To be published 20/09/2021…
Sophie has never known what happened to her mother. So when an estranged Uncle shows up and offers her a job in the family business, her mother’s old job, it’s an offer too good to refuse. Little does she know that the secret of her mother’s disappearance isn’t the only mystery that will be unravelled.
When she arrives at Ayredale library it feels like home, but it is soon clear that the library is more than it had seemed from the outside world. Back in familiar surroundings, lost memories of her childhood start to drip slowly back in. Memories that she doesn’t understand how she could have ever forgotten in the first place. Memories like Will Rhys, her first love. Memories like the hauntingly magical tree that might actually be more than just a recurring dream.
The library is definitely a magical place. The books that it produces are far beyond any ordinary books. The people that it house are more than just ordinary people. Yet it is the mystery that makes it the most magical. Even the people who live there, who were raised there, do not fully understand the complexities of the library. Whilst Sophie does learn the answers to some of her questions, others remain unanswered and unanswerable and she finds that there are always more questions to be asked.
Will doesn’t question the library. He just protects it. And he doesn’t question Sophie, just protects her. It is a deeply committed kind of love that is beautiful to read. As is the love between him and his mother; he loves her unquestionably and takes only what she can give without expecting anything more. In return she also loves him unquestionably and, although their relationship is not a conventional mother-son relationship, there is no denying the care and attention that they pay each other. By the end of the book this is clearer than ever and I came away from reading with a heart-warming understanding that love comes in many forms, even when it isn’t always visible from the outside.
Escape to the Bookshelf 