Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

What can I say?  I love, love, love this book!  I was only able to listen to the audio version as the ebook was not available, but I was hooked from the first few lines.  Imogene Church does a magnificent job of narrating, and I made good use of my new airbuds (Thanks D and L)! 

Loveday Cardew found books at an early age, and since her childhood was a bit traumatic, she could hide within the safe pages of books from the library.  Books were her escape, and books also helped her survive.  Loveday has tattoos of the first lines of books on her body as each line tells part of her life story because "First lines did not define last pages in real life the way they did in books." Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, and many other books helped define her as a woman when she grew too old for The Railway Children. She finds work in a bookshop after she finishes school, and thus is able to spend her days with words.  Loveday also can blend in and not be noticed in a bookshop.

As much as Loveday wants to hide, she finds that her past can no longer remain in the past, and she is forced to deal with the wounds that haven't healed. And now, someone knows her secrets.

I found myself laughing aloud, nodding in agreement, and crying as I listened to Loveday's story told in a series of flashbacks, as well as the present.  Loveday doesn't particularly like humans as "This is why I don't like talking to people.  I never think of anything interesting to say.  I need time to find words, and that's hard when people are looking at me.  Also, I don't like people much.  Well, some are okay.  But not enough to make it a given." 

The characters are well developed,  such that I didn't want the book to end.  They are people that I want to get to know better and attend the weekly Poetry Read with them.  This is a book that I will add to my personal collection.  I want to savor the words this time.  I recommend you do the same.