My husband would call this a chickflic. And it is. But Jojo Moyes formula for best sellers cannot be denied and this book is very popular amongst the chickflic set. I enjoyed it too.

Moyes transports the reader to depression era Kentucky where a young English-bred lady named Alice Wright arrives after a spur of the moment marriage to handsome Bennett Van Cleve.

Alice is looking to escape the constraints of British life in the early 1900’s but isn’t exactly prepared for what greets her in Kentucky; hostile and prejudiced people, rough and rural country, overbearing and violent father-in-law. And to top it off, a husband who is unable or unwilling to perform and consummate their marriage.

Alice’s loneliness finds her suddenly thrust into a new Roosevelt WPA project known as the Packhorse Librarians, a book delivery system to provide the poorest of the poor in Kentucky an opportunity to learn.

It’s here that Alice finds herself and her purpose in life and also her true love. There is a lot of turmoil and tragedy before the book ends happily.

My favorite part of the book is the factual history of the Packhorse Librarians and the success the program had in rural Kentucky and other backwoods places of deep depression era America.

This book is exactly what the major motion picture industry loves. I have no doubt we will see it on the big screen soon.

****Four stars for The Giver of Stars by Jo Jo Moyes.

Read last week’s review of City of Thieves.

My current read, Love and Other Consolation Prizes

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