Name: Melissa Palmer's review of The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson
Item: The Bookshop of Yesterdays
Rating: 5
Author: Melissa Palmer

Amy Meyerson

Look for Amy Meyerson’s new novel The Imperfects, a captivating literary page-turner. THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Best Books of Summer 2018 Selection by Philadelphia Inquirer and Library Journal “Part mystery and part drama, Meyerson uses a complex family dynamic in The Bookshop of Yesterdays to spotlight the importance of truth and our need for forgiveness.” —Associated Press A woman inherits a beloved bookstore and sets forth on a journey of self-discovery in this poignant debut about family, forgiveness and a love of reading. Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt. When Miranda returns home to Los Angeles and to Prospero Books—now as its owner—she finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store’s shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. Miranda becomes determined to save Prospero Books and to solve Billy’s last scavenger hunt. She soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy’s past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda’s mother has kept hidden—and the terrible secret that tore her family apart. Bighearted and trenchantly observant, The Bookshop of Yesterdays is a lyrical story of family, love and the healing power of community. It’s a love letter to reading and bookstores, and a testament to how our histories shape who we become.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays

"Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy's bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. On Miranda's twelfth birthday, Billy has a falling-out with her mother and disappears from Miranda's life. Sixteen years later she receives news that Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy-- and one final scavenger hunt. Home in Los Angeles, Miranda finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store's shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. She is drawn into a journey where she meets people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda's mother has kept hidden-- and the terrible secret that tore her family apart."-- Adapted from book jacket.

Mariah crawford

Maybe we needed the end to be hopeful. Maybe we need to believe that life will decide and life will choose right.

Christin Sharp

A woman inherits a beloved bookstore and sets forth on a journey of self-discovery in this poignant debut about family, forgiveness and a love of reading. Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy's bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda's twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda's life. She doesn't hear about him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy, and one final scavenger hunt. When Miranda returns home to Los Angeles and to Prospero Books--now as its owner--she finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store's shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. Miranda becomes determined to save Prospero Books and to solve Billy's last scavenger hunt. She soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy's past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda's mother has kept hidden--and the terrible secret that tore her family apart. Bighearted and trenchantly observant, The Bookshop of Yesterdays is a lyrical story of family, love and the healing power of community. It's a love letter to reading and bookstores, and a testament to how our histories shape who we become.

Melissa Palmer

This book is a great read for book lovers. Miranda is a history teacher and her uncle Billy passes away. He always did scavenger hunts for her when she was a little girl and he begins a final one by sending her a book. She journeys home, back to Prospero Books, her uncle's book store. She finds more than she bargains for--an inheritance, family secrets and realizations about herself. I saw the "twist" coming before it was revealed but that didn't take away from the book. I enjoyed this read. I borrowed it from the public library.

Jaclyn Graybill

I genuinely adored this book. Like any story, there were things I didn't like, not because they were done poorly but because part of any journey has its ups and downs. If anything, it made me like the story more, as I willed for Miranda to get past the tempestuous relationship with her mom, to figure out her relationship status, to accept change and new information. 
It is not the most literary heavy book, but there are lessons around every page turn if you let yourself be open to them. Otherwise, it is the perfect light read to take you out of your own world and into someone else's. I enjoyed it immensely.

I bought this book purely based off of the cozy book shop inspired cover & those cozy vines were spot on! I loved this book so much more than I thought I would! The character development was great. The story line was basic but done in the best way! The ending was also absolutely perfect! It is one of those books that all comes together in the end wrapped in a bow ♥️ 10/10 would recommend!

One little bookshop will change everything...

The Bookshop Of Yesterdays

shellybn

When I read the description of this book, I thought the mystery would involve something like an international conspiracy, or dark governmentioned agencies doing nefarious things. It didn't. It was a mystery on a more personal level.

Daryl Houston

It was ok. Books about books really ought to appeal to me, and indeed I have picked up a couple of these over the last couple of years, and this is the second disappointment of two such books I can recall.

The big reveal was painfully obvious from pretty close to the beginning. The prose was fine but not especially noteworthy. The characters seemed to exist to move the quest plot (which seemed pretty thin) forward. It wasn't bad -- it just also wasn't particularly good.

Jan Talkington

This book started out with promise, but ended leaving me with a "meh" feeling. Easy to figure out and I did not like the main character, Miranda. While not always true, for me to like this book, I needed to like Miranda. So mixed feelings about this one.

Lisa Haigh

I had sussed out the main plot twist, I thought, by page three but it took a while for it to be confirmed. However, this is an enjoyable, easy read. I loved the feel of the floppy paperback and unevenly cut pages...perfection!

Kaylee Z

I think I will start off by saying that this book was unfortunately a bit of a disappointment. I was extremely intrigued by the synopsis and excited to read it when I received it as a Christmas gift and I wish that I had loved it.

There were a few things that this book had going for it including how much Amy Meyerson clearly loves literature. The premise of the scavenger hunt that brought the joy from her childhood into her adulthood seemed like such a fresh idea and I wanted to uncover the secrets that Billy was hiding just as much as Miranda… well, maybe not quite.

What really upset me while reading The Bookshop of Yesterdays was that it really just wasn’t well executed. The scavenger hunt which I was so excited about became lost amongst all of the other trivial plots of the story and made me lose interest quite quickly. A massive part of the plot was meant to be a story of self-discovery for Miranda but I disliked every single part of her as a character that I could not find reason to care about this journey she was going on. The characters themselves were flat and not really written to my taste - meaning that none were like-able and none had depth. 

Through much of my time reading this book, it felt like work. 

I was working too hard to understand the relationship Miranda and her boyfriend had. They seemed to like each other and live together but absolutely could not stand each other aside from one or two moments that they seemed to tolerate one another. Miranda focused so much about what she did not like about him (can’t even be bothered to remember his name) that their relationship just seemed pointless and only really existed to provide a false sense of conflict regarding staying or going. This really could have been accomplished by just emphasizing how much Miranda loved her job and school. 

I was working too hard to figure out why I should care about how Miranda’s parents felt. They were both cagey and obviously keeping secrets just for the sake of keeping secrets. Miranda seems to think of herself as a modern day Nancy Drew, and I say that with the utmost hesitation because Nancy does not deserve that, as she seems to find a secret in the lives of LITERALLY everyone. Even if there is no secret, she believes whole-heartedly that there is one and she NEEDS to know it. 

Additionally, every character that she comes into contact with who has a part in her uncle Billy’s past, seems to have this amazingly uncanny ability to give her a play-by-play flashback of a moment in his life that they weren’t even there for 30+ years ago but can tell you word for word everything that happened after presumably being told all of this from Billy. Conveniently though, one person’s flashback from their own memory was incorrect for… plot point reasons… 

As I have said many times, mystery books aren’t really my cup of tea because the mystery is usually fairly obvious and the mystery of this book was much of the same. Less that 30 pages in and the book is pretty much hitting you upside the head with what the Big Twist is. Oh, it tries to make you second guess yourself (refer to incorrect memory flashback as mentioned above) but there really is no other answer.

Clearly you can tell the many aspects of this book that I did not like and, to be honest, there are more but I feel like you get the point. As I said at the start though, it is clear how much Meyerson loves books - The Tempest in particular - and she worked very hard to have that shine through in her story. I think it just missed the mark and got lost amongst subplot after subplot and poor character development.

Christin Sharp &
The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

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Christin Sharp &The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

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Christin Sharp &
The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson