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Set in an [imaginary] rural peninsula in Western Ireland, Hayes-Mccoy here introduces the people and stories to be told in her Finfarran Peninsula series. In fact, it doesn't really get off the ground until the final third, at which point it's true charm has gripped hold and I am ready to continue reading the series.

While told from several perspectives, here we are primarily behind that of Hanna, the divorced middle-aged librarian of the village library and county bookmobile. Hanna hides behind high stone walls of bitterness, shame, disillusion, fear, and anger. This in fact is one of the problems at first because you just want Hanna to 'get over herself' already! But there are sufficient glimpses of a different person lurking underneath, and occasional cracks in the walls that make it possible to stick with her. Plus the community really does grow on you, as does the 'save-the-library' to save the town plotline.

Bonus: the library at the center is housed in a former convent, something that is very creatively and critically interwoven into the story. And this serves to meet one of the 2019 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompts.