angel in a book shopRating: 4.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novella


When his mother starts hinting about selling his father’s antique book shop, Joshua Blakeman walks through the doors of Chapter One for the first time in years to pack it up. After the fiasco of his last job and relationship and the resulting trip to the hospital, Josh could use a break the tediousness of the task promises. Except he hasn’t stepped foot in the shop since his father died, and the memories that remain there combined with what Josh has been through in the past several months may just drive him crazy.

But then the shop owner from next door comes to visit. Michael. Michael brings Josh coffee and has nice words and a kind face, and that first day Josh pretty much turns him away. And when Josh goes in search for coffee, he ends up at Michael’s shop—Arts Desire—talking to Michael over a cup of coffee.

The more time they spend together, the more Josh begins to trust Michael, and trusting doesn’t come easy to Josh. Not after last time. Josh thought he was in love once before, but now he knows he was mistaken because what he has with Michael is like nothing he’s ever experienced. As they grow closer, Michael knows his time to tell the truth about who he is and his purpose next door has come to an end. He only hopes that when he finally tells Josh everything, Josh will still love him.

Absolutely precious. This book is full of perfectly sweet aww moments that I loved from beginning to end. And I’ll be honest, angel/demon/religious books are not my thing most of the time, but there are certain authors I make exceptions for. Scott is one of them. And I’m glad I read it. It’s a story of new beginnings, of forgiveness, and of moving on. It’s everything a holiday story should be—heartwarming and sweet with a fulfilling happily ever after. I loved it.

I adore Josh. His struggle is painful. He’s been through a lot and I’m not going to tell you all of it, because it lends a lot to the plot, so read the book to find out. But losing a parent is hard enough. Josh’s father loved him to the end of the world and back and then he was gone. Add to that a crappy ex and questionable job ending, it’s a wonder poor Josh could stand on his own two feet, much less walk from point A to point B. My heart broke for him until well after Michael walked into his life and began healing him without him knowing. Michael—the man with the big secret. I mean you can mostly figure out his secret from the title, but not completely. It’s not all is all I’m saying. I loved Michael, because for a man who is supposed to have it all together—and for the most part he does—Michael is torn when it comes to revealing himself to Josh. It breaks him apart when it comes to what ifs. I felt his pain and wanted so badly for him to find his happy ending.

The structure of this story is quite brilliant. The way it’s set up is that the story is mostly written in Josh’s third person POV, but at the beginning of each chapter there is a first person present tense POV from Michael that sounds more like a journal entry. It turns out that he’s talking to the door. (You’ll understand when you read it.) It’s a lovely way to get inside both characters’ heads.

I am head over heels for this story. I loved it from beginning to end and want to read it again. In fact, I may do just that. I highly recommend Angel in a Book Shop by R.J. Scott.

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