The Bookstore Sisters

The Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories

By: Alice Hoffman

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya

An Amazon Charts bestseller

From New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman comes a heartfelt short story about family, independence, and finding your place in the world.

Isabel Gibson has all but perfected the art of forgetting. She’s a New Yorker now, with nothing left to tie her to Brinkley’s Island, Maine. Her parents are gone, the family bookstore is all but bankrupt, and her sister, Sophie, will probably never speak to her again.

But when a mysterious letter arrives in her mailbox, Isabel feels herself drawn to the past. After years of fighting for her independence, she dreads the thought of going back to the island. What she finds there may forever alter her path—and change everything she thought she knew about her family, her home, and herself.

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Critic reviews

“Jennifer Jill Araya brings the two sisters in Hoffman's short story to life. She projects the hurtful emotional baggage they've been carrying throughout 12 years of estrangement.”—AudioFile Magazine

Treacle

This is overblown , simplistic, predictable, and sicky sweet. Alice Hoffman is WAY better than this!

An enjoyable, if not challenging,hour.

This is the least developed story line and these are the most predictable characters of anything I’ve read by the stunning Alice Hoffman. Some of its limitations are imposed by its short length. Still, for a 70 minute drive, it was fine, though not a piece I’ll return to. She is too talented to revisit her lesser works.

Nice story.

Sometimes we need to break away from novels and read a sweet, uplifting short story. This one provides just that.

Loved this short story and performance

This is a short one but I couldn’t wait to listen each time I was driving. I thought the narrator really added to the story.

He said she said was said too much

Could have been better. The narrator did the best she could with all the he said she said comments after many sentences. That was distracting.