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Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians

Laurel Beckley (Goodreads Author)

3.90 · Rating details · 49 ratings · 41 reviews

As an assistant editor at the prestigious Hanhat Publishers, Evie Southiel is entrusted with fine-tuning the manuscripts of the company’s most important authors. Her skills as a book witch allow her to manipulate the stories she reviews and bring them to life.

When her girlfriend steals the secret manuscript of Hanhat’s best-selling author and leaks it to the press, Evie is ...more

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Published August 17th 2020 by NineStar Press

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Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians by Laurel Beckley

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Aug 12, 2020 Lex Kent rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-or-na, historical-fantasy, magic, novella-or-short, horses, f-f-ninestar-press

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 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.

A copy was given to me for a honest review. ...more

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Dec 30, 2018 laurel [the suspected bibliophile] added it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-books

FOLKS, NINESTAR PRESS IS RE-PUBLISHING!!

The new title is Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians, and the release date is August 17, 2020.

I am beyond excited!

And check the new cover 😍😍

description

This is mine, so no review from me :)

I had a wonderful time writing it, and I really hope that you all fall in love with Evie, Katalin and my ridiculously sarcastic favorite, Csaba.

• Lesbian romance
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• Pack Horse Librarians
• Very Opinionated Cats Accustomed to a Certain Standard of Living
• Book Witche ...more

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Aug 14, 2020 Stephi rated it liked it

Shelves: lgbtq, arcs, fantasy_sci-fi, romance, read-2020

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.

3 stars

*I received ...more

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Aug 27, 2020 Luce rated it liked it

Shelves: cover-appreciation, witches, novella, diversity-nonwhite, job-librarian, romance, fantasy, dog-cat-horses, relocation-old-or-new-place, fish-out-of-water

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 reas ...more

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Aug 15, 2020 Hsinju rated it liked it

Shelves: 3-star, lgbtq, wlw-fiction, fiction, 2020-read, novella, sapphic, fantasy, romance, reviewed

CW: racial slights, mentioning of amputation

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 book ...more

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Aug 16, 2020 Skip rated it really liked it

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 ...more

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Mar 19, 2019 Jess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt-bisexual, format-kindle, genre-romance, arc-lovebytes, genre-fantasy, lgbt-lesbian, genre-novella, genre-fantasy-shapeshifters, publisher-less-than-three-press, genre-fantasy-magic

This book was given by the publisher and Love Bytes in exchange for an honest review.

This review was first posted at Love Bytes: LGBTQ Book Reviews.

It’s nice to read a warm, sweet fantasy story that still introduces unique elements to the genre. Evie, an exiled book editor who is forced to become a rural library carrier, follows the path of many literary heroines before her—she must adapt into new surroundings to survive, and in turn, finds true love. But interesting magic and worldbuilding elem This book was given by the publisher and Love Bytes in exchange for an honest review.

This review was first posted at Love Bytes: LGBTQ Book Reviews.

It’s nice to read a warm, sweet fantasy story that still introduces unique elements to the genre. Evie, an exiled book editor who is forced to become a rural library carrier, follows the path of many literary heroines before her—she must adapt into new surroundings to survive, and in turn, finds true love. But interesting magic and worldbuilding elements keep the story fresh and interesting.

As Evie struggles with her new surroundings, she learns more about the world, and also learns how other people from different backgrounds view books. When she takes a nasty fall and becomes injured on her first solo journey, a mysterious woman takes her in and offers her a new perspective on home and family. A lot of unique characters were introduced in the first half of the story, so until the second half, I wasn’t even sure who the love interest was going to be. But the romance between Evie and Katalin, the gruff woman who lives in a cave with her precocious son Lajos, develops sweetly and naturally. Evie is strong, but the natural world still baffles her, and Katalin’s protectiveness makes for a perfect match.

Evie’s magic—weaving visual tales out of written books—is so cool, but we needed so much more of it! I love how her magic is used to bring interest in literacy to poorer communities, and that message fits in well with the book and character, but I feel like Beckley could’ve taken it even further. I actually want more stories about Evie’s life before she became a journey carrier, because her magic mixed with book editing would be a really cool skill.

You’ll also be very happy with how LGBT-inclusive this world is! There are many trans and non-binary characters, and most characters seem to be bisexual or pansexual. And all family types are represented, from single parent households to big polyamorous families. In addition, all characters are unique—they come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and abilities. It’s a wonderfully diverse story, and I hope Beckley continues this world and expands on some of these characters.

