REVIEW:

Jenny Colgan has written a new Christmas novel for our added enjoyment of the holiday season. The new book is titled The Secret Christmas Library. If you are an avid reader, the title itself will peak your interest. I know it did for me. All I needed to see after that is that the setting is in Scotland. I do have a tiny bit of Scottish blood in my DNA and that really drew my interest.

Ms. Colgan is not one of those authors who I read without reading the synopsis. I always check her books out before I decide to read them. There are some of her series that I absolutely love and others that I find are not what I am into. That’s ok. I just think she likes a variety of subjects and to be honest, I think I am too old for some of them.

This book was fun and interesting. It is about a man named Jamie who has inherited a run down castle, probably beyond saving. He has information that hidden within the castle is a priceless book. If he can find it, he might be able to save his family home. He enlists the help of Mirren and Theo to help him find the book in a castle that is hoarded with books collected by his grandfather. 

The book took place over the Christmas holiday. They have a couple of snowstorms that strand them at the castle for a little longer than originally planned. I did like the shift in the relationships during that short time. I will say there was a lot packed into those few days. I think the book was a little too descriptive of the castle and how miserable life was within its walls. I got a little bored with that. It may have just been me. I tend to agree with Mirren that it was all a bit like a fairy tale to be there imagining life like it used to be and what the castle looked like in its heyday.

This was a Christmas story of sorts but it was not a traditional Christmas at all. They did make do with what they had and especially what they didn’t have. I think my favorite character was Jamie. He felt stuck with his position in life and we got to know his true inner self. He will steal your heart.

If you love old castles and lots of descriptions. Stories that take place in Scotland and the people and their customs, you will definitely enjoy Jenny Cogan’s new book The Secret Christmas Library. I enjoyed the book for the most part and would still recommend it to my best friend. Until next time…Happy Reading!

Don’t forget to support the authors you love by leaving a review. I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. The opinions I have expressed are my own and I was not required to write a review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

SYNOPSIS:

A new holiday story set in the Scottish Highlands to warm booklovers’ hearts by Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop.

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.

A treat for booklovers and treasure hunters alike, The Secret Christmas Library serves up a delicious mystery with a hint of romance, and plenty of holiday spirit!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jenny Colgan (born in 1972 in Prestwick, Ayrshire, Scotland) is a writer of romantic comedy fiction, sci-fi and has written for the Dr Who line of stories. She writes under her own name and using the pseudonyms Jane Beaton and J. T. Colgan.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.