This was just the loveliest, almost coziest novella! My one complaint, as is the case with many a satisfying novella, is that I wish it was longer! I did not want to let go of these characters after our brief time together.

A short novella with intriguing characters and lovely storyline ❤️

Thank you for the ARC

A 4 star 🌟 read for me

This was a sweet story about not staying down after a setback, and how sometimes an unwanted change brings you to where you want to be.

Evie is a kind-hearted protagonist and approaches the world with warmth. This ends up being a story of found family and second chances.

There's a lot of positive rep including non-binary characters and polyam families.

I do wish this had been slightly more developed. The author clearly had a much wider world solidly in their imagination and it could have been fleshed out more for us on the page.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Accused of leaking a manuscript she was supposed to edit, Evie gets exiled from her normal job as an editor to work as a librarian distributing literature via literally riding from homestead to homestead on a pack-horse, far from her usual home. Oh, and her girlfriend is the one who betrayed her, she barely knows how to ride a horse, and the place she’s going is full of privation and coal dust. Charming!

This is a very short book, but there’s a lot going on with the world-building (explicitly queer-positive: kids transition to a chosen gender as well as to adulthood, same-gender relationships are common or perhaps even the default; there’s some magic of various types, quite poorly defined; there’s some kind of law requiring literacy, hence the pack-horse librarians)… and yet there’s not a lot of detail on any of that. It feels like a side-novella in a known universe or something like that, though as far as I know that isn’t the case.

I found it a bit oddly paced, with instaluv into the bargain and a really obvious “twist”. It feels like a lot of elements were included to pad things out but didn’t actually get wrapped up. The romance is cute, but we barely know the love interest, who gets introduced pretty late. There were a lot of elements I found interesting, but overall it was kinda meh, I’m afraid!

An interesting tale, great characters and setting. I thought the prose was a bit dull but I enjoyed the story.

EVIE AND THE PACK-HORSE LIBRARIANS is a short, light fantasy in a Western-style.

There were a lot of things I really liked about EVIE AND THE PACK-HORSE LIBRARIANS, from the world-building to the characters, and the biggest problem I had with it was that I wish it were longer. There were a lot of wonderful ideas I’d really like to have seen further developed.

I’d definitely read more from this author, and I hope that, someday, they might go back and either expand EVIE AND THE PACK-HORSE LIBRARIANS into a full-length novel, or expand the universe with other stories about Evie, Katalin, Lajos and the pack-horse librarians.

Things I loved:

* Evie’s book magic. We see just a brief hint of this, but I loved the idea of making books come alive and of Evie being able to use the skill both to entertain and to have an advantage as an editor.

* Katalin and Lajos. I just wanted to pick Lajos up and keep him in my pocket forever.

* The Librarians. Both as a dysfunctional, cobbled-together found family and as a plot point. I’d have loved to have seen more of them working and living together, more of them distributing books, and more of how the job as a whole works.

* The landscape. The rough, impoverished communities and the mountainous, American West setting.

EVIE AND THE PACK-HORSE LIBRARIANS is a lovely little novella and an enjoyable quick read, I just wanted more!

What a sweet little story! It took me a while to get around to reading it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only was the representation handled in a way that made sense for a world where our world's biases aren't really relevant, but the characters were, though a little cliché, very lovable. I'd love to read something longer by this author!

It was a bit too short. Almost felt like a cliffhanger, good story line leading up to main "conflict" and then all of a sudden good vibes everywhere and skipped forward to a "happily ever after." It was sweet, but I wanted more information about it.

Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians
By Lauren Beckley


FF , Fantasy, Romance

Release Date: 17 August 2020

In all honest, in my 2 hours of reading this whole book, i still don't understand the world in which this story takes place but maybe that's its charm

This is a book about a person, Evie, who losses every thing she knows in one day and how she tried to build a whole new life from scratch while making sense of the new world around her. This is a story that shows the power of woman and their ability to adapt.

I fall in love with the rhythm and writing style of this book, simple but effective and to the point ( purposeful ). The writer was able to use 3rd person to express the society the story take place in. Although I felt the author could have explained more on the environment the story takes place in, this leave the possibility for a sequel.

This is a great read for if you have recently done a lot of heavy reading and need a break but don't actually want to stop reading. I would give this book a 4 out of 5.

Go check it out!

