The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay

A novel about a bookshop--was I going to read this? Yes or yes? I am always drawn in to stories about books and bookstores, but I don't know how I felt about this book--I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but part of it just always fell flat for me. I loved the idea of this super-welcoming, adorable bookshop in this little town, that everyone loves and shops at, and I wanted to go there. But I never really got into the main character of Madeline, the young and high-powered Chicago lawyer who accidentally inherits her aunt's dying bookshop and decides to give it a go making it work. I didn't really get her vibe or care about her as a character at all. I don't know what it was about her, but she just seemed aloof, to me and to everyone else. I also never really understood the relationship between her and Janet and Claire, the other two women working in the bookshop, and how they became so tight so quickly. And where did the romance come from? Why would anyone like Madeline, and how did the guy fall in love with her? Maybe I'm just cynical, but I just couldn't quite get past all my barriers there, and I couldn't quite believe that they were going to make this bookshop work in a tiny town, when we all know bookstores are going out of business everywhere forever. It was good, but I am lame and didn't like it as much as I maybe should have.