21 Great Books Set in Bookstores

Book Summary

Annie is hosting a mystery-themed book festival in hopes of reviving The Secret Bookcase store in the small town of Redwood Grove, California. All signs point to the event being a huge success before a body is discovered hidden behind the bookshelves. The victim is Annie’s old college acquaintance.

With the help of her friends and her old criminology professor-turned-detective, Annie must piece together the clues and determine which of the many suspects is to blame before it’s too late.

Book Summary

Coco is having the worst month of her life. She lost her boyfriend and business, and she and her teen daughter had to move back in with her parents in Paris. Now, a handsome stranger is yelling at her under the Eiffel Tower!

Later that day, Coco discovers an old bookshop run by the mysterious Valerie. The store includes a café, cocktail bar, reading room, and even a secret tunnel of books. The store is intended to be a haven for the broken-hearted. It feels like a dream when Coco is offered a job as a bookseller in this magical shop. But then, she realizes that the grump who yelled at her earlier in the day is one of her new co-workers.

Book Summary

Looking for an eerie mystery that’s perfect for book lovers? This highly-rated debut novel follows a bookshop employee named Lydia, who ends up investigating the suicide of one of her bookshop regulars.

As Lydia delves into his past, she also uncovers a buried memory from her own violent childhood. This twisty crime thriller has a very creative puzzle element that will keep readers guessing.

Book Summary

Maggie is in her late 20s and still floundering, trying to figure out what she should do with her life. Her best friend seems to have it all, including a husband, a bookstore, and soon, a new baby. Maggie comes to Bell River to take over the bookshop during Rochelle’s maternity leave. Though she’s not a reader, Rochelle is sure she can handle it. 

However, Cobblestone Books has a co-owner who is less convinced of Maggie’s competence. The bookstore is connected to literary legend Edward Bell, and the co-owner insists that everything in the store remains authentic to Edward’s time. Only classics are sold, and the townspeople must leave town to buy contemporary books. But Maggie is NOT a rule-follower. Her good heart always leads the way, leading to all kinds of secret ideas to help improve profits at the store. Along the way, she finds some surprising allies.

Book Summary

When both her engagement and her publishing career fall apart in Boston, Leah decides to return home to Cape Cod. She stumbles upon a dilapidated sea captain’s home and is inspired to transform the historic structure into a bookstore and cafe.

She enlists the help of local contractor Luke to help her restore the structure. Thanks to their hard work, The Sandy Page bookshop soon becomes the go-to gathering spot for locals and tourists alike.

Book Summary

When Valentia was a teenager, her mother, Eloise, abandoned her and her father to start a new life in London. Now in her 30s, Val is a librarian and recently divorced. As she reevaluates her life, she realizes that the lack of closure with her mother is still nagging at her. But in a bittersweet twist of fate, Val learns that her mother has passed away before they’ve had a chance to reconcile.

Val is surprised to discover that Eloise left her a Primrose Hill apartment and the deed to a bookshop that Val never knew her mom owned. Determined to piece together a better understanding of Eloise’s life, Val decides to leave Seattle for a fresh start in London. It doesn’t take long for her to fall in love with the pastel-colored flat in a cozy neighborhood, not to mention the quaint bookstore. Unfortunately, she soon learns that The Book Garden is in financial trouble.

Told from a dual-timeline perspective, this book explores Valentia’s new life in London, as well as her mother’s past and what happened when she left her daughter behind.

Book Summary

With World War II closing in on their city, Jacques’ wife is forced into hiding. Desperate to hold onto something, Jacques focuses all of his effort on saving his beloved bookshop. But when a woman and her child show up at his door one night begging for refuge, he can’t say no.

In present-day Paris, Juliette and her husband are supposed to be on a romantic getaway, but instead, she quickly discovers how far they’ve grown apart. When she comes across an abandoned bookshop with a for-sale sign in the window, she thinks it might just be the new adventure she’s craving. But the bookstore hides a lot more than meets the eye.

Book Summary

Tookie, a middle-aged Ojibwe woman, has recently been released from prison, where she was serving a sentence for her role in a body-snatching caper that resulted in her unwittingly transporting drugs. During her decade of incarceration, she read as much as possible to get through the days, and many of the novels and authors on her “Totally Biased List of Tookie’s Favorite Books” get shout-outs throughout The Sentence.

Tookie now has a job at a Minneapolis bookstore run by an eccentric author. The bookstore is haunted by the ghost of one of its former customers, and Tookie is determined to find out why. Set over the course of one year, Tookie and her bookstore co-workers must navigate the turbulent times in their city, including the murder of George Floyd, the subsequent protests, and the COVID pandemic.

Book Summary

Joy’s French husband has passed away, and she has no idea why he has left a valuable painting to a woman named Robyn on the western coast of Ireland. So, she decides to deliver the painting in person.

When she arrives in Ballycove, she finds that Robyn runs a chaotic and unprofitable bookshop and desperately needs assistance. Joy soon becomes entangled not only in the bookshop but also in the town. All the while, she’s still trying to discover the secrets behind her late husband’s painting.

Book Summary

Nina Hill adores her life as an introvert. She was an only child, raised by a nanny, and finds comfort in life with a good book and her cat. She works at a bookshop, leads several book clubs in the store, and is devoted to her trivia league. Life is good. 

Then, she finds out about her complicated family on her father’s side, the bookshop she works at has financial struggles, and she develops a crush on a trivia competitor. 

Should she take the safe route and continue relying on her books, or is exploring her new family and potential relationship worth the risk? 

Book Summary

Mercy and her twin sister, Lizzie, are the new proprietors of an antique bookshop in the tiny Irish village of Shamrock Cove. However, their new venture takes a dark turn when Mercy finds their neighbor dying on his doorstep. Worse, he accuses her of murder before he dies, and several people hear him!

She has to quickly investigate to try to clear her name. As she looks through the victim’s old books, she finds that the local pub landlord, the kindly cook, and a neighborly knitter all had a reason to want the man dead. But when Mercy’s top suspect also dies and leaves behind a threatening note typed on paper from Mercy’s new bookstore, things get even more complicated.

Book Summary

Set in post-war London, Bloomsbury Girls focuses on an old-fashioned bookstore that has been run by men for a hundred years. However, by 1950, the world was changing in many ways. 

Three of the shop girls, Vivien, Grace, and Evie, have their own big dreams that are intersected by fascinating interactions with famous literary figures. As they work in the shop, they plot out a future bigger than 1950s society generally allows.

Book Summary

Sometimes, twists and turns of life make childhood dreams disappear. Madeline loved working in her aunt’s bookshop as a kid, but by the time she inherits it 20 years later, she’s up for partnership at her Chicago law firm, and her heart is hardened. She’s ready to sell.

Will the long-time bookshop employees and their experiences in the small town change her mind? 

Book Summary

Childhood friends Rachel & Henry grew apart when Rachel moved, and Henry didn’t respond to a confession of her love that she left behind for him in a book.

Now, Rachel has moved back and is struggling with the death of her sister. She gets a job at the bookshop owned by Henry’s family, and is closed off to him as she still feels rejected. What she didn’t know is that Henry’s life is also going through a rough patch – his girlfriend broke up with him, and the bookshop is slipping away as his family breaks apart.

But as Rachel & Henry work together, they begin exchanging letters through the pages of books in the store. Can they find new hope in each other?

Book Summary

This hate-to-love romance is perfect for fans of the classic 90s rom-com, You’ve Got Mail. Rosie loves books and has taken over her mom’s Manhattan bookstore. She loves her work but is lacking in the romance department. However, she’s hopeful that her growing online flirtations with lesbian romance author Brie could turn into something more.

Jane works for her family’s property development company by day, but at night writes steamy romance under the pen name Brie as her creative outlet. She’s also single and wonders if a certain reader could be her perfect match.

As you may have predicted, Jane’s company terminates the lease for Rosie’s bookstore, and drama ensues. This storyline is classic for a reason, and it works just as well with two strong female leads!

Book Summary

Jude is twenty-nine and just graduated, so she can finally be public about her relationship with philosophy professor, Mack. She’s looking forward to their upcoming dream holiday to run a tiny bookshop in the harbor village of Clove Lore.

Two weeks before the non-refundable trip, Jude sees Mack kissing someone else. Luckily, there’s no better place to heal a broken heart than a bookshop. Jude takes the trip and expects to have some peace alone at the store, but finds another vacationing shopkeeper, Elliot, who seems to be hiding something.