The British Booksellers will grab your attention and leave you turning pages into the night. This is a sweeping romance, spanning more than three decades and two world wars.

This lovely book reads like an epic love story. Amos and Charlotte are kept apart by class, expectation and, ultimately, war. Amos is a tenant farmer’s son who falls head over heels for an earl’s daughter, at a time when such a union was unthinkable. Nevertheless, Charlotte returned his feelings with her whole heart, until she’s forced to marry a neighboring earl, knowing that the union will not be a love match.

Then the onset of World War One changes everything, with Charlotte’s husband and Amos sent to the front. Amos returns horribly wounded outside and in and shuts himself away. But fast forwarding a couple of decades and World War Two pulls him from relative safety and back into Charlotte’s life.

This was a beautiful book, the later story against the Coventry blitz, designed to cripple the British munitions effort. The city itself was decimated in places, but the resilient residents held strong and prevailed. This is an event I know well as my own Mum was a little girl during this season, and lived in Coventry. Cambron is deft in weaving real history with two distinct love stories. About 75% of the way through I realize quite how clever this writer is with a truly stunning detail that seemed small until I grasped the significance. All I can say is ‘bravo.’

I received a copy of The British Booksellers from the publisher via NetGalley, I also grabbed the audiobook. The views are my own.