The Secret Christmas Library

 by Jenny Colgan

Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt's attic.  The book is on display at the British Museuim with a note giving her credit for finding it.  A man in the museum asks about who found the book and Mirren introduces herself.  He tells her needs someone to find a book for him, she thinks he is joking but eventually calls him.

She is sent by her company to the man's scottish castle, ostensibly to survey the building.  While she is there the owner Jamie, his sister Esme, Theo, an antique book dealer prowl around the castle which has books piled haphazardly everyone around the house.  The books had been collected by Janie's grandfather.  Jamie is stressed because he has inherited the castle but it is in very poor condition.  His grandfather had hinted at a valuable book.  So the four young people set out to solve various puzzles they find from the grandfather.  

It is a stormy winter and their lives are threatened as they look through a maze for clues.  To get out of the maze they set fire to a section thinking that the snow will put out the fire.  Unfortunately the fire is not put out and eventually reaches the castle and destroy's most of it.  As they search for clues they find letters that indicate the grandfather had a love and likely affair with a housekeeper.

However Jamie and Mirren are able to find a valuable book in the housekeeper's house. The housekeeper had passed away but her granddaugher has been working as the sole housekeeper.

In the end Mirren is laid off from her job, no explanation of if her salary for doing the supposed survey was ever paid.  She moves to Scotland to be with Jamie.  They have rescued some books and offer tours of what is left of the property.

It was an okay read, a bit slow going at times but you knew Jamie and Mirren would eventually hook up. 

The Midnight Bookshop

This is the story of three people who meet at a food bank.  One is a rich girl who is dropping off food, another is a woman who is in an abusive relationship and whose husband doesn't earn enough money as a car salesman and another, a teen whose mother is ill with fibromyalgia and can't work.  His brother has him delivering drugs for him because if he gets caught he will get a lighter sentence as a youth.

 The three people briefly meet and get a brochure which invites them to go to a midnight bookshop.  They are reluctant at first but decide to go.  They find a magical place and a strange woman who invites them to find a book that wants them to find it.  The rich girl finds The Great Gatsby, the older woman finds Oliver Twist and the young boy finds One flew over the Cuckoos Nest.

They read the books and come back to discuss them later.  They find the books reflect on their own lives, the rich girls parents are like Gatsby, the young boy is trapped like the characters in the Asylum and the older woman has an evil controlling man in her life.

Eventually the married woman is able to get rid of her husband, the young boy flushes his brother's drugs down the toilet and gets beat up by drug dealers and the young girl decides to move out from her parents home to get away from the loveless family.

The older woman invites the boy and his mother to come to live with her, with financial assistance from the rich girl.  She also decides to apply for a job in a library.

As they go back to the library they realize that the place is magical and the bookseller seems to have been around for more than 100 years.  Once is it is clear that they have written new lives the bookstore disappears.

Five years later the young girl and boy are living together.  She has become a teacher and he is working on an English degree.

It was a cute story, obviously with a feel good theme.