I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novella in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a sweet read! I don't read novellas very often, so this was definitely a new format to get used to... but it was nice enough to make me really enjoy the format and appreciate the storytelling.
In addition to being a brand new format, it was also a fairly low stakes book -which in fact, shows the competency of the writer. Instead of taking this relatively low-stakes story and stretching it into a full-length novel, this book does exactly what it needs to do, tells us the kind of story it's here to tell and ends at the right place. As a result of this, the pacing was in general very enjoyable, and the story itself was simple and refreshing.

Due to its short structure, I, a usual novel-reader, did feel like relationships could have been built up a little more. The characterizations on the other hand, for the length of the story, was fairly well done and I had a good idea about every single character by the end of the story. They were distinct and endearing, and managed to stand out in such a short while.

My favourite part was definitely the representation and the ease with which it was done. The book normalizes sapphic relationships and also normalizes polyamorous families. The natural way in which this was woven into the story was commendable.

The story itself was fairly simple, and very sweet to read. It was a quick read, but it still managed to bring forth plenty of emotion and was filled with heart. While reading novellas is something I personally need to get more comfortable reading, I'm glad I started with this particular book. However, do check out reviews by own voices readers to know how good the representation and story really was!

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.

This one is a byte-sized bit of thoroughly enjoyable whimsy.

Evie Southeil loves books and is a journey-rank editor at Publishing. One misstep – a serious one – and her career as an editor is stalled, possibly derailed. Evie’s fault was love. She allowed her girlfriend, Anda, take a turn at an unpublished manuscript and the next thing Evie knew is that it has been leaked and she’s been demoted to being a pack-horse librarian in the far out-reaches of the kingdom. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Anda dumps her and acknowledges that she had always been eying Evie’s job.

Completely broken, Evie makes the journey to the vast unknown, district forty-five with her cat, Theodosia, and kitten, Mathilde. Her new colleagues are welcoming but pressed for time and money. With the briefest of training, Evie is sent off on a library run by herself. Her run has her travelling for weeks on end on her pack-horse, leading a mule, collecting the books given earlier and distributing new ones to impoverished villagers in the hills.

On her very first solo journey, something spooks Evie’s pack-horse and mule, and after dumping her off, the animals take off. Evie is rescued by a cute four-year old, Lajo, and his mysterious mother, Katalin. The pair actually live in a cave and have next t nothing, but extend every last bit of hospitality to Evie. Katalina and Evie are attracted to each other but when Evie recovers, Katalina and Lajo lead her to the nearest settlement so that she can continue her journey.

Evie discovers Katalina’s secrets, makes new friends, finds her place in the harsh world and has to decide whether to stay on or return to her city life, where Anda’s duplicity has been discovered.

This is a seriously short book. We’d have easily enjoyed it even more were it twice the length. All the characters are truly likeable. The world, while in dire straits on the financial and material comforts fronts, abounds in acceptance and affection. A nice thought, that.


This is a cute, quick, non-intense read.

I found this to be a really sweet novella. I don't normally read fantasy books but had heard good things about this one so thought I would give it a try and I'm really glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and would have loved the story to have gone on for longer.

When we meet Evie she is experiencing her worst nightmare - the loss of her role as an assistant editor at a prestigious publisher due to underhanded tactics by her soon to be ex-girlfriend. Evie is banished to the mountains to join the librarians guild and become a member of the pack-horse librarians, with only her books and her cats to keep her company.

I found the world building to be done really well and found myself enjoying imagining the world Evie was experiencing, even though it is somewhat bleak. The romance in the book is meaningful and sweet, but very quick. It isn't the focus of the book at all and that isn't a bad thing. I loved how this book encounters many different types of characters and for the most part they all seem accepting of each other. I've read quite a few heavy books recently and this made for a really pleasant read for me because of this.

Evie is described as a "timid city mouse" and this is an accurate depiction of her at the start of the story. I liked her journey to a more confident character and would have enjoyed a little bit more of this to delay the ending of the book. I also thought it was a shame we didn't get to experience more of Evie's own magic on the page. I would have liked to have spent more time with the other librarians too.

The length of the book naturally means it's a quick read and I would recommend to anyone looking for a sweet, inclusive book with some fantasy overtones. It's also a great read if like myself you wouldn't normally read fantasy.

I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and NineStarr Press for the ARC of this book.

4.25 stars. This was a sweet, whimsical, feel-good fantasy novella that left me wanting more. Any story with books as a central theme is a win for me, and Evie's status as a book witch is totally awesome. Every character Evie meets along her journey is lovable, and I just wanted to be friends with them all! Plus, there are so many cute cats and horses!

I guess I thought that...maybe it was too short? I wanted to know more about everything: all the cities of the fantasy world, the names of the months, characters' backstories, etc. This could have been a great full-on novel, but as a novella it was also lovely.

There is also so much representation packed into such a short story, and it's truly marvelous. Evie is a shy, introverted, sapphic woman of color; there are several nonbinary and trans characters; and both monogamous and polyamorous relationships are shown. Everything is just so wonderfully normalized, and I loved it!

