Pages: 385
Rating: PG
Summary: Alice Grace Ripley lives in a dream world, her nose stuck in a book. But the happily-ever-after life she's planned on suddenly falls apart when her boyfriend breaks up with her, accusing her of living in a world of fiction instead of the real one. To top it off, Alice loses her beloved library job because of cutbacks due to the Great Depression.
Longing to run from small-town gossip, Alice flees to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to the tiny coal-mining town of Acorn, a place with no running water, no electricity, and where the librarians ride ornery horses up steep mountain passes to deliver books. When Alice is forced to stay in Acorn far longer than she planned, she discovers that real-life adventure, mystery - and especially romance - may be far better than her humble dreams could have imagined.
My Thoughts: Lynn Austin is quickly becoming a favorite author for me. She writes clean, Christian novels in an non-annoying way. I've read a lot of Christian novels that always have this one character that is so sappy and annoying with the way they just live their religion so perfectly and basically act like God pretty much lives in their house. I just feel like those characters are totally unrealistic. This novel does have an old woman, a former slave named Lillie who has had just a litany of terrible things happen to her in her life, but is committed to God and is always saying things like "Just trust in God. The Lord knows what he's doing." But Lillie also has quite a personality, and is involved in some events that seem pretty shady at first, including helping a man fake his death and funeral. I just feel like Lillie is much more of a realistic character than those you typically find in Christian novels.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book, even though the historical fiction part isn't as huge as in some of Austin's novels. The packhorse librarians were a real thing during the Depression, which I thought was really interesting. Also, the town Alice visits happens to be in a 60 year feud between two of the families that make up the town. It reminded me of the Hatfield's and the McCoy's. Alice really learns a lot about herself and about caring for others as she works herself into the lives of these humble mountain people. She does find love, but the book is not centered around that story, and it's not all sappy and ridiculous. Austin is pretty tame with the way she writes her love stories. If you're looking for a good, CLEAN adult novel...check this out! I've read two other books by this author, and I'm sure I'll continue to enjoy more of them.
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