Lost For Words: A heartwarming novel, perfect for fans of Cecelia Ahern

I started reading this on a very tired Tuesday (bad m.e day) morning and finished it before I went to bed on the same night .I usually take a while to work out who’s who, but not with this book. It ticked all my boxes and gripped me from cover to cover. If you want a days escape with a breath catching twist towards the end, read this

I don't know what I expected when I picked this book but I was pleasantly surprised. Lately, there have been a lot of books set in bookshops and I was undecided about reading another but then I saw that the author lived in Northumberland, where I once lived, I decided to give to have a read. It did not disappoint.The story centres on Loveday, a tattooed girl who works in a York bookshop. It is clear from the outset that some traumatic event featured in her childhood and this has shaped the person she is today, a withdrawn, spiky and socially awkward girl who finds it hard trust anyone, let alone allow them into her life.Archie, her elderly employer, is the exception to that rule. He is slightly old fashioned, well travelled, well read, friendly and sociable. Although she doesn't talk a lot, there is a great rapport between them and it is obvious that Archie is looking out for her. She doesn't like to rely on other people though, she needs to be in control of her life and is happy to work in the bookshop and go back to her lonely flat at night. However, she understands that her behaviour is different to that of other people and gradually she tries to take a few steps outside her narrow life, to do something new and meet new people. Slowly we learn more about her early life and her recent past and finally we get a glimpse of her future.This was an unexpected gem of a book that left me wanting to know more about Loveday and I was a little sad when it finished, but it ended on lots of high notes so my imagination can do the rest.

This was a lovely story, some parts were perhaps obvious, but most were not. It is beautifully written and I was brought to tears nearing the end (no spoilers), which I do t think a book has ever been able to do to me before. I would highly recommend this book, even if it’s not the sort you would usually read - I typically read crime novels, so this was a wonderful and refreshing change.

I was fully expecting to be immune to the charms of Lost for Words on the basis of my usual dislike of novels described as “charming” and set in novelty locations, but when it comes to the world of books together with a story with emotional depth and full of perceptive insights, it turns out I am just a much of a sucker for a beautiful tale as the next person! Beware of the sugary sweet book cover, for inside lies a captivating story full of damaged souls and a story of overcoming your past, all narrated by an endearing bibliophile!Prickly twenty-five-year-old Loveday Jenna Cardew has worked in the idiosyncratic secondhand Lost for Words bookshop in York since she first set foot inside as a damaged fifteen-year-old teenager. A self-confessed loner, over-thinker and avid reader, Loveday, has found solace in the non-judgemental company of the written word as she tries her best to go unnoticed despite her love of bookish tattoos and nose ring. In fact she hasn’t even opened up to her exuberant eccentric boss, portly pensioner Archie Brodie, despite her obvious devotion to him. As Loveday’s dryly witty first-person narrative states, “I work hard, but I know that I’m also hard work”. Having spent ten years trying to escape from a past that has gone unconfronted, an ill-fated attempt at romance with a bi-polar and obsessive university lecturer who hasn’t taken kindly to the end of the relationship has done little to convince her of the merits of others. But beneath that sarky, unwelcoming exterior there is a wounded soul and as Loveday’s story travels back and forth between the defining moments in her lifetime to date, her vulnerability becomes painfully clear. From her distress as a ten-year-old caught amidst the events that shattered her happy family life in Whitby, to the scars at the hands of a man who reminded her of her traumatic childhood past, Lost for Words is Loveday’s traumatic story.Recovering a carelessly dropped poetry book on her journey to work one morning it comes as second nature to bookworm, Loveday, to attempt to reunite the book with its errant owner by advertising on the notice board in the shop. Handsome close-up magician and performance poet, Nathan Avebury, is that careless owner and when he enters the bookshop and eventually makes a friend of Loveday, her life slowly begins to change.. Still as vulnerable as the day she set foot in the shop, Loveday is fragile and lacking in confidence and as the reader sees the actual events of her childhood it makes their affect on her all too apparent and justifies her reluctance to emotionally invest in thirty-year-old Nathan. What she doesn’t yet realise is that below Nathan’s dapper exterior and over-confident manner is a man whose own painful experiences have informed his capacity for understanding. Can Loveday make peace with her past, recognise the kindness of her long-term foster-carer, Annabel, come to terms with the memory of her father, reconnect with her mother and learn to trust Nathan?Stephanie Butland delivers a beautifully honest account of what can go wrong when love is put under the very real strain of unemployment, domestic abuse and low self-esteem. Astutely observed, full of book related poetic one liners and vividly characterised, Butland’s story tackles Loveday’s painful memories with sensitivity and does well to avoid tipping Lost for Words into mawkish territory by keeping the characters credible. Warm, witty and a compelling love story filled with books all accompanied by an emotive first-person narrative and a very unconventional heroine! A delight!

Review of ‘Lost for Words’ by Stephanie ButlandI picked up this book in a promotion for Readers First at the Chipping Norton Literature festival – and Stephanie Butland was there in person to sign the title page for me. Little did I know at the time what a wonderful author she is!Ms Butland has a really great strength in character creation. Her main character and narrator, Loveday Cardew, was beautifully drawn and we, as readers, could really get inside her world. We could envisage her clearly through her own narrative and how the other characters – particularly Archie, Nathan and her parents – saw her. It was also fascinating how Loveday’s feelings towards her foster mother developed.Archie was fabulously larger than life, Nathan was perhaps – and in Loveday’s words – too good to be true. But then, Loveday, whose eyes we see them through, is a gloriously flawed and, for that reason, lovable character. The only character who didn’t – quite – work for me was Rob. I felt that there were a few words missing here.The story itself unfolds delightfully and – suffice it to day – my tear ducts were working overtime for the last 30 pages!The other bonus for me when I put down a really great book is the insights it gives me into a world I otherwise would not have known. I had the same feeling about the world and mores of the American deep south after reading ‘Huckleberry Finn’, and from Margaret Forster’s acute, especially visual, sensitivity after reading ‘Keeping the World Away’. Ms Butland gave me a far more nuanced, and probably more realistic, insight into domestic violence than is otherwise portrayed in the media.

If you're the type of reader who gets very involved with characters' emotional lives, you may enjoy this series better, backwards. I read it that way on accident and felt relieved, because so much of what happens to Loveday had me on the very edge of my emotional seat. Had I not had a sequel to comfort me with her future, I might have needed breathing breaks to get brave enough to read on. Don't let that stop you from reading it! I might be too empathetic for my own good. This is a well-told, well-paced story, with interesting characters (I liked them so much more having already met them in the next book, though. The author is excellent at writing people who grow.)My typical reading speed is two books a week, but I finished this in under a day. I found I didn't care if I woke up exhausted, I simply had to know where the climax went.I'm tempted to re-read the sequel now. Also, I want more of this author. I love her character development, and I love the way she gives her female characters lovely, strong spines and smarts, but in a way that doesn't feel loftily heroic, it just feels so obviously necessary and right.

Loved this book, didn’t want it to end!

Everybody has a secret. Some have more than one secret. A languish story about a woman who loves books. And thinks she can't love anyone else. A woman who should have ended up pregnant, addicted or in jail, but who somehow beat the odds. A woman who think beginning script the end, though of course they don't.

I absolutely loved this book. I was completely engrossed in Loveday’s life and felt all the characters really came to life. The storyline was compelling and i found myself putting off everything so that I could get back to reading the book. I wish they’d make it into a film as I could so clearly imagine it!

What a great read! Very original, great writing, great storyline and believable characters. Really enjoyed it.