Books for Christian Girls: "The Bookshop of Secrets" by Mollie Rushmeyer

About this book:

  “A collection of lost books holds the clues to her family's legacy…and her future.
   Hope Sparrow has mastered the art of outrunning her tragic past, learning never to stay anywhere too long and never to allow anyone control over her life again. Coming to Wanishin Falls in search of her family's history already feels too risky. But somewhere in the towering stacks of this dusty old bookshop are the books that hold Hope's last ties to her late mother—and to a rumored family treasure that could help her start over.
   Only, the bookshop is in shambles, and the elderly owner is in the beginning stages of dementia and can’t remember where the books lie. To find the last links to the loved ones she's lost, Hope must stay and accept help from the townsfolk to locate the treasured volumes. Each secret she uncovers brings her closer to understanding where she came from. But the longer she stays in the quaint town, the more people find their way into the cracks in her heart. And letting them in may be the greatest risk of all…”

Series: Part of the ‘Love Inspired’ book line, but does not seem to be connected to any other book.

Spiritual Content- Proverbs 31:25 at the beginning; Scriptures are quoted, mentioned, read, referenced, & discussed/thought over; Prayers & Thanking God; Singing ‘Amazing Grace’; Many talks about God, trusting Him, hearing Him, feeling broken, & why bad things happen; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Hope doesn’t trust God after everything that’s happened and feels abandoned by Him, but tries praying and talking to God, asking for healing *Spoiler* She realizes towards the end that what happened to her wasn’t something God did, but the evil in the world did *End of Spoiler*; Ronan thinks that God has been quiet while his failures are loud in his head; Many mentions of God & trusting Him; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of churches, church going, services, sermons, pastors, a couple being called to ministry, & youth groups; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & those and events in the Bible; A few mentions of gospel music & hymns; A couple mentions of blessings; A mention of a life-sized nativity scene;
             *Note: Mentions of a family’s curse & how everyone in town views them differently because of it (Ronan struggles with this *Spoiler* But thinks towards the end that “whatever curse lay on his family didn’t extend to him” and Hope tells the town that there’s no cures expect for the ones they placed on the family *End of Spoiler*; A couple mentions of legends about a ghost; A mention of living in hell for ten years (Hope).

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’, two ‘idiot’s, and six ‘stupid’s; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Being held at gunpoint & threatened (barely-above-not-detailed); Falling into water & being afraid (because Hope can’t swim, twice, semi-detailed); Pain, Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Fires & Rescuing someone (up to semi-detailed); Saving someone from drowning & doing CPR (semi-detailed); Hope has a panic attack & recalls someone choking her and pulling her hair (semi-detailed); Hope thinks she is broken & not able to give or receive love (this is due to her captor’s years of abuse, which she knows that she shouldn’t believe his words at all, but still echoes in her mind); Negative thoughts enter Hope’s mind and try to discourage and belittle her; Ronan thinks he isn’t a whole man after losing a limb in an accident & beats himself up over a co-worker’s death (he thinks he should have been the one to die); Mentions of an accident that caused a death & Ronan losing a limb (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of Hope’s mother’s death from ovarian cancer; Mentions of being held at gunpoint (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of fires, smoke, & someone being trapped in a fire (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of someone almost drowning (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of panic attacks, PTSD, and Hope’s panic over meeting new people; Mentions of beatings & Hope receiving burns and scars for not listening to her trafficker (barely-above-not-detailed);Mentions of vandalism, graffiti, leaving something stinky in a bully’s locker, stealing, break-ins, robberies, & thieves; Mentions of shipwrecks, pirates, & stealing (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of trafficked women being used for petty crimes (theft, forgery, & drug possession); Mentions of con-artists, blackmail, & cheating others; Mentions of bullies & being bullied (including Hope being bullied by other foster kids and pushing her into a pool when she can’t swim; Hope says they didn’t know what to do with their anger at their birth parents for abandoning them and they took it out on her); Mentions of alcohol; Mentions of cigarettes, cigars, & smoking; Mentions of lies, lying, & deceit; Mentions of rumors; A few mentions of those who drowned (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of a man being beaten by a group of other men & their plan to hold him for ransom or as a slave; A few mentions of drugs, drug dealers, & women using drugs to cope with a terrible situation; A few mentions of a young man being thrown from a horse and suffering a traumatic brain and spinal cord injury (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of nightmares; A couple mentions of an unwanted tattoo; A mention of the Great Depression; A mention of a possible burglar; A mention of a husband leaving his wife after a miscarriage; A mention of throwing up; A mention of a rabbit being caught in a snare;
             *Note: A side character (Ronan’s grandfather) has dementia & we see many parts of him popping in and out of varying degrees of cognizance; Many, many mentions of classic books, characters, & authors; Mentions of songs & artists; Mentions of a brand names (Converse shoes, Ford, Honda, Coke, & Crock-Pot); A couple mentions of celebrities (Gordon Ramsay & Fred Astaire).

Sexual Content- Two palm/hand kisses, a forehead kiss, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, and three semi-detailed kisses (including one that ends with Hope’s body panicking); Wanting to kiss (not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Hand holding, Electricity/Tingles, Warmth, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing (including a guy’s muscles, barely-above-not-detailed); A slight spoiler, but an important part of this book is that Hope is a human trafficking survivor (an older man convinced 15-year-old Hope that he loved her and to run away with him (telling her sweet words, giving her gifts, and she ignored the red flags about him), but played her and imprisoned her with two dozen other girls; the only details mentioned about what happened are that he sold her body to anyone willing to pay for it, that men used her to satisfy their lust, all of the hands touching her, and she was beaten and abused every day for ten years; Hope was told by those at the women’s shelter (for women who were imprisoned and violated “at the hands of their vile captors and their patrons”) that it wasn’t her fault and that she had nothing to be ashamed of, but she still feels like there’s grime coating her; A few mentions of the young women Hope was with losing the light in their eyes and some of them disappearing; At one point, Hope feels like Ronan was being possessive of her in front of another man and it scares and annoys her, but he was just trying to protect her from a creep); Hope flinches or panics whenever someone tries to touch her due to past trauma (her brain is used to telling her that physical touch hurt, even when it didn’t and she has to tell her brain to stay calm in such cases);  Hope doesn’t like the idea of marriage or relationships in general because of her past and doesn’t know what she could offer a man emotionally, spiritually, and physically because of her PTSD and panic attacks when kissed or touched; Mentions of Hope getting a creep vibe from a slimy man & then him suggesting other forms of paying for an item she wants (suggestive tone with innuendos); Mentions of boyfriends, girlfriends, dates, & exes; A handful of mentions of a (historical) woman meeting alone with a man at night and possibly being sold into human trafficking; A few mentions of Hope thinking that men will want something from her in exchange for helping her; A couple mentions of domestic violence; A couple mentions of kisses; A couple mentions of flirting; A mention of a woman thought to be a soiled woman (historical setting); A mention of a woman’s laugh that Hope thinks must have made men drool; Love, falling in love, & the emotions.
             *Note: A man asks if Hope is Ronan’s “significant other, wife?” then adds “Maybe I’m a little behind in this politically correct world. No intention to offend you.” but his tone says the opposite; A couple mentions of a miscarriage & a woman unable to have children of her own; A couple discussions between Hope and Ronan about chivalry and Ronan believing that women aren’t the weaker gender, but deserve respect; A mention of a bosom friend.

-Hope Sparrow
-Ronan Barrick
                                P.O.V. switches between them
                                                        352 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{ Possibly triggering for those sensitive to human trafficking, panic attacks, and/or PTSD}

Every Love Inspired book I’ve picked up over the years have been cheesy, but typically a cute, easy read. So that’s what I was expecting with this book as well, a light-hearted cozy mystery that focused more on the romance than the mystery parts. That makes it sound like I had the bar set low for this book, but, yes, I guess I technically did because I wasn’t expecting much from it.

“The Bookshop of Secrets”, however, was so not that. There was such a depth to this book that I wasn’t expecting at all. There were hard hitting topics like human trafficking and PTSD but also a lot of faith content and trying to trust God after feeling abandoned by Him. And that’s what made the book feel hopeful even as our main characters are struggling so much to keep breathing and their head above the water. It was that faith content and raw, realistic conversations about God and trusting Him even after terrible things happen that made me keep reading, even though human trafficking is a hard topic for me to read about. But because of the faith content, that’s what made this book feel like there was hope in the story and healing was to come for these characters, which is why I’ve given it a three-star rating for my personal rating.

While I suppose this could be considered a spoiler, it’s revealed shortly into the story, and I believe it’s very important to know as a trigger warning: Hope is a human trafficking survivor. I truly appreciate that the author didn’t go into the details of what Hope went through, but yet at the same time, having Hope’s reactions to different things and her questions in regard to why God would “abandon her” during that time. This book could be trigger for those who have been in similar situations, but I could also see those who are struggling about God after such events feel relatable to Hope’s emotions and maybe even help with healing their own hearts.

I do wish the back-cover blurb would have shared about this important element of the story, though, as a warning for those sensitive to this topic and for younger readers that may pick up this book, expecting a cozy mystery.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!