Cover Image: The Book Charmer

The Book Charmer

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Member Reviews

I give this book 5-stars. The story is wonderful. The characters are quirky and interesting. It was so easy to fall in love with the town as well. I cannot wait for the next book in the Dove Pond series.

The book has good flow and is easy to read. There is no profanity that I can remember. There are also no intimate scenes. This book is perfect for your grandmother who loves to read, but doesn't like sex in her books. My grandmother tears out the pages, so you have to be careful with grandmothers.

I must, however, join the ranks of confusion regarding the title of the book and the main character. The title leads us to believe the book is about the book charmer of the town. The story is about a completely different character. The book charmer does have a story line in the book, but she is hardly the heroine of our story. I must admit, Ive never been faced with such a dilemma. I do sense that her story will continue on and culminate at some point in the series. Perhaps the book should have been called The Dragon Lady instead?

Daisy, Momma G and Grace will grab your heart in this debut novel of the Dove Pond series. Here's hoping we see more of Sarah and Blake in the books to come.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review The Book Charmer.

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Very sweet paranormal romance. I really enjoyed the characters and the settings. A family of 7 girls who each have some sort of powers- not massive dangerous powers- one is special with plants,one grows and makes special teas, and one who talks to books and they talk back. I am hoping this is going to be a series because I would like to read more about the family

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The Book Charmer (Dove Pond #1) by Karen Hawkins
The book winds a little magic with a little town that needed saving. Sarah Dove is a librarian who has grown up with books talking to her. They tell her when she needs to give someone a book, they tell her when she needs to read a book and they tell her that the new lady in town is going to save the town. Grace Wheeler comes to town in order to help her Grandmother who lived there before and has come down with dementia. She does a lot better when she is nearby that which is familiar from her past, it’s the present she forgets easily. Grace sure has her hands full with her and with her niece, whom she is suddenly mothering as her sister has died from drugs.
Dove Pond desperately needs saving but the books won’t tell Sarah how Grace will save the town just that she must stay more than the year she says she staying in order to save the town. Grace doesn’t even want to make friends, which makes Sarah’s job even harder. Grace definitely doesn’t want to find love, but she may find that also if she opens her heart. As she stays and works for a Mayor who only wants to go fishing, she has her hands full at work and also at home. A magical and unforgettable story!
I received this book as a free read through NetGalley.com in the ereader format. Of course, it deserves a review for the author and the publisher it’s a wonderful book! I think this book will do very well, thank you NetGalley! #TheBookCharmer #NetGalley #KarenHawkins

I found the description of this book on Good Reads:
New York Times bestselling author Karen Hawkins crafts an unforgettable story about a sleepy Southern town, two fiercely independent women, and a truly magical friendship.

Sarah Dove is no ordinary bookworm. To her, books have always been more than just objects: they live, they breathe, and sometimes they even speak. When Sarah grows up to become the librarian in her quaint Southern town of Dove Pond, her gift helps place every book in the hands of the perfect reader. Recently, however, the books have been whispering about something out of the ordinary: the arrival of a displaced city girl named Grace Wheeler.

If the books are right, Grace could be the savior that Dove Pond desperately needs. The problem is, Grace wants little to do with the town or its quirky residents—Sarah chief among them. It takes a bit of urging, and the help of an especially wise book, but Grace ultimately embraces the challenge to rescue her charmed new community. In her quest, she discovers the tantalizing promise of new love, the deep strength that comes from having a true friend, and the power of finding just the right book.

“A mesmerizing fusion of the mystical and the everyday” (Susan Andersen, New York Times bestselling author), The Book Charmer is a heartwarming story about the magic of books that feels more than a little magical itself. Prepare to fall under its

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Big Thanks to NetGalley and Pocket Books for the ARC!

The Doves of Dove Pond are like no other family. Each of the seven daughters has a particular "gift," particularly Sarah who talks to books, or rather the books talk to her. Each one tells her who needs to read it, and never why. Lately they have been whispering about who needs to save the town from its own financial destruction, and it's none other than newcomer Grace Wheeler. Grace Wheeler just lost her sister and now is caring for her niece and foster mother, Mama G who suffers from dementia. Grace's is all edges and lets nobody in. She has made it very clear to the town that she doesn't plan on staying and wants little to do with them. However, once delegated to run the fall festival she has to learn to put her anger aside to make room for the charming members of Dove Pond.

What a charming beginning of a series! All of the characters in this novel are very likeable and relatable, it has such small town charm and magic! I really enjoyed the story line as well, I liked the idea of the Dove women having "gifts" and how they provide guidance to members of the town. How they took Grace and turned her into one of them and brought everyone together.

However, while this is a wonderful story there are some issues I have with it. The book starts out solid, there is depth to the emotions of the characters and a rawness to them. I feel like towards the last third of the novel, the characters lose that and they are all "forgiving" and "soft", a complete 180 of how they were from the start. Grace especially is victim of this. She could be almost cruel to the other characters in the beginning and then she's all "oh you're my best friend, and everyone helps!" It was unrealistic and almost boring to read at that point. I also did not like the story of Sarah and Blake, that had so much promise and could really go somewhere, but it just ends. In fact, nothing happens at all. I got to the last page and was very disappointed that NOTHING happened. Hopefully that picks up in the second installment!

While some things could have been better, I will say overall I enjoyed this piece of work, and I will most definitely be reading the second book in the series!

Rate: 3.5/5 (rounded up)
Fiction
Author: Karen Hawkins
Pages: 368

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Easy read for fans of family books with a touch of magical realism. It reminded me of Sarah Addison Allen's books. I became attached to the characters, but the story takes a while to really get started, and the ending was not as satisfying as it could have been. That is tempered by the fact that it is planned to be a series, so we will get to see what happens next in Dove Pond.

I was provided an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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How could I not love this magical novel about a small town librarian who has the ability to "talk" to books, and the other wonderful characters inhabiting the southern town of Dove Pond? There are unexpected depths to this story, as it deals with foster care, aging, dementia, loss and second chances. I loved getting lost in the world the author created, which reminded me why books are good for the soul. I will happily recommend it to fans of Sarah Addison Allen, Susan Bishop Crispell, and some of the novels of Cathy Lamb. More like this one, please!

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What a charmer, both Sarah Dove and the story. A little bit of magic to overcome too much realism brings Grace to new horizons. Lovely.

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Great book awesome characters. I would recommend to all book lovers. I love books with the word book in them.

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After finding a home with a foster mom, Grace grows up to deal with the heartbreak of losing a sister to an overdose, and a mother to Alzheimer's. Despite the profound sadness that comes with these events, Grace is able to find hope and love with the help of The Book Charmer. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the mysticism that comes with harsh reality.

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If you’ve read Karen Hawkins’ books before and you love them you might still love this book, but put away all the things you expect about Karen Hawkins’ stories except it’s going to be sweet; it’s going to have humor; and it’s going to be about connections.

This is a small-town story of revival, both personal and community, and a story about friendship.

The book charmer, Sarah, is the small town librarian from the founding family of the Doves. The Dove family women have a little bit of magic. Some people might consider it intuition, some people might think it’s New Age baloney, but the Dove women have their gifts. Sarah discovered as a small girl that books actually spoke to her, quietly and her brain - sometimes disruptively, not always in a welcome way - but the books know things so Sarah listens.

Sarah grew up thinking that somehow she was going to save their struggling, little town. She was waiting for the wisdom. The burden is so clear to her that she doesn’t consider that the inspiration may come from another person.

Enter Grace, she moves to Dove Pond with her tiny, hurting family just for a year to help her ailing foster mother, her young niece, and herself grieve her sister and gather themselves before moving back to the big city of Charlotte. Really, she doesn’t want to get to know people; she will just be leaving again. So this is a story about how even reluctant neighbors learn to trust one another, like one another, and then rely on one another.

