Nora and The Secondhand Bookworm - book 2 in a series of novels set in a bookshop

 Originally written in 2008 for my bookshop colleagues, this second volume in The Secondhand Bookworm series was updated in 2017 and is currently part of an expanding 8 volume series of fun, clean, easy read novels set in an eccentric English bookshop in fictional Castletown.

Having run a secondhand and antiquarian bookshop on the south coast of England for ten years, between 2002-2012, the novels draw upon an often exaggerated (for more fun) wealth of experience buying and selling books in a three floored rambling bookshop to the interesting breed known as bookworms, book collectors, book bargain hunters or just book readers.

The novels are all available on Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and paperback, through my choice of Amazon printing on demand and instant download.

As of April 2023, I am almost ready to publish book 9 in the series - Lockdown at The Secondhand Bookworm - which has been written over the past several years as I have been busy with other projects.

Each book in the series can be read as a stand alone, but it flows as a whole. Book One and Two have a slightly different feel as they were mainly a fictionalised compilation of experiences we all had in our bookshop, but the story truly develops, the style changes (and dare I say improves) and we get to enjoy the arrival of the Duke of Cole and his growing relationship with Nora Jolly, the main protagonist of the series.

The books are easy to read, light hearted, funny, clean, feel-good and all things book related. Started in 2008, updated and continued to the present day, this is a series that I hope to add to gradually. Here is the blurb for Nora and The Secondhand Bookworm:

NORA AND THE SECONDHAND BOOKWORM (AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON WORLDWIDE)

In this second volume of the hilarious, feel-good series of novels set in an English secondhand and antiquarian bookshop, it’s time for another week of bookworm madness. It’s November and an army of poppy sellers has descended upon ‘The Secondhand Bookworm’, a cosy, winding labyrinth of a shop with room, upon room, upon room of used and antiquarian books.

Nora Jolly wonders what the enormous explosion is up at the castle ruins, why the local ghostbuster has cut his hair, how many times she has to convince people that they do no list their books on the computer, if the ‘Universe of Books’ is really a Mafia front and what the smell is coming from the back yard. 

Tensions rise and humour abounds as Nora spends her week battling French students asking bizarre questions, the notorious Ravens demanding their discount, a van load of Ladybird books, a growing puddle outside the shop door and why so many women have lost their husbands. And then there’s Betty and her knickers! 

Of course, the shop wouldn’t be complete without plenty of tea. It’s another ordinary week in the life of a secondhand bookshop… 

Emily Jane Bevans lives in Sussex, England. For ten years she worked in and helped to manage a family chain of secondhand and antiquarian bookshops. Nora and the Secondhand Bookworm is her second novel in ‘The Secondhand Bookworm’ series of 8 so far.

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