I loved Evie's magic in this story. A book witch that makes the stories come to life with her magic! Her magic gives this story a fantasy feel, which I enjoyed.. It's also has a wonderful historical fiction feel to it. I really enjoyed the descriptions in this.

There's a romance that moved pretty fast, but this is a short story, so things have to move bit fast to fit in the pages. It's a good romance, and is great for someone looking for an LGBTQ love story!

Overall, I thought this was a good story! I'd love to read an extended version of this!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I liked it. There were times where the protagonist got annoying, but over all she was fine.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this.

This was. Strange little book, but have to say I did enjoy it. I would have liked a longer book to help to feel more connected to the characters as it did feel rushed at times.
But otherwise a quick, quirky read.
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

A mystical adventure in a fantasy setting, this novel begins when Evie, a witch working as an editorial assistant, is sent to the Guild of Librarians as a punishment by her boss following the leaking of a manuscript to the press. Evie soon discovers that it was her girlfriend Anda who betrayed her.

Evie's time with the pack-horse librarians is an adventure, she carries books in a rural area she's unused to, and soon after arrival gets herself into a scrape falling down a ravine. The romance comes at the end and is a sweet, if rushed, moment.

Although there are some fantasy elements like this, the book reads like a light hearted historical romantic fiction, nice characters, identities and diversity, and themes are addressed well. I like this.

This romance is a supernatural/ fantasy short story about an assistant editor (Evie) who is fired from her job after her girlfriend steals a manuscript and releases information about it. She is in turn sent to work as a traveling librarian in a far off place and she has a hard time acclimating to the area because she is a city girl at heart.

Since this is a novella this read went by really quick. I could never decipher what era this was in which bothered me a little but did not take away from the story. I found myself really feeling sorry for Evie. She is young and basically sent out to a job that she likely would have a tough time with. I did like the supernatural side of this story and really liked how it ended. I do feel this story would have made for a good full length romance with more emphasis put on the romance side.

I will rate it 3.5 stars.

This arc was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this novella!

Rating: 3.5 stars
Rep: Lesbian MC, f/f romance, queer side characters.


This was a lovely, short and sweet novella about a girl called Evie. After her (ex) girlfriend betrays her, she is sent away to work with the pack-horse librarians and along the way meets new friends, discovers a second chance and finds a partner.

I loved the writing style and the characters, this book is so queer (literally everyone), and while I found the first half a little boring, once we were introduced to Katalin and Lajos, I was hooked.

Overall I had a few issues, but I'd still recommend this to anyone that likes books about books, queer characters and hints of magic!

<i> ARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. </i>

This was a really, really cute novella but I think it would’ve been so much better as a full novel! It’s this cute sapphic story about Evie who loses her job at a publishing firm because of a mishap, and also ends up losing her girlfriend (read top 3 anime betrayal of all time). She gets assigned to this group of pack-horse librarians who live in the middle of nowhere in this really small mining town, and this is just a story of how she goes from dreading being there to finding her place in this really bizarre-seeming environment!

I think this story had a really good premise, and so much potential, but because it was a short novella, everything felt a little rushed. I loved Evie’s character, but because we spent so little time with her, we couldn’t get to know her. The same goes for the librarians in Hevis and the townsfolk and even Katalin and Lajos! The romance that was in there was so adorable, but again, there just wasn’t enough time to have a proper development so that it would feel even more….heart-warming! We missed out on a bit of yearning there, and come on, we love yearning in this household!

I’m also sad that the magic system in this novel was so underused and unexplained. It was interesting there were were-bears instead of the usual wereWOLVES and Evie’s powers of making stories come to life were so..refreshing because you don’t usually see that anywhere. BUT, AGAIN, there just wasn’t enough elaboration?

I know I sound like I’m repeating myself, but I honestly have only one issue and it is that there wasn’t enough time to get attached to anything in this novella! It was cute, but it has the potential to be a full-blown novel. And if it were, there would even be so much scope for actual high-stakes conflict that would help this story carry some weight and make it more solid!

That aside, the causal visibility of asexuality, bisexuality, sapphic relationships, polyam families, transgender folk, etc., was very sweet! I wish there was more of that in, like, all books ever! Check it out if you’re interested, because it is super short and you’ll probably finish it in a couple of hours anyway!

3.5 Stars for this fantasy novella by Laurel Beckley. It was previously published in 2019 as The Book Woman. In the acknowledgments the author explained that she changed the name when she found a book with the same name and similar subject matter.

