The Bookshop Below is a bookish dark academia urban fantasy standalone by Georgia Summers. Released 18th Nov 2025 by Hachette on their Redhook imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. Paperback format due out in 4th quarter 2026 from the same publisher.
This is a dark urban fantasy featuring appealing, well rendered characters and remarkably little world building. The action and settings descriptions do a fair job of drawing the reader along, and the interplay/conflict between the two main characters is believable and flows naturally.
The actual *reasons* for the story (the river, Lady Fate, the bookshop systems, the magic) are never well defined which leaves the reader disconnected in some fundamental ways from the plot. It's a good story, however, well told, and worth a look for fans of the genre - especially readers of Erin Morgenstern and A.D. Bell.
Three and a half stars. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, fantasy book club discussion, or a buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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