With Love From London by Sarah Jio

5*

Where do I begin to explain how much I love this book? Is it in the colorful, quirky neighborhood of Primrose Hill in London, the city of my heart? As a passionate reader, is it in The Book Garden, a charming bookstore owned by Eloise and inherited by her daughter Valentina? Perhaps it’s in the dual timelines from Eloise’s and Valentina’s points of view, Eloise’s starting in 1968 when she meets two men, one the love of her life and the other who is responsible for both her greatest joy and the incomprehensible cruelty behind her unbearable pain, and Valentina’s in 2013 when, at age 35, she’s facing divorce and the news that her mother has died, the same mother she hasn’t seen or heard from in 23 years. Ultimately, it is in the colors of the rich tapestry Jio has created with her stellar ability to weave together the multiple threads of love: romantic, maternal, obsessive, platonic, eternal, unrequited, and bibliophilic.


Although, at times, it’s heartbreaking to read about Eloise’s lonely life in Los Angeles under the thumb of her controlling husband Frank, Jio’s choice of the split timelines enables readers to see the parallels between hers and Valentina’s lives: the seemingly insignificant use of scavenger hunts which actually bring the story full circle, the chance encounters at the Royal Automotive Club where men come to their rescue in different but life-altering ways, and, most importantly, the books that provide solace to both Eloise and Valentina. Eloise often spoke of the lifespan of books, meaning the number of people who would read them, and it’s in the rediscovery of these shared stories through Eloise’s final scavenger hunt that Valentina learns the truth about the mother who touched so many people’s hearts and, from handwritten notes in the book she and her mother both loved the most, that she finds a new love of her own. Recommend to fans of Susan Meissner, Tracy Garvis Graves, Kristin Harmel and anyone who enjoys dual timeline novels.


I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Ballantine Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.