This was a light fantasy novella about a young book editor, Evie Southeil. She was a very talented editor who was betrayed by her girlfriend, now ex-girlfriend who leaked one of Evie’s books she was editing to the press. As a consequence, Evie was reassigned to the Librarian’s Guild as a pack-horse Librarian. Think bookmobile but on pack horses. She is assigned to travel on pack horses visiting mining families living deep in the Tartas Mountains. Evie has a secret. She is also a Book Witch. She is able to open a book and she can turn the words into images bringing the book to life. She especially loves children’s books, which along with her two cats, she lugged on her long journey to her new assignment.

Evie is given some training (“This is a horse”), but most of her horse riding skills is learned when she accompanies her predecessor’s last weeklong trip into the mountains. Unfortunately, on her first lone trip, Evie falls down a ravine – lost, hurt and separated from her horses she is rescued by a mother and son.

I enjoyed this story. I knew this was a novella going in, but it still ended too soon. She does a remarkable job of world building in a short amount of time, such that it makes me wonder what she could do writing a novel length story.

Evie has had a hell of a day - she has lost her job, her girlfriend, and been transferred to the mountains to avoid scandal. That is where we begin. Evie is living a second chance as a library courier for remote communities, as part of mandated literacy initiatives.

As an introduction, I am not sure how that plays, but as a story it is an enjoyable read. This is a quick novella that I had finished in one sitting - and I was a bit sad when I did finish, because I wanted to know more about her world and her journey.

The story included elements of an industrial nation, magic, and a level of acceptance and understanding for individual differences that should be the norm but is currently something that is being fought for and dreamed of. Sexuality, gender, relationship preferences - these were all unquestionably part of characters, but they were not driving forces or plot points.

This was a wonderful fantasy novella, and I would recommend it to anyone with an inherent love of books.

3.5 Stars
Evie Corsair is a dark-skinned female near twenty who's girlfriend of four years, Anda, has just back-stabbed her right out of a job. Evie has rare magic that brings stories to life--which is super helpful in her role as a book editor. But, she's promptly demoted to a librarian, and sent to the northern reaches of the nation, a mining mountain town called Hevis, to work as a journey librarian. Evie has literally no experience as a horse-riding book deliverer all over a rural countryside, and that's her new job.

Evie is shattered by the weeks-long journey by train to the station of her new disgrace. And, she's barely able to communicate with her new colleagues. They think she's a little nutty, honestly, bringing trunks full of picture books and her two cats hundreds of miles to a nowhere coal mining town of barely literate folk. The station Head Librarian doesn't think the picture books are a good idea, the cats are a problem with other Librarians, the route is barely more than a rut in the grass, and her first solo run is...disastrous. An animal startles her on the route, and she's thrown into a ravine. Injured and miles from her destination, she's lucky to find a big bear of a woman, Katalin, who takes her into a rudimentary cave-home and nurses her back toward health. Evie is captivated by Katalin, and her maimed but rambunctious son. Once they track down her errant horse and mule, Evie is sure she won't see Katalin again. But the little boy's uncontrolled magic puts their trio in danger, until Evie finds her voice. The rest is, well, a bit magical.

I loved the little glimpses of magic, and how playful it was. I loved poor Evie, who has so many calamities to endure. Her trials to bring wonderful, beloved, books to the tender denizens of the shacks surrounding Hevis is so chaotic and slapstick, it was easy to be sympathetic. Evie's disorientation allows the suspense to build around Katalin's, and her son's, powers and the revelation is more joyful than anyone could have imagined. The fantasy setting is lush with characters all over the LGBTQ-spectrum, and as the story is meant to begin a trilogy, I'm sure we will get some follow us on all those folks. Don't expect any steam in this read. It's light-hearted and whimsical, but, while Katalin and Evie make a true connection, there aren't any sexytimes on the page.

A whimsical journey that is both historical and fantasy, Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians takes the reader on a journey that leaves you wanting more pages.

The romance is light and easy. Our main protagonist Evie experiences major growth from the beginning of the book through the end. My only wish would be more time to explore each character and get deeper into this fascinating world that the author has weaved. Of course with a novella this is often the case. I would highly recommend this read for anyone looking to escape for a bit.

Adventure, romance and fantasy are the bookends of this read.