With Love from London

Trigger warning: miscarriage

American Valentina inherits her estranged mother's London bookstore.

American librarian Valentina's mother left when she was a child and never returned. Valentina harbors feelings of resentment for the mother who never visited, never called, and never wrote. When Valentina receives a bookstore in her mother's will, she must travel to London to deal with the inheritance.

Valentina's life in the States is far from charmed -- her father is dead and she's also dealing with her divorce. While Valentina thinks she knows why her mother left; the truth is not what she expected. Mother Eloise's story slowly unfolds as Valentina makes her home in London.

At the start, both women seem unlucky in love but their narratives unfurl and show that first impressions (and first marriages) aren't the end of one's love story. Eloise loses her best friend Millie when she moves to California, and Valentina gains a mother figure in Millie decades after. Each character is fleshed out and while all readers may not understand their decisions, their logic and thought processes are clear.

Recommended for readers of women's fiction and family sagas.

Sarah Jio is a bestselling author of novels and magazine columns. She lives in Seattle.

Publisher: Ballantine

Length: 240 pages

Release Date: February 8, 2022

I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.