This story ends on a sweet and happy note. It is all about finding yourself and finding your family in unexpected places. It isn’t a new type of story, but it’s a cozy one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. ...more

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Sep 28, 2020 MZ rated it liked it

Shelves: f-f, fantasy, magic, 2020, pub-ninestar-press, romance, novella-short, ya-na

3,25 stars. This was a cute light fantasy novella. I enjoyed this fast read, but I just needed a bit more text. Fantasy is probably one of the most difficult genres to write in a short format, as there is almost no time for world building and that was what I was missing here.

The story starts with Evie being reprimanded by her boss for something that she did not do. In fact, her (ex-)girlfriend was the culprit and Evie had been too trusting. She is demoted from assistant editor to a traveling lib 3,25 stars. This was a cute light fantasy novella. I enjoyed this fast read, but I just needed a bit more text. Fantasy is probably one of the most difficult genres to write in a short format, as there is almost no time for world building and that was what I was missing here.

The story starts with Evie being reprimanded by her boss for something that she did not do. In fact, her (ex-)girlfriend was the culprit and Evie had been too trusting. She is demoted from assistant editor to a traveling librarian in a place somewhere at the end of the earth and she’s also dumped by her girlfriend. On top of that she discovers that outdoor life is not her friend (she’s a real city mouse) and she has a hard time adjusting.

I really liked the premise of the book, but I would have liked a bit more info on the world Evie lives in. There was a lot of poverty and oppression and the librarian gild was somehow monitored by a person/government? in charge and I was wondering how the land was ruled and what the influence of magic was on the way people live. There was a little bit of magic in the book, but I felt it did not really add much to the story. I was hoping for a more pronounced role of the magic.

Due to the poverty and the general misery of Evie, the first part of the book was rather gloomy. Later, I read in the acknowledgments that the author was in a dark place when writing this book and I thought the first part of the book really reflected these dark feelings. However, the acknowledgements also noted that she needed a happy ending, which is what the second part of the book works toward. As the story develops Evie starts to adapt and grow stronger as a person, which was very nice to read. There is also a short romance in the second part and I won’t say too much about the person (spoilers) but I just loved her. The romance itself was sweet but too insta-love for me. Again, I would have liked a longer book, so there would be more time to let the romance develop. My review may sound quite critical, but in fact the story kept me interested and entertained from beginning to end and had me thinking of these additions that I would like to see, so I see that as a positive thing.

All in all, an enjoyable book, I just wished it was a bit longer. I am curious about the next book by Beckley. ...more

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Aug 12, 2020 Andria Potter rated it it was amazing

Fans of Sarah Gailey's Upright Women Wanted may thoroughly love this book! ❤️

RTC!!! ...more

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Aug 28, 2020 Anandi Puritipati rated it liked it

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

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

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! ...more

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Aug 12, 2020 Caitlin added it

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 ho ...more

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Oct 17, 2020 Althea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lgbt, trans-and-nonbinary, sapphic, ebooks, 2020-releases, adult, fantasy, arcs, romance, fat-rep

Read for Sapphic Saturday!

This follows Evie, an assistant editor, who exiled to ride with the Pack-Horse Librarians after her ex-girlfriend leaks the company's most prestigious author's manuscript to the press. However, when Evie gets there, she has to work out how to survive in the wilderness, especially when, during her first solo ride, her horse spooks and knocks her out of the saddle in the middle of the rain and in bear territory! I'm not sure what it was about this one that made me love it ...more

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Aug 13, 2020 Kahlia rated it liked it

Shelves: rep-lgbtqia, author-queer, genre-fantasy, length-novella

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 novell ...more

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Aug 14, 2020 Colleen Corgel rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, f-f-romance, fantasy, novella

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 t ...more

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Sep 09, 2020 Karen rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, read-in-2020

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 th ...more

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Mar 24, 2019 Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This short read packs a lot into it. Evie is forced to move to the country and take a job as a librarian who travels on horseback. There are new people, new friends, adventure, danger, and excitement (maybe not for her). There's lots of queer rep - lesbians, nonbinary folks, a polyam marriage and so on. Things work out eventually for Evie. It's just a fun story to read. ...more

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Nov 08, 2020 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020, lgbtq

This was so cute!! Fun, beautifully written, romantic, and hopeful. ...more

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Jan 27, 2021 Kitty rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: wlw, fantasy

There are a lot of great story elements in here but it’s too short and some of the descriptions of the brown characters read like textbook examples of how NOT to write characters of color.

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Aug 14, 2020 Gabriella rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, lgbtqia-no-labels-or-queer, lgbtqia-trans-or-nonbinary, arc, novellas, ebook, animal-friends, new-adult

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 ...more

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Nov 29, 2020 Jessica Favor rated it liked it

Shelves: lgbt

This novella is one of the most casually diverse books I have ever read. Evie, the main character, is a woman of color who is attracted to women, and Beckley just carries on from there. All of the families portrayed in the novella are headed by adults who are either part of a polycule or else are a queer couple. A prominent supporting character is nonbinary, and another is transgender. All of this is totally accepted, and nobody bats an eye at non-cishet identities.

