Review: The Book Lover by Maryann McFadden

Title: The Book Lover
Author: Maryann McFadden
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Three Women Press
Publish Date: May 1, 2012
Source: I received a copy from the PR; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a fiction fan.
• You're a book lover.
• You don't like surprises.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Ruth Hardaway has had one passion all her life: books. For thirty years she's devoted her life to her book store, trying to bury her painful past. But now the store is in jeopardy, and the past is catching up with her. Lucinda Barrett lost everything in a life-shattering betrayal. Desperate, she goes after one last dream—to be an author. Alone and broke, she embarks on a journey, eventually landing on Ruth's doorstep. Ruth takes Lucy under her wing, championing her book and even offering her refuge at a nearby lake cabin. In return, she wants Lucy to keep an eye on her son, Colin, who's recovering from a war injury. As the two women grow closer and begin to face the past, neither has any idea that their toughest decisions lie ahead—or that their friendship is about to fall apart because of a little white lie."

My Two Cents: 

"The Book Lover" is a book for lovers of books. Seriously! There are really two main characters in the book. Lucy is a self-published writer who is struggling to make the next big leap in the world of publishing. Ruth is the owner of an independent book store who is wondering if she's been at the business for too long. With two bookish characters making up the main story line, I already knew that I was in for a treat!

This book does delve in to the in's and out's of the publishing world, something that I feel like I've learned quite a lot about since beginning to book blog. You really get to see Lucy's struggle with whether or not self-publishing makes her a legitimate writer or if she took the easy way out (in my own humble opinion: self-publishing can make you a writer). The book reminded me a lot of the sort of politics that come up in the book blogging world: traditional publishing versus self-publishing. The author of the book has now gone the route of traditional publishing but she started out as a self-published author so it made the perspective that shines through the book very interesting to me.

On the downside, I felt that the blurb on the back of the book gave too much of the story away. The twists and turns are pretty much spelled out for you (hence why I'm not putting the blurb here in my review post). I like being surprised and I just wasn't.

I also had a hard time understanding some of the motivations behind the characters because there wasn't enough explanation. For instance, I did not get why Lucy even considered for a second to go back to her husband after he did what he did (I don't want to give anything away). I just didn't get it as they didn't seem to get on that well in the first place.

Bottom line: a book for book lovers indeed!