Lynn Austin's WONDERLAND CREEK

Lynn Austin is one of those authors that I wait in anticipation for a new book from. They are all different from one another and this one was so good that I let out a sigh of satisfaction when I finished reading it. It was simply perfect.

If you have a reader in your life and you want to give them a special gift for Christmas, I suggest this book.

Alice is a librarian outside of Chicago. Her life is made up of books. She has stronger feelings for the characters in the books she reads than in the people in her life. She's young and naive and finds nothing wrong with reading a book during a funeral. This faux pas leads to her boyfriend breaking up with her. She loses her job at the library because of depression-era cutbacks and thinks her life is over. Alice remembers the boxes of books that she's been saving to take to a struggling library in the hills of Kentucky so she packs up and flees town, catching a ride with her aunt and uncle. Two weeks away seems to be the perfect amount of time for her to escape the small town gossip of her break-up and job loss.

She arrives in Kentucky and is dropped off before she finds out that she wasn't expected. Alone and confused she discovers that the library is unlike any other she'd ever known of. Pack horse librarians. An aged woman who makes potions out of herbs and roots. A burly librarian. A town at odds with each other. People desperate for love and attention and no one to give it to them. This is everything Alice finds and her two weeks turns into much longer. Will she make it home? Will she find true love? Will she know who she can trust?

Get this book! It made me giggle. It melted my heart. It made me cry.

Thanks, Lynn, for this CLEAN READ.

This book was provided for review by Bethany House.

Buy a copy here.