“Lost & Found in Lunenburg” by Jane Doucet was an unforgettable read! It was touching, funny, and a deeply relatable novel about loss, reinventions, and the surprising ways we find ourselves again. Set in the seaside town of Lunenburg, the story follows Rose Ainsworth, a recently widowed woman in her early fifties who decides to escape her old life by making a bold move—buying a sex shop in a town she barely knows.

What sounds like the setup for a comedy turns into a beautifully layered story of healing. Rose isn’t running away so much as she is running toward something new, even if she doesn’t know exactly what it is yet. The shop becomes a symbol of her independence and courage, and through the quirky people she meets, Rose begins to rediscover her spark.

Doucet writes with warmth, infusing humor into moments of vulnerability and grief. Her descriptions of Lunenburg are so vivid, you can almost smell the salt air and hear the buzz of conversation at the local cafe. But what really makes the novel shine is Rose—an authentic, smart, funny, and strong protagonist whose journey feels both personal and universal.

This book is perfect for readers who enjoy character-driven stories, uplifting midlife transformations, and tales set in charming small towns. It’s a gentle reminder that even in the face of heartbreak, it’s never too late to start over or to find joy in unexpected places. I highly recommend “Lost and Found in Lunenburg” to anyone who craves for a laugh and a good cry in one.

Book: A Seal Of Salvage
Author: Clayton B. Smith
Publisher: Breakwater Books

A huge thank you to Digitally Lit for supplying me with this awesome book!

A Seal Of Salvage is a folklore tale about a young boy named Oliver, who is born part seal who has to experience life different from his fellow peers. He quickly learns about who he is and decides that being nice to other people is better than saving himself.

This book is set in the beautiful Newfoundland outport town of Salvage. I loved how I could almost imagine Salvage and the ocean.

My favourite part of the book was the Christmas chapter because it reminded me of Christmas in St. Shotts. During Christmas time, everyone would come over for a yarn!

Overall, I liked the character development of Oliver, and learning about Salvage. At first I didn’t like how the story was told in third person but I quickly started to like it!
I rate it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Book: Songlines
Author: John Graham-Pole
Publisher:HARP

Songlines follows two university students named Ellen and Jonah who when Jonah gets sick, they experience the love, caring and what life gives you when you least expect it. This book is for fans of The Fault In Our Stars and Everything Everything!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I liked how it connected music and hospitals as music is a great therapy for anyone. It is important to patients to feel connected to their world. I liked how I was able to connect to all of the characters but especially Jonah! I connected with him the most because I think that I liked how even when Jonah was sick, his friends still treated him like a “normal” person.

My favourite part of this book was when Jonah and Ellen got married. I liked this part because sickness should not stop anyone.

Overall, I loved reading this book, while at times it was a hard book to read, it was an important read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

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The Goodbye Girls... where to begin? I really thought this novel was interesting due to it's premise, two girls that start a business selling gift baskets to nicely break the news that your partner just broke up with you. And since it's all anonymous, there's room for sabotage and sending baskets full of blackmail instead of gifts. I thought it was a really interesting concept. This book is like a standard rom-com, or a teen romance movie. Lets go over the things this that this book does well. I saw the reviews, and they said that Lisa Harrington writes dialogue well. I have to agree. It's quite natural, especially for teenagers. This was written a few years ago but it still holds up decently well. I don't like when authors use a lot of slang that they think teens use. It's also well paced, and it holds up well as it is. There's nothing technically wrong with this book, with the characters or the story.

So at this point, it really boils down to what you like in a story due to your own personal taste. I will say right off the bat that I do not love teen romance movies... I'm sorry. This book also had a fair bit of swearing, which I didn't really like, and I didn't love the storylines for each character. This book deals with a lot of really interesting and messy characters, our main character Lizzie has eyes for her sister's boyfriend, and Lizzie's widowed mother is getting back into the dating realm again. The only downside to her mothers side plot is that she's dating a married man who's cheating on his wife? I think with subplots like these, from what I understood, it was only messy for the sake of being messy. The ending of this book left me far from satisfied, and all of it just felt like we were back to square one again? But not even that, we're set back a bit? None of these characters, especially not Lizzie, had solid arcs. I think that's my main complaint with this book. Lizzie shows lots of integrity towards the end, but she had always come off as a likeable and integral to begin with.

I would have liked to see a bit more investigative work and hunting for the culprit. Not like a full on mystery novel, but I would have been nice to see that. With the breakup baskets being sabotaged, it could have made for some really nice detective work within the novel. But unfortunately that's not what this book is, and maybe that's a good thing because the main culprit is incredibly obvious. It's almost a dead giveaway from the first time they're introduced, so there isn't much mystery there. This book is more of a... dare I say... disposable... read. It's exactly a book like The Summer I Turned Pretty or The Kissing Booth played out. Unfortunately I have seen those. But hey... if you're into that... then The Goodbye Girls is just what you're looking for in your next summer read.