Instead, most of the character This novella is one of the most casually diverse books I have ever read. Evie, the main character, is a woman of color who is attracted to women, and Beckley just carries on from there. All of the families portrayed in the novella are headed by adults who are either part of a polycule or else are a queer couple. A prominent supporting character is nonbinary, and another is transgender. All of this is totally accepted, and nobody bats an eye at non-cishet identities.

Instead, most of the characters are concerned with ensuring that there’s enough food for their children’s next meal. Evie Southiel is not a rich city girl, but she’s a city girl who has never needed to worry about fulfilling her basic needs the way most of the other characters do. When Evie leaves her urban home for Hevis, she is entering a totally different world dominated by rural poverty. Beckley continually returns to this motif of how little the people living in and around Hevis have, and how they don’t receive as much education. Evie, in her own way, is trying to improve this, but Beckley’s chosen form of a novella means that the scope of the book is too small for any significant change.

Evie’s story is not, however, about leading revolutions or changing the nature of the world. It’s about finding happiness in small things, even in the face of adversity. Beckley says in the acknowledgements at the end of the book that she was in “a fairly dark place and needed to write something with a happy ending.” That really shines through.

Evie hits some very low points during the course of her story, and where some authors would have things get even worse for her, Beckley is always careful to keep the light at the end of the tunnel shining brightly. This isn’t to say that hardship is glossed over, or that the trials and tribulations faced by the characters are insignificant, but rather that there is this unwavering, rock-hard core of optimism and goodness that the reader unearths, over and over, through the course of the book. Considering how grim and uncertain the real world is at present, I was grateful to feel able to pour myself into Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians and trust Beckley to steer a course that wouldn’t betray me.

My only real complaint is that the ending of the novella feels too abrupt. In just a few paragraphs, everything is resolved, and the events of the ending are told to the reader rather than shown. Other than that, however, I really enjoyed my reading experience; it was heartwarming, it was comforting, and it had just enough unpleasantness to ensure that I wasn’t overwhelmed by the sugary sweetness of the overall narrative. ...more

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Aug 17, 2020 Veronica of V's Reads rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, innocent-fun, interracial, magical-realism, fun-fast-read, paranormal-romance, adult, lesbian, person-of-color

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 countrysid 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. ...more

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Aug 23, 2020 Mis Hashmi rated it liked it

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 str ...more

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Feb 15, 2021 Louise rated it really liked it

Shelves: standalone, fantasy, arc, 2020-releases, short-stories, sapphic

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 ...more

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Aug 15, 2020 Danai writes rated it it was amazing

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 thro ...more

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Aug 15, 2020 Katie / Thebookwormteacher rated it it was ok

Thank you to @netgalley and @NineStar Press 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 untimely gets her fired.
In turn, Evie gets sent to a new job where she finds herself delivering books. This plot line was very similar to Giver of Stars for me, and I felt myself thinking that a bit too often.

I enjoyed the ...more

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Aug 18, 2020 Evan rated it really liked it

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 worl ...more

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Sep 15, 2020 Phoebe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lgbt-sidekicks, f-f-romance, science-fiction, shapeshifter, dystopian

What a delightful futuristic dystopian paranormal romance!

I really love the uniqueness of this clean sweet romance by Laurel Beckley. Evie and the Pack-Horse Librarians should be a series. I love the diversity of the characters and their own style which brought so much to the story. Then there is Evie and Katalin and I can just see it now as Evie gets in trouble and Katalin saves her all the time (laugh). Or the little cub getting into a scrap and needing to be saved.

Laurel Beckley has created ...more

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Aug 09, 2020 Margarida (mbooksbycandlelight) rated it liked it

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. ...more

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Aug 13, 2020 Ebb rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt-read

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 ...more

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Aug 24, 2020 Moraye Potgieter rated it it was amazing

This is a lovely quick read on second chances and how they can be the best thing to happen.

Through a second chance Evie finds herself and a family, that would never have been found otherwise. Leaving you comfort zone may be all you need, it also helps if it comes with a push in the right direction.

Evie is a likable and relatable character, especially when it comes to fellow booklovers. She shows growth and acceptance in a mature way considering her circumstances. It is also nice to see a chara ...more

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About Laurel Beckley

Laurel Beckley

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Laurel Beckley has been writing ever since she started her first novel the summer before eighth grade—a hand-written epic fantasy catastrophe that has lurked in her mind and an increasingly ratty college-ruled notebook ever since.

She is a writer, Marine Corps veteran and librarian.