Not Quite by the Book

A bookstore owner discovers that life as a recluse isnt for everyone in this sharp yet sweet novel about how sometimes you need to abandon the quest for love to find your true passion. Emma Rini is in a rut so deep she could shelve books there. While her sister awaits her first baby, and her parents kick off retirement with vow renewals and travel, Emma stays put among the stacks of the family bookshop. In fact, she cant remember the last time she took a vacation. Or had a romance that hovered above disappointing. When her parents assume shell take over the shop for them without a break, she realizes she needs to get awayback to the nineteenth century. Channeling her favorite poet recluse, Emily Dickinson, Emma rents a crumbling manor house outside Amherst where she can learn how to be quietly, blissfully alone. But becoming a world-weary spinster isnt easy. She cant start a fire or reason with the bunnies that are destroying the garden. She finds herself sparring constantly with the grumpy-hot architect who is renovating the manor. And then theres the secret admirer who keeps sending her complicated floral messages No matter what she does, the outside world keeps knocking, and Emma starts to dream about the future. Will she forgo love for the family legacy? And will she shrink away or become the sort of bold person fortune favors?