Book Review ~ The Lost and Found Bookshop: A Novel by Susan Wiggs

The Lost and Found Bookshop: A Novel

By

Susan Wiggs

One of the most moving tales of the year! So well deserving of a 5 Full Teacups!

We start with Natalie Harper at her job where she is preparing to give a speech. Right before the speech her colleague accidentally, or was it, spills wine on her shirt and blazer. She is shook and cleans herself off as best she can and composes herself to begin her speech. She’s been newly promoted to an amazing position in a different office where she will be just by herself and the computer. She’s excited about the new position and wants so much to share this with her mom and her boyfriend. Both were supposed to be in attendance but are not. She presents her speech and cheers abound all around as well as wine. She then proceeds to her office and calls one more time to her mother and finds just her message. She then logs into her computer and finds an email from some firm her company is working with and finds drastic errors that her colleague caused, so Nat once again corrects the errors and saves the day for her colleague so she won’t get fired. She then proceeds to the bathroom and here she overhears her colleagues talking about her, this promotion was not just due to her hard work and diligence but to get her out of the main office as they all view her as a hard-ass boss who’s stuck up and too strict. So, they put her in her own office away from all of them. Of course, Natalie is devastated to hear this as she thought her colleague was her friend and if it weren’t for her, the colleague would have been fired a long time ago, but Nat always baled her out and now this!

So, Natalie instead of heading home goes and visits her best friend and unloads on her and she also enjoys watching her friend's lovely children playing and just how peaceful they all are and she then reflects on her relationship. Yes, they love one another, but does she truly love him. On her drive home, she hears on the radio from the FAA about a private plane that went down and she knows the airline is her boyfriends and he was due to fly solo for the first time. When they revealed a passenger, she thinks he’s all OK. She drives to the small airport and sees the wreckage and the crews working to fix it. She approaches another worker of the airline and the worker’s face is pale. She proceeds to inquire about her boyfriend, she then learns that he was flying the plane but worse yet, her mother was the passenger. He was bringing her mother to hear her speech when the plane went down. Crushed, bewildered, in shock, Natalie’s world crumbles before her. She travels back to California to take care of her Granddad who is developing dementia and also to tend to her mother’s bookshop, The Lost and Found Bookshop, where Natalie spent all of her childhood and youth. Now it was up to her to pick up the pieces and take over the shop while helping her grandfather. Will Natalie abandon the shop and return to her fancy corner office? Or will this shop transform her and she’ll continue her mother’s passion?

Wigg’s writing is so moving and this story just tore at the heartstrings, one feels everything Natalie is feeling, and one can’t help but root for her and see her overcome these obstacles to find her true self and the life she’s meant to live. A most wonderful book and one that you will read again and again! I most highly recommend The Lost and Found Bookshop!