Nina has spent most of the last decade looking for passion in her life. She wants a Heathcliff to her Cathy (minus the toxic masculinity, obvs) and she's willing to kiss a lot of frogs to find him. When her boss at Happy Ever After, a bookshop that specializes in romance novels, brings in an efficiency expert to help them improve business, Nina is mildly alarmed. Straight-laced Noah is never not in responsible navy blue and he keeps hovering and making notes on his iPad about Nina, which she finds disconcerting. However, what may be even more alarming is that Nina is maybe just a little attracted to Noah? Which is ridiculous because a less Heathcliff man has ever appeared in her life.

Yet another charming romance in the Lonely Hearts Bookshop series. While the basic points of the plot are pretty easy to identify from the early pages, it remains an enjoyable read. While I don't share Nina's love for [Wuthering Heights], I recognize the abiding love of a reader for a book and that remains a delight. For fans of the series or readers who enjoy British bookish contemporary romances. ( )

{Third of 4 Lonely Hearts Bookshop series. Romance, London, chick lit, low steam} (2018)

This is the third book about the three ladies at the 'Happy Ever After' exclusively-romance-bookshop (which used to be 'Bookends') and follows on a few months after [True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop]; Posy is married, Very has a boyfriend and Nina - tattoo and piercing covered, size 14 (UK), dressed in '50s vintage and the expert on dating - is never without someone (she goes for the 'bad boy' type) to go out with. But she's nearly thirty and still hasn't found The One, her perfect man, her Heathcliff; Nina's touchstone book being Emily Brontë's [Wuthering Heights]. Each chapter has a quote which, I assume, come from the book; I didn't recognise most of them (despite having read it two or three times, I haven't read it since I was at school and - to be honest - it wasn't one of my favourites).

Nina is perpetually late to work (despite the fact that she now lives in the flat above the bookshop) and one day is startled to find Noah in her workspace. Noah is one of Sebastian Thorndyke's best friends and is doing an efficiency study on 'Happy Ever After' to help the business improve its cashflow. But, obviously, he can't be her wild, passionate Heathcliff - he's quiet and earnest and wears navy blue suits. And Nina has a nagging sense that she's met him before.

When he asks her out to dinner, it can't be a date because they sort of work together and he's not her type so Nina doesn't flirt the way she usually does on dates and acts, I think, more genuinely as a consequence. But then they go out on another date and ...

Maybe Nina doesn’t need a Heathcliff after all.

Despite being my namesake, Nina is very different to me, on the suface; she's confident and she knows what she wants. Doesn't she? But maybe wild and passionate doesn't make for a lifetime relationship. She knows she wants something different from her mum - who seems to disapprove of everything Nina does - and her grandmother and great grandmother who were all married by twenty with a baby on the way and who all still live in Worcester Park (a suburb of London).

She was going to play it cool.
Then Noah looked up, caught sight of Nina hovering uncertainly in the no-man’s-land between shop and counter and he smiled broadly and brilliantly as if just the sight of her was enough to make everything right in his world.

I'm half in love with Noah myself; he's kind and thoughtful and has hidden depths and strengths.

I liked the laser tag party (and, yeah, kids in London speak like that) and I liked the visit to Haworth. I've not been there myself but I have once, in recent years, crossed the Yorkshire Moors and they are breathtaking, literally.

Light and fun but not too fluffy.

June 2021
4 stars ( )

I'm loving this series but it took me a while to warm up to this one. Nina and Noah are so different that at first, it was hard for me to put them together. Nina likes bad boys but also wants a relationship, which is somewhat incompatible. Noah is the geeky, efficiency expert brought in to analyze the workings of the bookshop. They're pretty much oil and water for the first part of the book.
Once again, the rest of this fabulous cast join in to make things more complicated (Sebastian, the Rudest Man in London is my fav).
Another good book in this wonderful series. ( )

I was so excited when I heard this book was coming out as I'd read the first two and thoroughly enjoyed them and I'm overjoyed to say this did not disappoint!

The author has been compared to all those chick lit writers Jenny Colgan, veronica Henry Lucy diamond etc but I would say she's so much better than all of them. Her characters feel real, like you know them like they could be your friends; Darling's characterization is exemplary and because of that her books are a joy to read. She clearly writes what she enjoys to read, her genuine love of the genre and of books comes through every sentence.

I read a lot - a wide range of genres, I have few prejudices and will pick up pretty much anything. I read 59 books last year and two of the absolute best were the first two in this series. This one was just as brilliant and I literally don't know how I'm going to be able to wait for the next one. I'm also incredibly critical of what I read and I honestly can think of no elements of this novel that annoyed me. It is so well placed, so pleasant to read it's like the best chocolate bar you've ever eaten in book form! The only thing I'd have liked a bit more of was the end scene - the traditional discussion between hero and heroine where they apologise for all the mistakes of the past and explain their actions - I felt it was a tad too brief! But that's such a small thing.

If you're a fan of chick lit but sometimes despair at how poorly it can be written, when you spend time thinking 'well why did she do that?' Or 'why didn't she say that?' This book (and it's predecessors) is a cure for that. The perfect romance with some gentle laughs thrown in, good for the soul, pure escapism but very carefully crafted. I'm sure you'll love it too! ( )

Very good