How to Find Romance in a Bookshop

By Poppy Alexander
** Publication Date 18 August 2026 **
​4 stars


This is my second trip through Portneath. First time around, Jules was making her way back to Portneath to save a bookshop in the last installment. This time Petra is escaping a horrible mistake made in the publishing world. Caplethorme Books is still the hub for these novels.


Spoiler alert: if you haven’t read Battle of the Bookshops, you may not want to read further. 


Petra makes a social media blunder and finds herself being sent away from London for a little reflection time. Jules and Roman are taking an extended honeymoon and need someone to take care of Caplethorne while they’re away. Petra’s boss thinks this is the perfect place for Petra to collect herself and decided what’s next in her journey. She’s a literary agent who can’t seem to make right with her clients or the rest of the publishing group. So, reluctantly, Petra agrees to it.


When she arrives in Portneath, she has a rather inauspicious jump off the train, thinking she’s missed her stop. She’s assisted by a scruffy man, whom she assumes is a tramp. Turns out he is not a tramp, but someone that Petra might want to know better. As Petra settles in to both the bookshop and life in Portneath, she starts to regain some of the confidence that was lost in London. Petra also learns who that mystery tramp is in the course of becoming very good friends.


As always, Poppy Alexander’s books are charming. I’d move to Portneath myself if it were an option. This book is full of fun, drama, romance. The characters from book one are mostly present. Petra has some serious soul searching, which Alexander writes with depth and beauty. While the last book had nods to Romeo and Juliet, this one actually discusses Shakespeare’s The Tempest, with Petra filling in for Miranda. 


These novels aren’t Shakespeare, but they’re not meant to be. They are fun, quick reads that will transport you to a seaside Devon town full of love. That’s what books should do.