Title:  The Bookshop on Autumn Lane
Series:  Truheart #3
Author:  Cynthia Tennent
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  October 11, 2016
Publisher:  Kensington Books – Lyrical Shine
My Rating:  3 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Cover Description:

While some young women would jump through hoops to claim ownership of a bookshop,
free-spirited Gertrude “Trudy” Brown wants nothing to do with the rundown store her late Aunt Gertrude left her.  Having suffered from dyslexia all her life, books aren’t exactly her friends. With not much more than a collie dog who’s scared of his own shadow, and a rusty but trusty ’74 Beetle, Trudy arrives in the tiny town of Truhart, determined to sell off her cumbersome inheritance as quickly as possible…
 
But Trudy is not the only stranger in town. Christopher “Kit” Darlington, a professor of American Studies at Cambridge, is searching for an elusive manuscript—and he secretly thinks Trudy’s ramshackle bookshop might hold the key to its discovery. As these two opposites spend the autumn days together, cleaning out Trudy’s bookshop, they soon find that uncovering both literature and love can be equally mysterious…
 
 Trudy’s never been  the type to stay in one spot too long, but something about Kit makes her consider starting a new chapter—and maybe even finding there’s a happily-ever-after…

Read on for my thoughts on The Bookshop on Autumn lane.  No true spoilers, promise.

After a childhood that would scar just about anyone, and an un-diagnosed learning problem of Dyslexia, Trudy had left the town of Truheart in the dust vowing to never return.  In a place where the aunt who took you in was supposed to love and nurture you and your brother – but instead she and many of the townsfolk bullies and made fun of the fact that Trudy simply couldn’t read well because of a medical condition… well, who would want to stay in that type of hometown.  So, she fled and made her own career and place in the world doing something she shined at, without books anywhere near her.

Now, in one of the cruelest bits of irony, Aunt Gertrude has left her stuffed, hoarder filled bookshop to Trudy.  Her intention is to clear it out, sell it as fast and as profitably as she can… and once more get the heck outta town.  Unfortunately, that’s going to take a bit of time.  Plus there is this mysterious professor who is searching for a manuscript, and for some unknown reason believes it’s buried under tons of books, papers, magazines and just stuff in her bookshop.  Maybe happy endings aren’t really confined to books.

The Bookshop on Autumn Lane is an entertaining, good story.  It highlights a true problem for thousands of people and the pain, suffering that Dyslexia can cause on so many levels of a person’s life.  I wish I could have connected, personally, better with the main characters – let alone the people of the town.  I was never pulled into the story but instead remained an observer throughout.  Yes, there is a distinction between those two things for many readers.  And it doesn’t matter what details would have changed that for me, this is the author’s story to tell.  I enjoyed my time spent, it was a good story and I believe many people would enjoy Trudy and Kit’s journey.

*I received an e-Advanced Review Copy of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for a review that shared my opinion of this story.  Often I enjoy the story, sometimes it’s just not for me. Yet, as with any story, the true judge of any book’s entertainment value is you.*

Available in paperback and for the Kindle