Battle of the Bookshops Review

 

Rating: ⭐⭐

 

I received this book as an ARC through Netgalley. Battle of the Bookshops by Poppy Alexander is available for purchase anywhere books are sold.

    Battle of the Bookshops by Poppy Alexander is a women’s fiction romance following a young woman’s attempt at saving her great aunt’s bookshop from getting eliminated by the new bookshop built directly across the street by the son of her family’s rivals.

    Julia, Jules, Capelthorne returns to her hometown of Portneath to assist her great-aunt Flo. Finding Aunt Flo injured, Jules is determined to stay and help. Jules also discovers that Capelthorne’s Books hasn’t been doing to well. When a new bookshop is opened across the street by Roman Montbeau, Jules sees red. The Montbeaus and Capelthornes have been feuding for years. This just adds to their division. When Jules starts to see Roman as more than just the bully she always knew him as, her life becomes even more chaotic.

     The Battle of the Bookshops is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet as enemies to lovers. Julia hates Roman. We don’t really see Roman feeling the same way about Julia though. It can be hard to see why Julia feels as strongly as she does. Aside from Roman and his friends laughing at her in high school, we aren’t given many reasons to side with Julia. Roman opening a bookshop, Portneath Books, and putting her great aunt‘s bookshop in danger is a good reason but that isn’t the sole reason Julia dislikes him. A grudge between their families that Julia didn’t even really know anything about seems to be used as the primary fuel for her hatred.  It comes across as fairly childish. Julia is a petty character that goes to extremes when things don’t really go her way. Anyone, even close friends, who dare to go to Portneath Books, is a traitor. Her former boss having a negative reaction to Julia wanting time off is compared to genocide. It’s immature behavior for a character we’re supposed to see as an adult.  I had trouble taking her Aunt Flo very seriously as a character. With a name like that, she’s bound to be seen as a joke. Flo is an elderly woman who is used to bring Julia to Portneath and show how much Julia cares about her family. Only Aunt Flo. Flo being elderly is unfortunately used to show her as useless. She’s been running her bookshop…into the ground. Without Julia sacrificing herself to come back and help, Capelthorne’s Books wouldn’t succeed. Since she believes that “Family comes first”, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, Julia is constantly playing the victim. She was forced to leave a job she hated to help her aunt. She’s constantly comparing herself to others. Julia is a mildly irritating and frustrating character. The diary of one of their ancestors is discovered. This leads to a mildly confusing miniature story about the witch trials. I think that entire story would work very well as a separate book on its own. Julia, who has hated Roman the entire beginning of the book, seems to suddenly change her mind. It’s insta-love! He gives her ice cream and calls her hot and now she’s into him. She drinks too much; he takes her home; they kiss. There’s no real build up. Roman proposing to distract Julia from Capelthorne’s Books foreclosing is just as bad. Especially since he’s using it to not tell her about his dad being the reason why. The entire book is confusing. It felt like Poppy Alexander had a lot of great ideas for books and decided to put them all into one.

     I was not a fan of Battle of the Bookshops. I felt that it was trying to be too many things at once. The story would go off track with good intentions. It does eventually find its way back in the end, but it felt unnecessary to include so much exposition.  I’m not going to not recommend The Battle of the Bookshops. Poppy Alexander put a lot of time and love into it. I just think there are better Romeo and Juliet retellings. Or just read the original play by William Shakespeare.