2.5 stars, but I will round to 3.
Thank you to @netgalley and @ninestarpress for a copy of Evie and the Pack-Horse librarians in exchange for an honest review.

Evie Southiel, the protagonist of this story, finds her life being directed down a new path when her girlfriend leaks a manuscript to the press and ultimately gets her fired.
In turn, Evie gets sent to a new job where she finds herself delivering books. This component of the plot line was very similar to Giver of Stars for me, and I felt myself thinking that a bit too often.

I enjoyed the world that this book was set in, and the special gift that Evie has, but I truly wish more time was dedicated to those two components. Evie’s gift could have added even more dimension to this novel if more time was taken to explore it.

The relationships in the book, although very sweet, felt rushed and forced in a way that had me annoyed they even happened. I’m huge on character development, and I felt they could have been fleshed out more.

Overall, it’s a quick read that wasn’t unenjoyable to read, but there were too many areas in which the novel felt surface level.

What a sweet, brilliant, bearhug (pun intended) of a novella that was!

I really loved Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians by Laurel Beckley. The author crafted a world with fascinating layers that surprised me in every turn, rich with magical realism and comforting as a warm mug of cocoa. After being fired from her big-city gig as an editor, Evie is being sent into the wilderness, to become a book carrier through the mountains. Although weak and definitely not suited to this new life that was thrown upon her, Evie is a fascinating character — and her relationship with her cats is just adorable.
I don't want to give too much away re the romance element of the story, but let's just say it was unexpected and sweet. I really enjoyed how, despite being in a world reminiscent of the 1800s, everyone in this novella is delightfully queer and polyamorous families seem to be the norm.
My only comment really, is that I would like more. More of this world and how everything works, more of Evie and her magic — and more of the pack-horse librarians, as well as Katalin and her people.
You know a novella is really great when people are complaining it should be a full-length novel, right?

P.S. Thank you to NetGalley and NineStar Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you want a very cute fantasy novella featuring a joyous cast of LGBTQ+ people, "Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians" should be your top choice.

Evie Southiel (18, BIPOC) is sent away by her publishing company in the city into the countryside as a pack-horse librarian after her now ex-girlfriend leaked an important manuscript. Unaccustomed to rural settings, Evie struggles with her new job, and ends up with a disastrous first solo journey delivering books. But Katalin (19, BIPOC) and her son Lajos (4, BIPOC, arm loss) take her in and make sure she is safe.

Despite the fantastical settings, there are brief acknowledgments of racial slights and economic inequalities between cities and rural areas that are prominent in our world. Beckley has done a wonderful job of incorporating people with different backgrounds and identities into the story. I love how everyone is queer and no one bats an eye. Sexualities are not defined. Multiple characters use they/they/theirs pronouns and one minor character is a transwoman. There is also one big polyamorous family consisting of five grownups.

The build-up of the story is slow, and the ending comes a little too quickly for me. Evie's love interest doesn't even show up until the latter half, and that sort of stunted the story arc because it is a novella and inherently short. Though marketed as a romance, I find it more enjoyable not reading it as one.

"Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians" is a novella about a female librarian on a horse. What’s not to like?

Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians is cute, light fantasy romance with lovable characters and a creative premise. Evie is a bookwitch, which makes her a valuable editor at Hanhat Publisher, but she is exiled to a remote location when her girlfriend leaks an important manuscript to the press in order to steal her position at the company. I enjoyed this book, but as with many novellas, I wish it could have been fleshed out more, so I had more time to connect with the characters.

This is a sweet and cozy fantasy adventure novella that has been republished. I love the new title - anything with librarians in the title will get me to read it. And I was surprised as to how much I liked the characters and the world building. It did take a little while to get to the really interesting stuff, but once there, I had a lot of fun.

As an aside, when the librarians were talking about specifics like budgeting or why they didn't have books for a reader group, I thought to myself that the author had to be a librarian, too. Those details may not always make it into plotlines, so it set off my librarian radar. Turns out she is, and I was pretty proud of myself.

Either way, this is just a nice, short fantasy that has some sweet characters and intriguing political systems and magic systems. It is a little slow, but I enjoyed some of the details thrown in.

A cute novella that feels a bit fantasy mixed with a western. I loved the characters and world but would have liked a little more depth to everything. There's only so much development you can accomplish in less than a 100 pages but I would have really loved to see the world fleshed out a bit more. What we do see of the world is interesting but I think the book shines for the last quarter of the book when the main character interacts with a few locals. It really takes off from there and the story really develops into an interesting look at how this community interacts and the sense of family that we see with the people that the main character meets. I definitely recommend this book and I would love to read more about this world in the future.

This novella was a quick, fun read and ticked a lot of the boxes for things I love in books - nerdy librarians (with book magic!) who understand the importance of children's books; a diverse, all queer cast; snooty cats; horses; adorable children; and a really sweet love story. The prose flows easily and Evie is a very relatable heroine; I was definitely wincing in sympathy after her long days on horseback.

