The Bookstore Diaries by Susan Mallery is a wonderful read. We are brought into a world of a small bookstore and family/friends as they find their way forward. The Painted Lady Bookstore, the nearby beach, a parrot and a couple of cats join the various characters in the story.
Jax owns the bookstore and the parrot, Romon. She is the older sister of Ryleigh, the ex-wife of Harris and the mother of 2 children. She has hired Marcus to help fix a part of the bookstore. She has always wanted to have control, but this spring and summer is out of her control.
Ryleigh is the younger daughter. She is a teacher in the nearby school. Her best friend, Kim, died a year ago and she spends a lot of time with her (Kim) son Noah and widowed husband, Adam. She is desperate to find and fall in love and is thinking she needs to move away to find it.
Harris has proposed to Shawna – for all the wrong reasons (sex). Ryleigh is applying for jobs away. Ramon disappears for a length of time. Marcus is interested in Jax – who is clueless. Then the wall of bricks that hides a number of diaries from people in town is cleaned and now no one really knows whose diaries are where.
I didn’t find (as has happened before) the teaser and the title as being the best description of the novel. The teaser and the titles make the wall of diaries more important than it was in the novel. I think that connection could have had a larger presence in the novel.
I love Susan Mallery books. I am always interested in the various characters with their various ties. The Bookstore Diaries by Susan Mallery was a wonderful read of people, relationships, and connections that make this a wonderful novel.
