Hope Between the Pages

 

The opening line of this book hooked me:  Any story that begins with a library is bound to be an excellent tale.  Hope Between the Pages not only begins with a library, but it also includes a book store, a perfect duet of reading enjoyment.  

Sadie Blackwell is the keeper of the library at the Vanderbilt House in Asheville, North Carolina. She is dusting when someone (Oliver Camden)  comes in and talks about the kinds of books he likes to read.  She has hidden herself so that the owner of the voice won't see her.  When he leaves, Sadie pulls some books and leaves them on a table in the library with a card with his name on it.  He leaves the books on the table the next morning with a note for her, calling her "The Book Fairy," and signed "The Book Goblin," with requests for his next selections. Over the course of the days of his visit, The Book Goblin interacts with the Book Fairy and even though he was from an "upper crust" society family in England and she was a servant, they fall in love.  He asks her to come to England to marry him and she agrees to come. 

Generations later, Clara Blackwell has inherited the bookstore founded by her great-grandmother, Sadie, but the fly in the ointment is that the deed to the shop was never recorded in the county records.  This puts Clara in the midst of a mystery with only a limited amount of time to solve it.  In the midst of the searching, she ends up taking a trip to England to find search out the house where Oliver grew up.  Clara finds out more of her own history, as well as the history of Oliver and Sadie.  

Pepper Basham is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  She understands the mind of a reader so well that she sprinkles her own brand of fairy dust throughout her books. I especially loved this line:  Books without readers are like homes without people. Her characters are fully fleshed out and she uses biblical values without beating the reader over the head with them.  I especially like how Clara reacted to Maxwell's burn scars.  She made the point of seeing Maxwell, the man; and not Maxwell, the scars.  Another line I loved says something about living life to the best we can, however long or short it is.  

This is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and Belle's library to sate any reader. 

Barbour Publishing and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this book.  All opinions expressed are my own.