Before Christmas I knew that I had downloaded a Christmas-themed book to my kindle and I wanted to read it it to keep me in the Christmas spirit. At the time I picked up Freckles by Cecelia Ahern, which has nothing to do with Christmas at all, I have no idea why I thought it did at the time, but it turns out that The Book of Beginnings was the book I meant to read. I ended up reading it a few months later, and while I initially kicked myself because this was the book I had wanted to read in December, the timing of the story is very much incidental to the tale, so my annoyance with myself didn’t last very long at all. The blurb for The Book of Beginnings by Sally Page says:

From the author of the phenomenal bestseller The Keeper of Stories, comes an utterly beautiful and charming novel full of mystery and secrets waiting to be uncovered…

Her new chapter starts now…

Jo Sorsby is hiding from her past when she agrees to run her uncle’s beloved stationery shop. Glimpsing the lives of her customers between. the warm wooden shelves, as they scribble little notes and browse colourful notebooks, distracts her from her bruised heart.

When she meets Ruth, a vicar running from a secret, and Malcolm, a septuagenarian still finding himself, she suddenly realizes she isn’t alone.

They each have a story that can transform Jo’s life…if only she can let them in.

The perfect gift for book lovers, The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Bookshop in this gorgeous novel about secrets, second chances and finding friendship in the most unlikely places.

Reeling from the break up of her relationship, Jo Torsby’s uncle has been taken ill. Well, he had been getting more and more unwell as time wore on and eventually had to give up running his shop, and Jo offered to take over running the shop until he got back on his feet. Jo relished this opportunity to run the shop for her uncle as she had spent lots of time there as a child and had very happy memories of the place. She was struggling not only with the loss of her romantic partner and the life they lived together, but also her friendship with her best friend was not as good as it had been in the past, so she was happy to have some comfort in her uncle’s shop.

Jo felt like she lost herself in her relationship, and as she heals from the break up of this romantic relationship she learns, or maybe re-learns, a lot about who she is and what she wants out of her life. And as Jo becomes more comfortable in herself, she looks around her uncle’s loved, but rather old fashioned shop and starts to make changes to the stock so that the shop reflects her own loves and interests.

Jo develops new relationships with her neighbouring shop keepers and some of her customers including a vicar called Ruth who had quite literally run away from something that happened in her past, and Malcolm, an older man struggling to know who he is outside of the relationship he had with his brilliant, late mother. These three, in particular, strike up an unlikely friendship and they help each other come to terms with the events of their pasts.

I loved this book. This is a book all about relationships. Most of the relationships looked at in the book are platonic relationships, although some romantic relationships are explored as the story progresses. But the star of the show, if you like, is the friendship between Jo, Ruth and Malcolm as well as the exploration of what went wrong with Jo’s childhood best friend.

This was an easy read, a page turner and I did find myself staying up later than I intended while reading this book just because I wanted to know what happened next. The blurb mentions the book The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods, which I have recently read and reviewed (I may accidentally, on purpose, link to that review below), and I would agree that people who enjoyed The Lost Bookshop would also enjoy this book. I certainly loved both. I would absolutely recommend this book, and would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods