This is quite a read.. Not the story I expected but loved it. You follow a library bus and how it helped people. Moving at time. You had some great love elements . Two characters I really liked were Frankie and Pamela..All the characters had stories. Read it . A neat ending

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing for this ARC.

Molly moves back from London to Merry-le-Moors at Christmas time after a break-up. Her Dad Jack runs a mobile library there for the council after the physical libraries were shut down like so many services. There are a plethora of characters using the library, mostly elderly people just trying to get out of the cold. Soon, a table and chairs plus hot drinks making facilities and mobile heaters are added and the Merry-le-Moors Mobile Library Friendship Society is born.

This is a difficult book to review because it is well-written but the disconnect between the pink cover and cutesy title and the actual content is so stark. From the outside you expect a traditional fluffy romance book but you are getting a male author with lofty ambitions of being literary and letting you know it, by quoting Camus and referencing politics and racism.

He then goes on to comment on his own story: "Maybe if this was more of a feelgood Christmas story, which you may feel you were promised, then things would be different." I'm sorry, but thing's like that take me right out of a book. I don't want an author to comment on his own story, I just want him to write a good story. And this is largely a good story.

A lot of feel-good things actually do happen, with people connecting, reconnecting and breaking out of abusive relationships left, right and centre. There is community, romance and laughter, even in the face of a threatened closure of the mobile library service, and I liked the many supporting characters.

The narration hops from person to person and, strangely enough, to dogs too. You will never guess who the principal narrator is supposed to be!

There is a lot to like about the book but it might be better to change the cover and title to something more accurately reflecting the content, and to maybe leave the author's many comments on his own story out.

3.5 stars

A lovely book about Christmas and books and libraries. All of which I love. This was an addictive read and very sweet. I loved the friendly characters who wanted to help people. We need more people like that these days. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.