The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan - 305 pages

 The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan

Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt’s attic. Now, as Christmas approaches, she’s been hired by Jamie McKinnon, the surprisingly young and handsome laird of a Highland clan whose ancestral holdings include a vast crumbling castle. Family lore suggests that the McKinnon family’s collection includes a rare book so valuable that it could save the entire estate—if they only knew where it was. Jamie needs Mirren to help him track down this treasure, which he believes is hidden in his own home.

But on the train to the Highlands, Mirren runs into rival book hunter Theo Palliser, and instantly knows that it’s not a chance meeting. She’s all too familiar with Theo’s good looks and smooth talk, and his uncanny ability to appear whenever there’s a treasure that needs locating.

Almost as soon as Mirren and Theo arrive at the castle, a deep snow blankets the Highlands, cutting off the outside world. Stuck inside, the three of them plot their search as the wind whistles outside. Mirren knows that Jamie’s grandfather, the castle’s most recent laird, had been a book collector, a hoarder, and a great lover of treasure hunts. Now they must unpuzzle his clues, discovering the secrets of the house—forming and breaking alliances in a race against time.

500 Miles from You by Jenny Colgan

 500 Miles from You by Jenny Colgan - 432 pages

Lissie, is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissie to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in Scottish Highlands, hoping that the change of scenery will help her heal. Lissie will be swapping places with Cormack, an Army veteran who’s Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. Lissie’s never experienced small-town life, and Cormack’s never spent more than a day in a big city, but it seems like a swap that would do them both some good.

In London, the gentle Cormack is a fish out of the water; in Kirrinfief, the dynamic Lissie finds it hard to adjust to the quiet. But these two strangers are now in constant contact, taking over each other’s patients, endlessly emailing about anything and everything. Lissie and Cormack discover a new depth of feeling…for their profession and for each other.

But what will happen when Lissie and Cormack finally meet…?

This was a cute book. It had a fast ending and I wish we knew a little more about what is in store for these characters in the future. It is still worth the read. 

The Bookshop on the Corner

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan 348 pages

Nina loves working at the library but when she loses her job she sets off for an adventure to run her own mobile bookstore in a new place. The story is about Nina rediscovering herself and sharing her love of reading in a place she may just begin to call home.

I appreciate the book for the "lightness" and happy feel to it, although the main character drove me crazy. I found her to be dramatic and childish but that is just my humble opinion.

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan
(Scottish Bookshop #2)
416 pages / 13 hrs, 11 mins

"A grand baronial house on Loch Ness, a quirky small-town bookseller, and a single mom looking for a fresh start all come together in this witty and warm-hearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan."  --from the publisher

This is the second book I've read by the author, and I'm unsure what to think about her talent and her editor.  The tale is generally charming with likable characters, but the writing is disjointed and subplots are left by the wayside for long periods of time.  The most noticeable and easily corrected problem with the book is the number of times she used the word "absolutely."  It is absolutely astounding.  One young boy using it as part of his quirky character was endearing, but why didn't Colgan's editor catch the blatant overuse by everyone in the story?  I probably wouldn't have finished it except the reader of the audio version made it very entertaining.  I gave it three out of five stars, but that may be a bit generous.

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
(Scottish Bookshop #1)
368 pages / 9 hrs, 13 mins

"Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion...and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.

"Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile--a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling.

"From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there's plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that's beginning to feel like home...a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending."       --from the publisher

I loved this book through the first two-thirds and then I liked the last one-third.  (A good ending must be harder to write than a good beginning because I've found this same phenomenon in other books.)  Anyway, Nina is a delightful character who really starts to live and love life when her safe little corner of the world doesn't work for her anymore.  Colgan does a wonderful job writing about Nina's transformation.  I gave it four out of five stars (rounded up from three and a half).

Doctor Who: Dark Horizons by Jenny Colgan

Doctor Who:  Dark Horizons by Jenny Colgan - 320 pages

"Now, you may or may not have noticed, but we appear to be on fire..."

On a windswept northern shore, at the very tip of what will one day become Scotland, the islanders believe the worst they have to fear is a Viking attack. Then the burning comes. They cannot run from it. Water will not stop it. It consumes everything in its path - yet the burned still speak.

The Doctor is just looking for a game on the famous Lewis chess set. Instead he encounters a people under attack from a power they cannot possibly understand. They have no weapons, no strategy and no protection against a fire sent to engulf them all.

Add in some marauding Vikings with very bad timing, a kidnapped princess with a secret of her own and a TARDIS that seems to have developed an inexplicable fear of water, and they all have a battle on their hands. The islanders must take on a ruthless alien force in a world without technology; without communications; without tea that isn't made out of bark. Still at least they have the Doctor on their side... Don't they?

A thrilling new adventure starring the Doctor, as played by Matt Smith in the acclaimed Doctor Who series from BBC Television.