I put a hold on The Lost Bookshop because of how much I enjoyed the author's The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris. This one was very similar, and I also enjoyed it. In both, we've got one historical thread combined with a romance in the present, and the perspectives of both the man and woman involved in the romance, plus the perspective of the character in history whose actions affect the present.

Our characters in this book start with Opaline, in the early twentieth century, whose brother was forcing her to marry a man she hadn't even met after their father died. Opaline flees to Paris, and there starts working with Sylvia Beach in the famous Shakespeare & Co. bookshop. She later moves to Dublin and starts her own bookshop - until her brother gets her committed to an insane asylum.

In the present, we've got Martha, who's fleeing her abusive husband and looking for a job in Dublin. She lands a job as a housekeeper for an eccentric old woman in a historic home. Then one day she sees Henry scrutinizing her windows and thinks he's a peeping Tom. But he is looking for a bookshop with an address right next to her house - that doesn't seem to exist. But Henry is a rare book dealer and has a letter that says that bookshop has Emily Bronte's lost second manuscript.

One thing leads to another, and you can tell where it's going - but it's fun. Opaline's story - in Paris and especially in the insane asylum - is riveting.

I have to say that this book had more paranormal elements than The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris - and for me this one crossed the line into unbelievability. It wasn't only the bookshop that only appears to those who need it (or true believers? or something), but also mysterious otherworldly messages, and several more things.

However, despite a few too many paranormal bits for my taste - I still enjoyed these characters. Henry always seems to say the wrong thing, but he's earnest and kind. Martha fleeing a truly horrible abusive situation had all my sympathy as well. (I saw my ex-husband for the first time in a decade when I was in the middle of listening to this book and was reminded of how we program ourselves to love someone, and that's hard to turn off, even when their behavior means they don't deserve or want your love any more. Not that mine was as bad as Martha's husband. But still, she had my sympathy.) And Opaline's situation was also fascinating in an awful way, tying in with what I'd read in Ten Days a Madwoman, by Deborah Noyes. It wasn't all that long ago that men could lock women up in insane asylums.

Fortunately, this story ends happily for all our main characters. This is a feel-good romance, a little too enthusiastic with the paranormal elements, but you can be sure that all the stars align for them in the end.