About the Book:

A collection of lost books holds the clues to her family’s legacy…and her future.

Hope Sparrow has mastered the art of outrunning her tragic past, learning never to stay anywhere too long and never to allow anyone control over her life again. Coming to Wanishin Falls in search of her family’s history already feels too risky. But somewhere in the towering stacks of this dusty old bookshop are the books that hold Hope’s last ties to her late mother—and to a rumored family treasure that could help her start over.

Only, the bookshop is in shambles, and the elderly owner is in the beginning stages of dementia and can’t remember where the books lie. To find the last links to the loved ones she’s lost, Hope must stay and accept help from the townsfolk to locate the treasured volumes. Each secret she uncovers brings her closer to understanding where she came from. But the longer she stays in the quaint town, the more people find their way into the cracks in her heart. And letting them in may be the greatest risk of all…

My Thoughts:

The book was well written, but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The “tragic past” mentioned isn’t just something that has been outrun, but it plays a front and center role to Hope’s story. Then you add in Ronan and his own tragic past and it becomes clear that the secrets aren’t the fun to discover kind, but the hard to survive kind.

Weaving through themes of trafficking, family feuds, dementia, old grudges and the fight to rebuild a life the story slowly builds at first and then picks up the pace and intensity.

For all the hard themes, the book is clean and not overly descriptive of sensitive content, which I appreciated. The literary ties the author includes throughout are very well done and engaging to any bibliophile. As I’m a big fan of choosing the right book for the right time I’d describe this as an intense and layered kind of read rather than a light, Sunday afternoon type of novel.

I received a free digital galley of this book for review.