A.J. Fikry is the 39-year-old hardened and no-nonsense owner of Alice Island’s only bookstore, “Island Books.” The loss of his first wife and their unborn child to a car accident has left him bitter. He is both short in stature and short-tempered, and according to his sister-in-law, Ismay, “one of the most selfish and self-centered men” alive (65). The town citizens also “consider[] him to be snobbish and cold” (80).

His character transforms when he adopts a two-year-old abandoned child, Maya. He dedicates all his efforts to loving, supporting, and educating Maya (152, 165). His barriers are further lowered when he falls in love with Amelia Loman, which leads him to allow sentiment back into his life and to build the family he had once expected to make with his first wife.

Amelia Loman is a 31-year-old “dirty blonde giantess” who lives a busy life working for the publisher Knightley Press (10). Amelia’s specializes in “persnickety little bookstores and the particular breed that runs them” (5). She’s as much of an alcoholic as she is ambitious but ultimately is quite successful at her job. During her initial interaction with a very rude and off-putting A.J. Fikry, she only allows him to push her so far before she stands up and leaves, demonstrating that while she is business-minded, she still knows her self-worth.