalley

This book has taken me a long time to read, as someone who both LOVED lost for words and also worked in a covid ward, I found this book hard to read at times and yet at the same time it filled me full of hope. I loved a lot of the threads running through it, although as I was reading I did question some of the threads, and whether they added to the story, by the end, after I had sobbed and felt all the feelings I had put to the back of mind and worked through some of them, I couldn't give this any less then a 5 star and I hope that we will continue to hear from the lost for words team.

I also thought the beautiful almost essays on bookshops and readers that ran through would make a fantastic book on their own :)

I really loved this book. I think as an avid reader any book with Bookshop or anything book related as a title is going to tempt me (there are a couple of exceptions).

I really loved that Loveday comes up with such an amazing idea to save their little shop. This book is written during covid and people aren't able to get out to shops and many shops were unable to cope with lacking customers and sadly had to close.

This is really relatable because it has elements of real life and it not being easy all the time.

Some of suggestions for books in this books sound brilliant and some I have already read. I do enjoy books within books and enjoyed listing some of the ones I want to read based in Loveday's explanations of them in the letters.

Oh wow what an emotionally beautiful book. You can really feel the pain in people during the pandemic. Everyone had difficult times during pandemic, some more that others, but everyone will be able to relate in someway because it was so real.

I really enjoyed the named chapters because its easier to keep track of who is who and get to know the characters individually and where they fit into the story.