Sarah Chamberlain’s second book, Love Walked In, is a tender and layered romance with a mental-health focus. It follows 2024’s The Slowest Burn and has a similar feel of honest people doing their best in a sometimes difficult world.

The novels opens with Californian Mari Cole arriving at Ross & Co Booksellers in London. She has three months to turn the failing bookshop around, but manager Leo Ross is so antagonistic that they get off to a hostile start. Mari is all colour and sparkle, she’s outgoing and full of American twang – exactly not what Leo wants. He’s closed off, struggling with the business, overburdened by grief for his grandfather, and for the end of his marriage. The push-and-pull between these two is delicious!

Mari’s visit has been organised by her mentor Suzanne and Leo’s step-grandmother Judith. Cue family meddling and tangled relationships which gradually unfold. When Mari starts to rationalise the stock and befriend the staff, Leo goes off the deep end – while he had agreed to Mari coming in, he hadn’t anticipated what that would actually look like for himself or the shop. While these two battle, I loved seeing more of Leo’s family and feeling the tension between staff members Graham and Catriona, who are so important to Mari’s journey.

The English bookshop setting is gorgeous. It’s a family-owned building in Bloomsbury with a rambling Gothic façade, and is spread over several floors, with offices and a tiny garret for Mari. Sarah Chamberlain knows her London, from the tube stations to the weather and the bustle and grey of the streetscape, and it’s all so vivid.

Mari is carrying the scars of childhood abandonment and she’s open to sex, but not intimacy. Leo probably has some (undiagnosed) depression as he struggles with change, grief, and disordered eating. Leo has, if anything, too much family, while Mari has none. This is key to the plot along with Mari’s plans for the shop. She sets up a centenary festival, cleans out the stock, motivates the staff and charms Leo’s family. I loved the bookshop shenanigans which lighten the tone and made me feel such affection for everyone at Ross & Co. Leo unfurls in Mari’s warmth, even though they both have emotional work to do. Then there’s even more family and revelations (and a twist or two) as the clock ticks down to Mari’s return to California.

The plot overly relies on happenstance and coincidence, which detracted from my enjoyment, but didn’t spoil everything. Love Walked In is a nostalgic love letter to bookshops everywhere and to healing, with emotional depth and a lovely gentle romance – I recommend it as an easy afternoon’s read.