India, June 4 -- Poppy Alexander's warm, witty novel The Battle of the Bookshops is set in Portneath, a fictional seaside town in England, where two booklovers - Jules Capelthorne and Roman Montbeau - fall in love. The problem is that they belong to families that have been sparring for over 200 years. While generations of Capelthornes and Montbeaus held on to the enmity as a precious inheritance, Jules and Roman are independent thinkers who want to walk a different path.

The reference to William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is too obvious because the names of the characters sound similar; besides, the feuding families in the Shakespearean tragedy are called Capulets and Montagues. Thankfully, the author is in no mood to kill her c...