Booklist Review
Alice is a much-indulged 22-year-old librarian and minister's daughter, always more absorbed in books than in the world around her. Suddenly losing both beau and job, she opts to personally deliver the books she's collected for a small town in Kentucky. The place isn't at all what she expected, and soon Alice is living large and learning a great deal about herself and her faith. Set in 1936, six-time Christy Award winner Austin's charmingly candid, wryly self-deprecating, first-person inspirational novel showcases her ability to make history especially the New Deal workforce projects, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the WPA more than drily factual. Austin succeeds in combining suspense, romance, and an insider's perspective on one isolated, close-knit Appalachian community and the packhorse librarians who served it so faithfully. Readers who enjoyed her WWII novel, While We're Far Apart (2010), will find this one much lighter in tone, though in its coming-of-age narrative, Austin explores many of the same themes, including family, the challenge of living a godly life in an ungodly world, and service to others.--Welch, Lynne Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Set during the Great Depression, this novel by six-time Christy winner Austin (While We're Far Apart; Hidden Places) examines the life of a bookish young woman who loses her library job and her boyfriend at the same time. As the gossip begins to mount, Alice agrees to deliver books to a rural Kentucky library in need. Once there, she is abandoned by her family members who dropped her off. Stuck in Acorn, she befriends the librarians and discovers that there is more of interest in this small town than she assumed. VERDICT Austin's historical novels have been well received by her numerous fans. This latest entry will not disappoint. The vivid female protagonist and touches of humor and romance will appeal to fans of Lynn Morris and T. Davis Bunn. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
