A holiday full of books and life changing events!

Synopsis

The Fully Booked Bookshop Café invites literature lovers to run their very own bookshop … for a fortnight.

Spend your days talking books with customers in your own charming bookshop and serving up delicious cream teas in the cosy café.

Bookworms, what are you waiting for? Your holiday is going to be LIT(erary).

Apply to: The Fully Booked Bookshop, Down-a-long, Clove Lore, Devon.

Jude Crawley should be on top of the world. She’s just graduated as a mature student, so can finally go public about her relationship with Philosophy professor, Mack.

Until she sees Mack kissing another girl, and her dreams crumble. And worse, their dream holiday – running a tiny bookshop in the harbour village of Clove Lore for two weeks – is non-refundable.

Throwing caution to the winds, Jude heads down to Devon, eager to immerse herself in literature and heal her broken heart.

But there’s one problem – six foot tall, brooding (but gorgeous) Elliot, who’s also reserved the bookshop holiday for two weeks…

As Jude and Elliot put their differences aside to run the bookshop, it seems that Jude might be falling in love with more than just words. Until she discovers what Elliot is running from – and why he’s hiding out in Clove Lore.

Can Jude find her own happy ending in a tiny, tumbledown bookshop? Or is she about to find out that her bookish holiday might have an unexpected twist in the tale…

My review

Jude Crawley finally managed to graduate. For anyone this event would be already exhilarating, but for Jude it’s even more. She is a mature student, as she gave gladly gave up her dreams to look after her grandmother, so now she can finally start chasing her own dreams. And her relationship with Philosophy professor Mack can be finally in the open.

But it all changes when she sees Mack kissing another woman. Not only are her dreams scattered, but also her perfect holiday is in pieces. She already imagined herself and Mack running a tiny bookshop in Clove Lore for two weeks. Being a non – refundable holiday, Jude decides to go anyway to Devon, ready to be submerged in books and trying to heal a broken heart.
What she didn’t expect is that Elliot also reserved the holiday in the bookshop the same time as her. And yes, he may be tall and gorgeous, the last thing she needs is being around a man who also appears to be hiding things.

First of all, I WANT TO HAVE THAT HOLIDAY TOO!!!!! Running a bookshop for two weeks, that just sounds like heaven to me!
It’s really a pity that such things don’t exist (yet? 😃) in Belgium!

But now about the book itself…

I have to say, Jude truly left me in awe from the start. She put her own dreams aside, to take care of her grandmother, while her parents are running the family bakery. Not every young adult would do that, but for Jude it was not a sacrifice at all, as the love she has for her family is what matters.
And the courage she had to pick up her studies, again, it’s not something many would do.
Now graduated, she is ready for the next step in life, being enjoying her relationship with Mack now that their relationship is not a secret anymore and they can finally have a holiday together.
So when Mack shows his true colours, I felt as heart – broken as Jude. Because if there was one person who should finally have some slack, it’s certainly Jude.
Everything she does, is done with kindness, love and just a big heart. And being treated that way by Mack, is totally uncalled for.

When in the bookshop, I understood Jude that she wasn’t happy to share her holiday with Elliot. Even if sometimes her reactions were on the verge of just being rude, I comprehended her. She wanted peace to mend her broken heart, and lick her wounds.
Elliot is just not someone easily to ignore. He is huge, and his good looks surely don’t help to fight the attraction! I found myself even attracted to this complete fictitious character!
But there is more to him than just the way he looks. He may not be the best baker, but he surely has the best intentions! And even if I feared for what his secret would be, when it was out, I was happy that my gut feelings weren’t wrong!

Even if this story started with a tone that made me sad / angry, after that event, I surely felt my mood shifting for the better. I loved the idea of renting a bookshop, finding yourself in a community ready to lend a helping hand, making you feel at home.
I fell in love with Clove Lore, even if the street names are not that easy to understand. But every character managed to make me love them. And then I’m not talking about Aldous, even his strange habits were easily covered by the cloak of love!

The ending left me nearly in tears, as it was just something you would see in a romantic movie and it just fitted perfectly in the story.

I found this an uplifting story, not only about love in all its aspects and that even if there are people ready to break your heart, there are plenty of them ready to open theirs.
This was a book I quickly finished reading, not because I wanted to get rid of it. But because I felt part of it and found it nearly impossible to put it away!