Paula Brackston

A Novel

The Little Shop of Found Things

New York Times bestselling author of The Witch's Daughter Paula Brackston returns to her trademark blend of magic and romance guaranteed to enchant in The Little Shop of Found Things, the first book in a new continuing series. An antique shop haunted by a ghost. A silver treasure with an injustice in its story. An adventure to the past she’ll never forget. Xanthe and her mother Flora leave London behind for a fresh start, taking over an antique shop in the historic town of Marlborough. Xanthe has always had an affinity with some of the antiques she finds. When she touches them, she can sense something of the past they come from and the stories they hold. When she has an intense connection to a beautiful silver chatelaine she has to know more. It is while she’s examining the chatelaine that she’s transported back to the seventeenth century where it has its origins. She discovers there is an injustice in its history. The spirit that inhabits her new home confronts her and charges her with saving her daughter’s life, threatening to take Flora’s if she fails. While Xanthe fights to save the girl amid the turbulent days of 1605, she meets architect Samuel Appleby. He may be the person who can help her succeed. He may also be the reason she can’t bring herself to leave. The story continues in October 2019 with book two in the Found Things series, Secrets of the Chocolate House.

It was a brilliant story reminding me of outlander which I’m sure it doesn’t want to be compared too but still great ! 

Only thing was a slow beginning that felt repetitive for a min but overall I love the time travel idea always 💕🥺

Brianna Hickey 

It was a brilliant story reminding me of outlander which I’m sure it doesn’t want to be compared too but still great ! 

Only thing was a slow beginning that felt repetitive for a min but overall I love the time travel idea always 💕🥺

Renee Delcourt

I want to cry!!! I really loved the story so much. I love the setting the characters and how you can almost feel everything Xanthe is going through as if it's happening to you. Again Paula Brackston writes magic.

"A young woman's connection to antiques takes her on a magical adventure back to seventeenth century England where she is tasked with righting an injustice to save an innocent girl's life"--

Southern Today Gone Tomorrow

Written by Paula Brackson, author of The Winter Witch, this novel follows Xanthe as she and her mother move to a small town in England to get away from their pasts and focus on their antique shop. But, Xanthe has a unique gift in which some items “sing” to her and tell her the stories of their previous owners. Or, in this case, take her back to them.

First of all, this was an enjoyable and well written novel that focused on one character and what she was learning.

With that, this was also a very slow paced novel in which we didn’t meet some of the important/main characters until over 100 pages in. And I mean learn there names, we met them in the first few chapters, its just that the characters didn’t interact directly.

This isn’t a bad thing in a novel, but it isn’t a great thing either. It left me feeling a little meh until I got into the meat of the story. Okay, that was a lot of meet/meat.

If you enjoyed her other novels, and enjoy historical fiction with some fantasy elements (this isn’t a fantasy novel) with sweet romance, this would be a good choice for you. If you hate anything to do with romance and want sword fighting, perhaps keep moving on. Otherwise, I think almost anyone could enjoy this particular story.

Jessica Nottingham

I'm still dabbling in Historical Fiction because, I'll freely admit, it's a genre that intimidates me. It might be irrational, but when I don't know much about the time period the book is set in I get anxious. I'm worried that I'll be lost. So when I started The Little Shop of Found Things, and found myself in the tiny town of Marlborough, I was utterly enchanted. Xanthe and her mother immediately felt like home. The people she met in town felt like family. Brackston made me feel like this was a story I belonged in, and it was wonderful.

Granted, this was all before Xanthe actually sent off on her historical adventure. However, even when she did find the chatelaine and discover she could travel back in time, I never had a moment where I felt out of place. This story makes it easy to follow along, no matter how much you know about the 1600's. Xanthe's character is sweet, but determined. She's someone who you would follow forever. It helped that Brackston puts all manner of intriguing people in Xanthe's path as she navigates the 1605 version of her new home. The fact that there was also no heavy romance present, but simply the sweet outline of one, made me smile. I won't spoil, but Samuel Appleby is definitely one of my favorite people in this book.

In terms of pacing, this story does an excellent job of gently leading the reader by the hand. There's no hurry, but neither did I ever feel like things were dragging. Xanthe spends just enough time in each location to make it feel realistic. I loved how she consistently had to remind herself of what a person of her standing would say, and do, in that time period. It felt like Brackston had a lot of fun fitting Xanthe's fiery personality into an older world where women were better seen and not heard. It made this a lot of fun to read.

Rambling aside, I'll simply say that this book was a treat. I wasn't expecting to love it, and yet the story was so easy to get lost in that I soon found I couldn't stop reading. Accessible historical fiction like this, stories that reach out and pull you in, is exactly what I've been looking for. I'm so pleased that I discovered The Little Shop of Found Things.

Renee Blankenship

This was the PERFECT mood read for me this month. I was looking for a story with a little magic and mystery and this one did not disappoint! Time travel, magic, history, a love story, gosh. Everything I could have hoped for! The story itself was a bit slow for me at the beginning, I always have a hard time with characters traveling back in time and their reactions. Once the main character, Xanthe, found her footing in the past the story picked up. Her experience hearing stories from objects of the past and connecting with them was so interesting. How neat would that be, to know an objects past? I loved this element of the story so much. The ending did not disappoint and nothing in it was too much for my heart! Perfect! I love Brackston’s writing and this story is one of my favorites.

Michael Hessling

I enjoyed the plot, and I’m a sucker for the romance, but the writing was too turgid for me. It wasn’t a struggle to finish—the plot is that good—but I rolled my eyes more than once. Serious plot hole, too, regarding Mrs. Merton and Flora.

The Little Shop of Found Things A Novel

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