LOVE WALKED IN

An American consultant clashes with, and then falls for, the owner of a storied London bookshop.

Mari Cole helps indie bookstores become successful. Her latest gig is London’s Ross & Co., a once-famed family business with roots in pre–World War II Germany. She’s raring to fix the store’s problems but hasn’t counted on Leo Ross, the store’s manager and part owner, who’s grieving his charismatic grandfather’s passing. Leo is also mourning a two-year-old divorce, and despite Mari’s can-do attitude, he balks at making changes to the store. After some initial skirmishes—including Leo’s snarky comments about romance novels—and one particularly acidic exchange, they reach a détente when Mari has a severe bout of the flu, during which Leo nurses her back to health. The episode turns them into allies working together to bring the bookshop back to life, and sexual attraction replaces antipathy. But Mari’s childhood abandonment issues were aggravated by a breakup with a cheating girlfriend, and Leo has to recover from his own failed relationship and rediscover his youthful passion for art. There’s a subplot about the mysterious sense of familiarity Mari feels for another bookstore employee (the reveal is unlikely to be a surprise to the reader), and an obligatory dark moment that is quickly overcome after they both get past their hangups. The novel is a paean to independent bookstores, the movie Notting Hill, and genre fiction, with reading recommendations peppered throughout.

A comfort read for lovers of books, Richard Curtis movies, and romance with a touch of enemies-to-lovers.