I enjoyed reading The Second Story Bookshop, a contemporary romance with a dual storyline set in a small North Carolina town. Shelby’s grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother and she’s worried about how she’ll cope managing her grandmother’s bookshop on her own.
Shelby is shocked to see Gray, her high school sweetheart who left town and abandoned her eleven years ago, at the funeral home. The biggest shock of all is from her matchmaking grandmother who’d always liked Gray and left the bookshop to Shelby and Gray in her will.
Gray is an accountant and project manager at a construction company in Riverbend Gap. He returns to his hometown for the funeral and has no plans to stay in a town that never welcomed or accepted him. The bookshop inheritance from Shelby’s grandmother is unexpected and creates a lot of problems for Gray.
A delightful dual timeline romance unfolds as we journey with Gray and Shelby during their final year at high school and in the present day. The inheritance situation sets them up as enemies and brings up all their issues from high school. Shelby and Gray had difficult childhoods for different reasons and they have a lot of emotional baggage to unpack during the story.
Small town politics add to the obstacles Shelby and Gray must overcome to rebuild their broken relationship. Town secrets are revealed and I appreciated how all the story threads from the past and present day were tied up in a satisfying story ending. The faith elements, including…
