Today we look at the role of the bookshop in Redcliffe. It is a central location for the stories of the Redcliffe novels, and offers a mixture of both normality and fantasy to the reader. Our heroine, Jessica Stone, owns Redcliffe Books along with her best friend and business partner, Elizabeth Gormond.

I had to feature a bookshop in my novels. I love books, of course! I love bookshops, especially the dusty old ones that sell second-hand books. You never know what treasure you might find buried at the back of ancient wooden shelves, or piled up in corners on the often threadbare carpets. Second-hand bookshops to me are a world of inspiration and adventure.

Redcliffe Books is actually just a regular shop that sells new books. It is small, tidy and smart, but it serves the tourist town very well and makes a comfortable income for Jessica and Elizabeth. The women are very proud of their business. It was the reason they moved to Redcliffe just five years before the story is told in Love Hurts (A Redcliffe Novel).

Jessica lives in the apartment above Redcliffe Books. Her kitchen is at the back of the building on the ground floor, and provides an unexpected venue for several supernatural battles as we progress through Love Kills (A Redcliffe Novel) and Love Redeems (A Redcliffe Novel). Jessica’s apartment upstairs has a comfortable living room at the front, one double bedroom in the middle, and a bathroom at the back of the building.

For me, the Redcliffe bookshop represents the dream of a life that I might have led, had I not fallen in love and decided to start a family when I did. I often wonder how different things could have been if I were not with my husband now. There are so many possibilities and options in our human lives, and sometimes I think we need to remember the excitement and promise of all these choices.

I had to talk about the bookshop as part of my A to Z Blog Hop. Any excuse to daydream and wonder at the places that give me so much pleasure in life! Now I invite you to check out my fellow #atozchallenge bloggers. You will find some weird and wonderful articles, and we can all make new friends. See you tomorrow for the next letter in our #atozchallenge.

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*Images: “Booklore” from personal archive; “Bookshop” from Pinterest*