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A review by bethaniekay
The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
2.0
2.5 stars
The premise of this novel was very promising, but the execution fell flat.
On the negative side - the story starts out really slow. The first half of the book dragged on, and it finally picked up toward the end. The characters were, for the most part, either boring or unlikeable (with a couple minor exceptions), or they just had personalities that were so uninteresting, it was hard to enjoy reading about them. Hanna, the main character, is like a wet blanket - and her mother is absolutely intolerable. I thought there'd be more focus on the renovation of her new home, and it was a big miss to omit more details about Fury as a character and why he is the way he is (he was one of the few interesting characters). It really irrirates me when questions are unanswered by the end of the book, and in this case, we never found out if Oliver found his 'dog book'. Such a minor thing that could've been resolved somehow. I didn't realize this book is part of a series, but maybe it'll be answered in the next book.
On the plus side - the fictional setting in rural western Ireland was lovely to read about, and I liked the idea of the mobile library truck (which was less of a plot point than I thought it would be). I liked the idea of the library bringing people together to find a solution for the problem, although Hanna was reluctant to let it happen because of her curmudgeonly ways. I also thought that said solution was creative and realistic.
Overall, this book was okay, but not great. It definitely wasn't good enough to read the next book in the series, which I understand focuses on Jazz (who has zero personality) and Hanna's ex-husband (what a jerk, not interested in reading more about him).
The premise of this novel was very promising, but the execution fell flat.
On the negative side - the story starts out really slow. The first half of the book dragged on, and it finally picked up toward the end. The characters were, for the most part, either boring or unlikeable (with a couple minor exceptions), or they just had personalities that were so uninteresting, it was hard to enjoy reading about them. Hanna, the main character, is like a wet blanket - and her mother is absolutely intolerable. I thought there'd be more focus on the renovation of her new home, and it was a big miss to omit more details about Fury as a character and why he is the way he is (he was one of the few interesting characters). It really irrirates me when questions are unanswered by the end of the book, and in this case, we never found out if Oliver found his 'dog book'. Such a minor thing that could've been resolved somehow. I didn't realize this book is part of a series, but maybe it'll be answered in the next book.
On the plus side - the fictional setting in rural western Ireland was lovely to read about, and I liked the idea of the mobile library truck (which was less of a plot point than I thought it would be). I liked the idea of the library bringing people together to find a solution for the problem, although Hanna was reluctant to let it happen because of her curmudgeonly ways. I also thought that said solution was creative and realistic.
Overall, this book was okay, but not great. It definitely wasn't good enough to read the next book in the series, which I understand focuses on Jazz (who has zero personality) and Hanna's ex-husband (what a jerk, not interested in reading more about him).