Prah, Constantine and Baryeh Reviews: The Bookshop on Autumn lane by Cynthia Tennent

Hi everyone! It's PC&B time again (hmmm...still working on it, guys). We read The Bookshop on Autumn lane by Cynthia Tennent, and as usual you get 3 reviews for the same book (links to the other reviews at the bottom).

THE BLURB

While some young women would jump through hoops to claim ownership of a bookshop, free-spirited Gertrude “Trudy” Brown wants nothing to do with the rundown store her late Aunt Gertrude left her.  Having suffered from dyslexia all her life, books aren’t exactly her friends. With not much more than a collie dog who’s scared of his own shadow, and a rusty but trusty ’74 Beetle, Trudy arrives in the tiny town of Truhart, determined to sell off her cumbersome inheritance as quickly as possible… 
 
But Trudy is not the only stranger in town. Christopher “Kit” Darlington, a professor of American Studies at Cambridge, is searching for an elusive manuscript—and he secretly thinks Trudy’s ramshackle bookshop might hold the key to its discovery. As these two opposites spend the autumn days together, cleaning out Trudy’s bookshop, they soon find that uncovering both literature and love can be equally mysterious… 
 
 Trudy’s never been  the type to stay in one spot too long, but something about Kit makes her consider starting a new chapter—and maybe even finding there’s a happily-ever-after…


MY REVIEW
The blurb had promise. I liked the idea of a dyslexic woman inheriting a bookshop; throw in an academic whose work needs books and you have an interested (potential) reader. The other thing that drew me tot he story was the small town setting. 

The story started off with at an interesting scene where Trudy arrives in Truhart, but the first about a third of the story was rather slow for me and I found myself struggling to connect with the heroine. Perhaps that's the author's plan, because she still got me engaged in the characters. The story really picks up about halfway through and this momentum continues through to the end.

Trudy is a drifter who has inherited a bookshop from an Aunty who was never supportive. For a girl who can't read, and therefore hates books, this is like a joke. All she wants is trash the books, sell the bookshop and get out of Truhart. However, life has other plans for her. Handsome English professor, Kit Darlington, shows up with his Englishman charm and convinces her to take her time - and maybe make some money out of the books while she's at it. The decision to wait a few days turns into a journey of self-discovery for Trudy as learns to appreciate who she is. She also learns a few things about love and responsibility, while challenging Kit to be true to himself and everyone else. The story is told from Trudy's POV, which allows the reader to get to know her thoughts and motivations, and discover the amazing person underneath the rough exterior. The book also enlightened me about dyslexia and got me curious to learning more than the basic stuff I know about the condition.

Don't forget to check out reviews from Nana Prah and Cathrina Constantine