Publication Date: September 2, 2025
A sunshine American bookstore whisperer clashes with the grumpy British owner of the shop she’s trying to save in this winning opposites-attract romance for book lovers.
He has a struggling bookshop. She has a knack for bringing bookstores back to life. As soon as she walks into his store, all bets are off…
Mari Cole’s whole life is her dream job: rescuing and revitalizing indie bookstores. Friendship? Love? No thanks. After a hard childhood, she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone. Besides, books have never let Mari down the way people have. Then she gets the offer of a lifetime: rescuing Ross & Co. Once the most prestigious independent booksellers in London, the store is a shadow of its former self and needs an expert outsider to turn things around. But the offer turns out to be a double-edged sword: Leo Ross, the store’s new owner, is as cold and hostile as the British winter.
For as long as he can remember, Leo Ross has known his future is becoming the next generation to run Ross and Co. He’s sacrificed almost everything he cares about, but the bookshop is still failing on his watch, and now there’s an obnoxiously cheerful American woman convinced that she’s going to magically make everything better. Leo’s life is difficult and messy enough as it is, and he doesn’t want her help.
When Mari and Leo are forced to work closely together to bring the store back to life, Leo’s icy surface thaws to reveal the passionate man underneath. As winter gives way to the possibility of new beginnings, Mari begins to see that true love could be even better in real life than in the pages of a book. Can they put their pasts aside and learn to let love in?
Love Walked In by Sarah Chamberlain started slowly for me. Set in bookstores in a small town in California’s wine country and in London, this opposites-attract contemporary romance slowly drew me in.
Mari and Leo are the lead love interests, and they each tell their story in alternating chapters. Mari’s a book whisperer who heads to a family-owned bookstore in London to work her magic. Ross & Co. has seen better days, especially since, with the passing of Leo’s grandfather less than a year before, Leo wants to live in the past and not make changes to help the business succeed. How will Mari deal with that mindset?
There is an incredible cast of supporting characters, excluding Mari’s disappearing stepfather. We get to know them, which adds additional layers to the story. Mari and Leo have depths to them, and as we get to know them, we uncover revelations and secrets, which are also revealed as they get to know each other. There’s definitely an attraction that they act on, but it has an expiration date since Mari plans to return to California and resume her life there.
When Mari and Leo are together, they complement each other nicely. They each fill a need for the other but tend to suppress their real feelings. They need to communicate better as their romance blossoms, especially since they get each other better than anyone else has previously. There are some steamy moments, and love abounds even if they don’t voice their feelings. There is a happily ever after that is nicely portrayed, taking place two years later, but it seemed rushed. I would have loved a few more details and for the ending to go on a little longer.
Love Walked In showcases how independent bookstores fill a need. Set in California and London, the novel offers vivid descriptions of the locations, as well as the feelings and dreams of the main characters.
SARAH CHAMBERLAIN is a writer, editor, and cookbook translator whose articles have appeared in VICE, The Guardian (UK), Food52, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. When she’s not writing witty, sexy contemporary romance, she enjoys making dinner for her friends and family, watching Cary Grant movies, and setting records as an amateur competitive powerlifter. Originally from Northern California, she lives in London.
