If you’re a romance or women’s fiction reader, you might recognize the titles of some of Rebecca Raisin’s earlier books such as The Little Bookshop on the Seine or The Bookshop on the Corner. This time, she takes her characters on the road as nomads who are Van Lifers, living and travelling in their vans in her book, Aria’s Travelling Book Shop. In fact, Rosie Lewis from Raisin’s novel, Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop, is the best friend of the protagonist in this book, romance lover Aria Summers.

Aria Summers calls her van the Little Bookshop of Happy Ever After. She’s always been obsessed with books, especially romances. They’ve really been her escape since the death of her husband TJ three years earlier. Since she swore off romance and love afterwards, her fellow nomads, especially the couple Rosie and Max, have become her family. But, she can’t help the occasional attraction to another bookworm such as Jonathan. The man seemed riveted when she went on and on about tropes in romances. When she fell off a stage into his arms, she gave him a passionate kiss. But, she knew the Van Lifers were moving on from England to France, and she’d probably never run into him again, even though he gave her a funny look when she said they were off to France.

Travelling France means working the circuit of festivals and fetes. It also means enjoying the chateaus and food. For Aria, it means venturing into magical bookstores in search of other books to sell from her own shop. It also means she discovers that Jonathan is actually Jonathan Chadwick, an author with a bestselling romance. As she stumbles across him on his book tour, she’s more attracted each time. But, she vowed she would never love again after losing TJ. “But fate seems to have other ideas and keeps throwing mysterious Jonathan in her path.”

I think I loved the concept of Aria’s Travelling Book Shop more than I loved the book itself. As Rosie says, it’s a “typical slow-burn romance trope”. I don’t feel as if I ever really discovered enough about Jonathan. And, Aria’s rash announcement she would never love again seemed just that, a rash announcement in the face of her husband’s death, despite his feelings she should continue to enjoy life. But, Aria always finds answers in her books, seeing herself as the heroine in them, and imagining her actions as if she was a romantic heroine. This time, the answers lie in TJ’s diary, received three years after his death.

Aria’s Travelling Book Shop is quite philosophical about love, loneliness, and true love. Maybe I just expected too much from this novel. It was entertaining, and I loved the friendship between Aria and Rosie. The book just seemed to lack a spark of some sort.

Rebecca Raisin’s website is http://www.rebeccaraisin.com/

Aria’s Travelling Book Shop by Rebecca Raisin. HQ, 2021. ISBN 9780008444976 (paperback), 247p.

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