I wanted to like this series

Book Review:  By Book Or By Crook (A Lighthouse Library Mystery) by Eva Gates

A proposal from her long-time boyfriend prompts Reference Librarian Lucy Richardson to reevaluate her life.  Although she loves her job, she doesn't love Ricky or the social circle she's allowed herself to be part of for so long.  She leaves Boston for North Carolina's Outer Banks and is thrilled with her new life.  Things are going exceptionally well until a priceless first edition Jane Austen novel on loan to the library is stolen, and a library board member is found murdered inside the library.

A librarian who has a small room above a library in a lighthouse?  And the library has a cat?  I wanted to like this book.  Wanted to but didn't.  I love the details about the library and the setting itself.  Gates establishes a sense of place well.  Character development, not so much.  Gates offers a potentially interesting assortment of characters, and tells us a lot about them, in a gossipy sort of way.  At this point, the first book in the series, they seem like caricatures.  There's no depth, which is a shame, because it's characters' backstories that make for a compelling read.

I will give the next book in the series a try before calling it quits.  


Book Review:  Booked for Trouble (A Lighthouse Library Mystery) by Eva Gates

Lucy's mom comes to visit (and presumably convince Lucy to return to Boston).  Because only the best will do for Suzanne Richardson, she stays at the most expensive hotel in the area, where she snubs her former classmates who work there.  Suzanne and former bestie, Karen, have a loud argument in front of several hotel guests, during which Karen threatens to tell everyone about Suzanne's past.  Which, of course, makes Suzanne a person of interest when Karen is found murdered soon after.

I'm done.  There's potential here but there are too many books on my TBR list to see if it ever comes to fruition.  Even if I don't like them, I need characters to feel real.  Not a single character in this series -- and there are several to choose from -- feels like anything more than a caricature.  Reviewers have praised the colorful cast, and I agree that Gates has assembled a quirky group -- but there's still no depth.  Worse than that, characters change their behaviors overnight, with nothing to make the change believable.

It's never too late to do some good

Book Review:  The Secret, Book, & Scone Society by Ellery Adams.

Miracle Springs, North Carolina is a small but special place.  Tourists come here for the hot springs and the unique shops.  Nora Pennington owns Miracle Books and is renowned for her bibliotherapy -- her ability to match people with the books they need to ease their anguish.  Hester Winthrop is the owner of Gingerbread House -- her specialty is comfort scones -- she has an innate sense of which ingredients to use to evoke each customer's most special memories.  Estella Sadler owns the Magnolia Salon and Spa -- she can see and bring out the beauty in each woman.  June Dixon works at the Miracle Springs Thermal Pools -- she inspires trust.

A visiting businessman brings Nora, Hester, Estelle, and June together.  Neil Parrish, a partner in the new housing development in town, has regrets about his role in the project.  He confided this to June and then to Nora.  Hester sensed his overwhelming feeling of guilt when he came into her shop.  They are each called in to speak with the sheriff after Neil is found dead on the railroad tracks, hit by a train.  The sheriff is quick to rule it suicide but Nora and the other women know differently -- they know that he wanted to undo whatever he had done.  Certain that Neil was murdered and that the sheriff is involved in the cover-up, the women decide to investigate on their own.

I read this book in one sitting.  It's clear from the beginning that Nora, Hester, Estelle, and June are guided not only by an inherent sense of justice, but by atonement as well.  Still haunted by their own pasts, they can identify all too well with someone who recognizes that he's taken the wrong path and seeks a better one.  I loved the growth of friendship among these strong, self-reliant women who've held others at a distance for far too long. 

I also loved that each chapter begins with a literary quote and that literary references are sprinkled throughout the story -- before she was a bibliotherapist, Nora was a librarian (and an excellent one at that).  Miracle Books is a fictional bookstore I'd love to visit!  An old train station, filled not only with books but also with eclectic shelf "enhancers", it's described so charmingly that I can picture myself browsing its shelves and hanging out in one of its comfy chairs.  And although I'm not partial to either coffee or scones, this book had me considering both.

I have to admit, the mystery was a bit difficult for me to unravel, but I'm okay with that.  Most of the bad guys were fairly obvious; I simply had a tough time figuring out the crime behind everything.  If I had any quibble with the story, it's that the women agree early on that in order to trust one another in the risks to come, they need to tell one another their stories -- but then they jump right into the risks and take their time sharing their stories.  Maybe the unspoken understanding was that they would each share their stories when they were ready?  

Looking forward to the continuation of their stories!