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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2024
I was fascinated by the job Evie had (or rather lost) at the start of the book, a book scout. I hadn’t heard of that before, reading books with a view to seeing if they might be commissioned for a film. I’ve been doing a bit investigating and apparently book scouts often read books with a view to them being translated too. When she lost that job, going to help her grandmother in her bookshop on a Greek island didn’t sound like too bad an idea. How gorgeous is that cover? I’ve never been to Santorini before but I’m certainly tempted now!
Her Gran, Floretta, was hilarious. A lady in her eighties, she lived life to the full and had no intention of growing old gracefully. Evie’s family were concerned about her on hearing she had taken on the bookshop and got married yet again. I almost lost count of how many husbands she had had and it was quite amusing hearing about what had happened to all the relationships. Floretta was an incurable romantic though and hoped that husband number nine (or was it ten?) would prove to be the one. She was my favourite character in the book.
Evie realised that her grandmother was experiencing money problems and found that the new husband was allegedly working on the oilrigs to earn more money. With the landlord threatening to sell the bookshop out from under her, Floretta persuaded Evie to fake date the landlord’s grandson Georgios. Fake dating is a common enough theme in novels but this one was a bit different as only one half of the couple knew about it! Of course in the fake dating trope you absolutely expect real love to develop and the couple to get together – you’d feel cheated if they didn’t – but the fun is in watching it develop.
I really enjoyed reading about the bookshop and meeting the customers who visited. There were some exasperating customers and some who were so lovely. I also enjoyed reading about the creation of the book club and the literary café Epeolatry which mean ‘the worship of words’. Isn’t that just perfect?
Summer at the Santorini Bookshop is a light, escapist read, funny and romantic, perfect for enjoying in the sunshine. Or to whisk you away from a rainy day at home!
Her Gran, Floretta, was hilarious. A lady in her eighties, she lived life to the full and had no intention of growing old gracefully. Evie’s family were concerned about her on hearing she had taken on the bookshop and got married yet again. I almost lost count of how many husbands she had had and it was quite amusing hearing about what had happened to all the relationships. Floretta was an incurable romantic though and hoped that husband number nine (or was it ten?) would prove to be the one. She was my favourite character in the book.
Evie realised that her grandmother was experiencing money problems and found that the new husband was allegedly working on the oilrigs to earn more money. With the landlord threatening to sell the bookshop out from under her, Floretta persuaded Evie to fake date the landlord’s grandson Georgios. Fake dating is a common enough theme in novels but this one was a bit different as only one half of the couple knew about it! Of course in the fake dating trope you absolutely expect real love to develop and the couple to get together – you’d feel cheated if they didn’t – but the fun is in watching it develop.
I really enjoyed reading about the bookshop and meeting the customers who visited. There were some exasperating customers and some who were so lovely. I also enjoyed reading about the creation of the book club and the literary café Epeolatry which mean ‘the worship of words’. Isn’t that just perfect?
Summer at the Santorini Bookshop is a light, escapist read, funny and romantic, perfect for enjoying in the sunshine. Or to whisk you away from a rainy day at home!
