“The truth is, my young lady, that fate has written the script for your destiny on your forehead from the very beginning. We can't see it. But it's there,"

In 1953 Tehran, 17-year-old Roya is introduced to her first love in the safe haven of her favorite stationery shop. She and Bahman fall hard for each other, and it seems that little can get in the way of their young and sweet romance. But, in their most important meeting, everything goes wrong. Roya is left with nothing but questions, and she has no choice but to move on, and can only wonder about what happened that tore their fates apart.

First off, this is definitely going on my favorites shelf. The Stationery Shop was a beautiful, beautiful romance novel, and it wasn't always sunshine and rainbows. This novel dealt with things like heartbreak, fate, grief, loss, and most of all, love.

The first part of the book goes over Bahman and Roya's summer romance - it was the sweetest thing, and the whole thing, in general, was just written in such a dreamy way. We really get to know the characters/their younger selves, and I think the author did a great job of incorporating their families and outside people into the growth of their relationship. I do think there could've been more history in this book since it did feel more like a historical romance - but I didn't really have a problem with that, there were still little bits of history sprinkled in here and there which was interesting to learn (kind of?) about.

Also, the cultural details were done really, really well. I think the author adds the other non-tip-of-the-iceberg details like family roles, societal expectations, values, etc. This definitely created something more in-depth and helped to understand how the stories of each character built and expanded upon each other.

I loved how the author created a parallel romance to Bahman and Roya's. I don't think it was completely "parallel" but it still mirrored a past story, and it was interesting to see how this back story affected Bahman and Roya and where the people in the past romance ended up.

Now, the heartbreaking part of this romance was written so well in my opinion because it carried and lingered on throughout the story. You can tell just how powerful love can become, and that even though you may have lost your chance, or you may have found someone else, and tried to deal with that, this love will never leave your heart. That was definitely such a powerful message, and I was near tears at the ending of this book which was just such *perfection*.

Grief/loss was also very relevant. Roya expresses how these things affect her in such a poignant way, and this also shows how she develops as a character each time she encounters the sadder events in her life. I really felt all the emotions multiple times throughout this book, and although it was sad, I think the author does a wonderful job of teaching morals while including human feelings/nature.

Overall, I loved this book so, so, much. It definitely wasn't the happiest romance, but I think it was still a beautiful story that carried lots of powerful messages, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a moving read! :)