my $search = "So, I went to the shops and I wanted to buy a book,
but it was
too expensive, and it sucked.
Bleedin' Harry bleedin' Potter, who'd have thought!";
my $start  = "shops";

my ( $match ) = $search =~ m/$start.*?,(.*?),/s;
print $match;

##</code><code>##

but it was
too expensive