Lost For Words by Stephanie Butland

Loveday is a loner and her whole world revolves around the Bookshop where she works and, even better, the books within it. All books are special to her and they are the only place she feels safe.

The book is paced so well that you are eager to learn why Loveday is so sue that she has to wall herself off from the world and why she quite simply doesn't like people. A feeling many of us are sure to empathise with. The overarching drama of her young life is slowly laid bare and through poetry and prose her damaged little soul is laid bare.

Great psychological from the author in places about how every individual perceives events differently and deals well with the basic insecurities we all face and how different people overcome them in different ways. Archie is garrulous and exceptionally extroverted, Nathan copes with the world by narrowing focus to a few rather than the many, Melodie takes refuge behind her exotic looks and creates a persona to match them, Rob hides behind academia because his demons look like hardwork in that milieu and Loveday, Loveday is just lost and scared and maybe a little emotionally retarded.

The only thing that grated for me where the descriptions of Whitby. They certainly didn't match my childhood memories of this Yorkshire gem and I am not entirely sure they would have matched Loveday's either. I also found it hard to believe she had read so much but never read Dracula when she had been brought up in Whitby.

Not an easy read in places on an emotional level but a thoroughly engrossing book that makes you examine your own motives for your actions toward others.

There are some editorial issues that made me wish for a bright red pen to slash through the typos and grammatical errors. Fortunately they aren't liberally sprinkled through the book so it still gets an unusual 5 stars from me.

**Review originally posted 1st August 2017**