The paris bookshop secret

by Iris Costello

336 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2025

Reviews

[Gillian Poucher]

Evocative and heart-wrenching historical mystery with many twists and turns written with great skill and empathy. At its heart is the legendary bookshop of Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and I relished reading this whilst in Paris and then back home. Excellent characterisation and I enjoyed the switch between narrators and times.

[The Reading Lobster]

This was so predictable, and I didn't like the writing. The dialogues were just people taking turns saying their own things. The golden emblem on the notebook kept changing from a heart to a star, and back to a heart. If you're going to describe an object as iconic, at least make sure you get the iconic part of it right. I didn't like that the love interest called the love of his life 'kiddo', and the emphasis on the census and the pandemic was very repetitive.

[Sally Coles]

Lovely story with great characters going back to sixties Paris and two women bonding together. The story unfolds with Maeve writing a final novel that is more fact than fiction and I was captivated by her story from the beginning. Great warmhearted feelgood book that you will not want to put down

[Louise]

3.5 ⭐

A little bit predictable, a little bit cheesey.
But I think that's part of the charm.
A warm cosy story, with some lovely characters.
An enjoyable read.

[Kirsty]

A beautiful book. exciting but also warm and fuzzy

[Jo]

I am often attracted to read novels that are about bookshops and invariably slightly disappointed by them. I am not sure why I keep on trying. This one was the same - being quite romantic in parts - it really was not my genre.
I did find that it was better than most, albeit quite far-fetched in places.