A charming literary-themed novel about a young woman determined to save her great-aunt’s
beloved bookshop from extinction by the shiny new competition—which also happens to be run by
the handsome son of her family’s rivals. The cute seaside town of Portneath has been the home
of Capelthorne’s Books for nearly a hundred years… The shop in the heart of a high street that
stretches crookedly down the hill from the castle to the sea may be a tad run-down these days
but to Jules Capelthorne the wonky dusty world of literary treasures is full of precious
childhood memories. When her great-aunt Florence gets too frail to run it alone Jules ditches
her junior publishing job in London and comes home to make the bookshop’s hundredth birthday a
celebration to remember. Jules quickly discovers things are worse than she ever imagined: The
bookshop is close to bankruptcy unlikely to make it to its own centenary celebration and the
lease on the building is up for renewal. With a six-figure sum needed the future looks bleak.
To make matters worse the owner of the property is the insufferable Roman Montbeau from the
posh local family who owns half of Portneath. The Montbeaus and Capelthornes have feuded for
years and Roman has clearly not improved since he tormented Jules as a child. Fresh from a
high-flying career in New York he is on a mission to shake things up and—unforgivably—proves
his point about Capelthorne’s being a relic of the past by opening a new bookshop directly
opposite—a shiny plate-glass-windowed emporium of books. Jules may not be able to splash the
cash on promotions and marketing like the Montbeaus but she’s got some ideas of her own plus
she has a tenacity that may just win the hardest of hearts and the most hopeless of conflicts.
Let the battle of the bookshops commence…
