Books. Bookshops. A fiesty kitten. Dry British humour. What more can you ask for! ( )

Think Willy Wonka but you win a bookshop instead of a chocolate factory mixed with the mystery of A Series of Unfortunate Events, and you get The Bookshop Girl.

Property Jones and her family own a small cute bookshop and on a whim enter a contest to win the Montgomery Book Emporium. They know books so who better to run the best bookshop in London.

What I liked about it: magic, Property herself, the bookstore cat, lots and lots of vivid book descriptions and the happy ending.

There wasn't anything I didn't like except that I wished it was way longer.

I see some reviews from 2017, so maybe this was picked up by a new publisher or something, but the book I read will be in stores October 1, 2018

Please note that I received a free advance E ARC of this book from Edelweiss without a review requirement or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that, I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.

The Bookshop Girl by Sylvia Bishop ( )

The Bookshop Girl by Sylvia Bishop is the story of Property Jones, a girl who was abandoned at a used bookshop when she was 5 years old. The Jones family takes her in and she helps run the bookshop. They win a raffle and receive ownership of The Great Montgomery Book Emporium. It's a marvelous world of books in a truly unique building, but there is a mystery to be solved. A feisty cat named Gunther helps Property and her family try to save the bookshop. It's a fun, action-packed, humorous mystery full of secrets, forgeries, adventure, and family bonding. Property learns to have confidence in herself and trust the love of family. All details are nicely tied up at the end. Also included is a Q&A with the author about the story and her writing process. ( )

The Bookshop Girl is a little English mystery that features books, bookshops and a young girl named Property Jones with a very unlikely secret—despite growing up in the family’s book store, Property can't read, although she does manage to keep herself busy,

"Property served tea and cake to anyone who wanted to sit in an armchair and read awhile, and she kept the shop smart and tidy. Or she tried to. It didn’t help that everything in the shop was falling apart.

Netty was at the counter, Michael was hovering by the dictionaries, and Property had put the kettle on. The White Hart opened at nine o’clock sharp. (If you are thinking, But the White Hart is the wrong sort of name for a bookshop, then you are quite right, but also quite impatient. I was going to explain. The bookshop used to be the White Hart pub, and it had a very beautiful picture of a white stag hanging outside. When Netty bought the pub and filled it with books, she couldn’t see any good reason to change the name when there such a nice sign already there.)"

When the Jones family enters a contest and wins the magnificent Montgomery Book Emporium in London, mystery begins when a silent man arrives at the bookshop,

"He was mostly made of a long, gray coat, with a long, gray face perched on top and shabby shoes underneath."

The bookshop crowd

"poured around him live a river around a stone."

Who was this strange man and what did he want with their new bookshop? It will take Property’s unique powers of observation to figure it out!

The Bookshop Girl is an illustrated novel for ages 8-12, and features just the sort of humor and asides that I recall appreciating at an early age. The premise of the mystery is unique and instructive, and the peculiar workings of the fanciful Montgomery Book Emporium will read like a dream-come-true.

An excerpt and extras at: https://shelf-employed.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-bookshop-girl-review_31.html ( )