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her girlfriend, Anda, take a turn at an unpublished manuscript and the next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.
