I rarely do not finish a book once I begin it, but I could not force myself to complete this novel and stopped reading about one third of the way through the story. Maybe the story improved, but I did not care enough to invest the time to finish the book. I had a few problems with this narrative beginning with that it made no sense to me that Michelle and Anna would become good friends other than the facts that Michelle was new to the town and that Anna was so kind hearted that she did not threaten Michelle's sense of wanting to be left alone. Anna and Michelle were both sympathetic characters, but their friendship did not feel genuine to me. And Anna herself pointed out that she really did not know Michelle well at all. At times, I wanted to tell Anna to please stop blaming herself that her stepdaughters did not warm up to her as much as she would have liked. Her marriage to Phil felt genuine to me, but I did not have a great sense of what first brought Phil and Anna together when she was 24 and he was how old, I did not know even what was their age difference. It can be rather difficult to make a kindhearted character such as Anna interesting on the page and maybe that was my difficulty with her character. Michelle was a more vibrant character, always wary (for good reason) and very skilled in business, but as readers (at least as far as I got in the story), we don't get to see the depths of her fears, just her business acumen, impatience and her wariness. I guess I wanted more internal life from the two main characters and not really knowing them, I lost interest. For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. I found it sweet and cozy and wanted to read more about the great book shop. However, there were times that I disliked every character, or maybe it was just the way they were acting at the time. I guess this makes it more true to life though - everyone acts badly at one time or another, and relationships don't go smoothly all the time. As the title of the book says though, by the ending things were working out happily for everyone. I would love to revisit these characters sometime and see how things are a few years down the road...
Do You like book Der Prinz In Meinem Märchen (2011)?
I love her books but I wish dogs were featured more prominent in this book as her previous books
—Andreea
What more can you ask for in a novel? Family relationships, friendship, and dogs!
—Rose
Good story but abrupt end. I wanted more...
—Lindsay
