Wonderland Creek

I listened to the audiobook of Wonderland Creek on a long car trip. In the past, I have very much enjoyed Austin's inspirational romances, and this one, set in Eastern Kentucky and featuring the fascinating packhorse librarians of the WPA era, had great promise. However, I found that a few glaring

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flaws made the story less than enjoyable for me.

The story is told from the point of view of Allie, a sheltered young woman who lives with her parents in the suburbs of Chicago. She loves books, and her job at the public library is a perfect fit . . . until the library's budget is cut due to the Great Depression, and Allie finds herself at loose ends. Prior to losing her job, Allie had been collecting books and magazines for libraries in Appalachia. When Allie's aunt and uncle announce that they are heading in that direction for a vacation, Allie rides along, planning to deliver the books to the library in Acorn, Kentucky, and to stay for a week or two and help catalog the books. When she arrives in the tiny backwoods town, she is shocked to learn that the librarian she has been corresponding with is a man, there is nowhere in Acorn for her to stay but at the library (which also happens to be the male librarian's home), and that living conditions in the little town do not include such amenities as electricity or indoor plumbing. Worse, the day after her arrival, the town's librarian is shot, and Allie finds herself caught in the middle of a web of deceit and intrigue.

My main problem with this book is that I did not find any of the main characters sympathetic or likable. Allie spends most of the story being Too Stupid To Live, complaining about her situation, being afraid of things, and reading solely as an escape. She grows incrementally stronger over the course of the book, but it was not enough to redeem her in my eyes. I also had some big problems with the plot, and the way other characters trapped and manipulated Allie into staying in Acorn against her will. It made it hard for me to like those characters, or to root for the success of the book's romantic subplot. The dialogue felt stiff and contrived in spots, too. To top it off, the plot meandered along at a leisurely pace, leaving me plenty of time to stew over my dislike of the characters. (In all fairness, this might have been because I was listening, rather than reading -- that can distort my perception of a book's pacing.)

I wish I could recommend this book -- I thought the premise was fascinating, and I am usually a fan of this author. Maybe next time I read one of her books, it will be a more enjoyable experience all around.

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The reasons people read books are perhaps as numerous as the readers themselves. In this novel, Alice generally has her nose in a book. The lives of the fictional characters are so much more interesting than hers. And then, life smacks Alice right in the face. She loses her boyfriend and her job

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and then leaves her home in Illinois for the foothills of Kentucky to deliver some boxes of books for the poor. Her life will never be the same. She finds adventure greater than those she has read about. Alice gets a volunteer job, rides a horse, breaks the law, helps uncover a murderous plot, makes new friends and finds buried treasure and love. And most amazing of all, goes days without reading a book! This tale of life during the depression will keep you highly entertained with the descriptive setting and likable characters. This is storytelling at its best.

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I've had this book on my reading list for awhile. It opens in Illinois 1936 and moves into Kentucky. Alice (Allie) is a librarian who has her nose in a book (and her head in some fantasy cloud!). She loves her stories as much as I do! But her world starts crumbling when her boyfriend breaks up and

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the library faces budget cuts that force her out of work. When she volunteers to bring five boxes of donated books to Kentucky, she has no idea how such an innocent project will change her life.

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Wonderland Creek is a great novel for book lovers. Main character, Alice Ripley, lives her life in books. While I am a self-proclaimed book nerd (and proud of it), I hope that I never neglect real life and real people the way Alice did before her journey to Acorn, Kentucky. After losing her library

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job, not to mention her boyfriend, Alice believes getting out of town and helping a poor, rural community gain access to reading materials is just what she needs. But her arrival in Acorn is a very rude awakening. Alice might as well have gone to the moon for how different life is in Acorn. She joins forces with the local librarian to become a part of the WPA pack horse book delivery, as well as to uncover a number of mysteries. The book has many laugh out loud scenes as Alice proves to be a fish out of water again and again. But the tough life of those she meets, the feuds, and the eye-opening fact that life is more than stories in a book make her grown up. I loved Alice, despite her naivety and at times downright foolishness. Her resiliency and her determination helped her to overcome her weaknesses. Wonderland Creek has plenty of drama and mystery and history and romance (albeit unconventional) for fans of all genres. I found it to be a highly recommended read!

Highly Recommended.

Audience: adults.

(I downloaded the audiobook from Libby. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

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Austin's take on the library workers who transported books to the hills of Kentucky during the depression is, of course, wonderful.

Alice's one and only love in life is the books that she reads and her job at the library in town. She doesn't even get all that excited about her dates with her

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boyfriend, who is annoyed that she would rather be reading a book than going out with him. When she is let go at the library she is devastated, and as she flounders around looking for a new path for her life she remembers the books she has been sending to a library in Kentucky. Figuring that she can deliver the books and offer her services she writes to the librarian there and then convinces her aunt and uncle to drop her off there. The librarian, who turns out to be a scruffy fellow named Leslie McDougal, is surprised when she shows up on her doorstep, and most of the people in the small hamlet she has invaded are none to keen on her being there. As Alice slowly gets her bearings and gets to know the people of this place she discovers there are quite a few mysteries lurking beneath the surface of the seemingly simple life in Acorn. She learns new things about herself, about how she can truly help others, and even discovers a bit of romance - which makes for quite a wonderful story. Fans of historical fiction, especially those that love books and tales of the mule riding librarians, will enjoy this one.

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As Christian novels go, this one was on the higher end of sorta ok. I don't normally read Christian fiction (or much fiction at all, really) because contrived plots and forced dialogue make me craaazy and Christian fiction is the worst for this. Still, I was interested to read this one set in the

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South and taking place during the Depression. I liked the story and the mystery---the mystery shooter really did shock me. I had no idea. I didn't particularly like the main character's loose morals. I think this is my first Lynn Austin. Not bad---but not super great, either.

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