My biggest (really only) complaint is that this book tries to do far too much for a novella, and I really wish it had been longer. There were a lot of characters introduced (particularly in the first half of the book), and we didn't really get to know any of them enough to warrant trying to keep track of all the various names. I also wish the magic system had been more explored - both Evie's book magic and the [existence of the weres - the inclusion of fantasy elements was a big draw of this novel for me, but I never really understood how Evie's magic worked or where it had come from.

This book is definitely worth a read, provided you temper your expectations for the shorter format!

3.50 Stars. This was a cute, NA, WLW, light fantasy novella. This was originally published by Less than 3 Press under the name of The Book Woman, so if you read it than I believe it is the same story. It says republished not revised or reedited. This story was new to me and it was a sweet, quick read. I really wanted to read more of this story so my biggest complaint really is that I wished it was longer.

Evie is a book witch. Her magic makes books come alive so she quickly rose in the ranks to become assistant editor at a prestigious publisher. When she is stabbed in the back by someone she cares about, Evie is exiled to become a journey carrier with the Pack-Horse Librarians. It looks like Evie’s first run in the wilderness alone might end in totally disaster until she meets a woman that could change her life forever.

I liked that this world that had a historical fantasy feel. While I am putting the fantasy tag on this it is very light. Besides a few people with magic abilities and items, and a little surprise that comes later in the book, this could almost be a normal historical fiction book. I loved the old time librarian feel and the whole premise put a smile on my face.

There is a romance in this book but it is also very light and very sweet. The relationship moves faster than I would like, but with this being a novella there is only so much time so I’m trying not to complain too much. I did like both characters and liked them as a potential couple. Evie is pretty wimpy and spineless in the beginning, which I’m not a fan of, but it was nice to see her growth and she eventually grew on me too.

I think most of us hardcore readers enjoy stories about librarians. I know I do and this was a sweet novella that fit that bill. I would recommend this to readers looking for a quick and sweet fantasy read. This would also be good for readers who want to dip their toes into fantasy but don’t want anything too overwhelming or heavy. With its NA feel, this was a short story that I could easily see in school libraries.

Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians

Thank you to netgalley, the author and Ninestar press for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Description-
Evie is a book witch with a power she trusts few people to know about. Her power makes her gifted in her line of work and assured she got a promotion however when she places her trust in her girlfriend who betrays her, her whole life is pulled out from under her. She is exiled and forced to move to the mountains, far away from her home and everything she knows. On her first solo run at her new job Evie finds herself lost, her horses have bolted and she finds herself thrust into a mysterious woman’s life.

Review
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5/5 (overall)
❤️❤️.5/5 (Romance)
🧭 🧭🧭/5 (Adventure)

This book was short and sweet with a little magic thrown in. I feel that whilst this book had a lot of potential, the idea of the magic wielding librarians with book related powers is something avid readers would thoroughly enjoy and would like to see explored, there was too much was shoved into one small book.

The book is labelled as fantasy romance/lgbtqia romance however I expected more...well, romance. The romance occurred right towards the end and the couple shared one kiss, so I was left a little disappointed. While I genuinely loved the premise of this book it felt a little rushed, I would’ve like to learn more about each character and the world in which they live but there’s little exploration. However, we see a lot of diversity (same sex/polyamorous relationships, trans, non-binary characters) which is absolutely great!

All in all, it would make a good easy read and is very YA friendly. I definitely would’ve loved to see this as a series there are so many options to explore in this world! If the author were to return to this world for more exploration i would definitely read!

This was a really heartwarming story. The descriptions were vivid and brought the landscape to life. I liked how much representation there was, not only of the gay/lesbian kind. While I want to be able to appreciate a novella for what it is, there was definitely enough content for a full-length novel. Setting the scene for a fantasy takes up a lot of space, and the romance spanned under 20 pages. Other than the length, no complaints. Five stars.

Evie and the pack horse librarians follows Evie , a book witch .

After a planned sabotage done by her now ex girlfriend , Evie losesher job and been sent away on an assignment to rural parts of the world where she has to be a courier. But Evie is born and brought up in the city and has no idea how to handle a horse.

With a heart wrenching betrayal , Evie starts her assignment in the rural parts while having no idea what awaits her.

Queer Friendly World building

Here , people have coming out parties after transitioning . Kids are non binary in polyamarous families. Any and every identity is respected and just exist. I just couldn't get enough of it.


My one and only quarrel with the book was it's too short. Laurel had the knack to introducing interesting characters with their passions in a Queer friendly world building. But we don't get a full picture of anyone. Even Evie seems like a two dimensional character with only the city employee in a rural area plot point.

I loved the characters , relationships and everything in Evie . This is definitely a recommendation from me for a tiny and heart warming read.


I thank NetGalley and Nine Star press for granting me this e-ARC for review.

This book was too small. I wish we had gotten more details about the world, about Evie’s personality and her job. The way it was written felt rushed and all the characters were very two-dimensional. I didn’t learn much about anyone. At most they would be catalogued as good people, when they helped the MC, and bad people, when they made mean remarks or were dismissive. I also felt like the narrative was choppy. Going from Evie’s city life, to her new job, to meeting Katalin felt very disjointed. Evie and Katalin were sweet together and again, I wish we had gotten to read about more moments between them. Overall, this was an okay story.