Let’s start with what worked: The Mayfair Bookshop has a great hook—London, WWII, a charming bookshop, and a spotlight on Nancy Mitford. The historical setting is rich, and the real-life Mitford drama adds some sparkle. If you’re already a fan of Nancy and her scandal-prone sisters, you might find the behind-the-scenes stuff intriguing. There’s gossip, heartbreak, and the war looming in the background, which makes for decent historical fiction.
But here’s the thing: the dual timeline structure doesn’t quite balance. Nancy’s chapters are clearly the main event, while the present-day storyline feels like filler. Lucy, the modern book curator, just didn’t do it for me. Her quest to uncover a literary mystery through a dusty inscription should’ve been fun, but instead, it dragged. I didn’t dislike her, I just didn’t care.
As for Nancy—she comes off a cold and snobbish. I get she led a complicated life, but I never felt emotionally connected to her. Everyone in the book felt just a little too polished or too privileged to root for.
All in all, a pretty book with a promising premise, but it left me wanting more substance and less sentimentality. Worth a skim, not a deep read.
3 stars
** Thanks to the publisher for an ARC of the novel. The opinions are my own.