The book starts slowly as we are introduced to many people but then takes off about the end of chapter 9. It is the first of a series about the small town and I am pretty sure there will be love stories coming up. There was a bit of romance in this one but it was a healing, tentative reaching sort of romance with the promise of an HEA.

I am not a writer but I am an old and avid reader so I confidently state that Ms. Hawkins could have written this story so that the townspeople were introduced and friends were made without quite as much detail or in a more concise way. The first part of the book would’ve gone a lot faster if she had been able to take the time to refine and choose what to save for the next story. I’m saying this because some people will be turned off at the slow pace and that would be too bad, because there’s meat here and beautiful lessons about trust and connection. There are hints of some fun stories ahead and I have faith that they will be her usual funny and sweet romances.

Now for a tiny soapbox interlude:
Writers today are under a lot of pressure to produce. I’ve been reading for 50 years. I patiently waited at least a year for the next Thomas Tryon or Barbara Delinsky 30 years ago. In today’s instant gratification culture, constant media updates, fans pleading with authors to put out their next book (no polite snail mail fan letters... or weird ones), and authors having to be in charge of their own publicity as well as taking the time to write good quality work, there is way too much pressure on authors.

So, even though I cannot rate this book as five stars, it is a good beginning to what looks to be a fun series. Buy the book (or get your librarian to), read it, be patient with the slow beginning, and enjoy the sweetness of getting to know a new group of friends because although we don’t learn each other in a day we can still be kindred spirits.

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The Book Charmer charmed me. This story, full of magical realism, is full of love, longing, determination, and friendship. When Grace Wheeler moves her family to Dove Pond, it’s a temporary solution after a run of bad experiences. Distrustful of others, Grace is used to handling things on her own. Sarah Dove has other ideas. Sarah, the town librarian, is known for her magical connections with books, who actually talk to her. Sarah knows that Grace is there to save the dying town. Not only is The Book Charmer filled with whimsical moments, it entertains with a cast of characters that warm to Grace and show her what friends, and a community, can do. The relationship between Grace and Mama G is lovely and heartbreaking, which makes Grace’s relationship with Travis even more endearing. I smiled and teared up, but overall, I enjoyed the story and look forward to the next book in the series!

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First, a huge thank you to the publisher for a free E-copy of this book in exchange for an honest read and review.  I love when I am able to read things before they come out and give an honest review.  Not only does it make me feel like I'm doing something really cool and fun, but it also gives me a repertoire of books to recommend to others, should they ever ask.  I really enjoy knowing what new books are coming out and having a chance to read them makes this even better!

To be brief, this book focuses on a quaint town called Dove Pond, where the Dove family has lived for years.  Each of the Doves seems to have a special gift or ability.  This book, as the title says, focuses more on Sarah Dove, the local librarian.  From a young age, Sarah had the ability to converse with books; the books told Sarah where they needed to go and who needed them, so she became the town librarian to help fulfill the book's wishes.  While Sarah Dove is the focus for this book, it actually tends to shift focus more onto a small family of three, Grace, Daisy, and Mamma G.

This book, honestly, started a little slow for me and somewhat confusing.  I don't blame this on the book, but rather just me not reading the book information well enough and trying to read it too fast.  This book begins with two little girls in the foster system and their eventual adoption.  This little vignette seems to go quick and it then jumps to the present day.  Within the first little bit of this book, you learn a lot about those two little girls, their foster mother, and the new town they are moving to years later. 

Overall, I liked the general storyline of this book and thought it was really cute to read.  There is a theme of friendship and love, as well as strong independent women making things happen.  For me, those themes are what make books like this worthwhile.  There is not a strong love story or romantic plot, rather, it becomes a secondary aspect of the plot that seems to just happen naturally as the story progresses.  While I do like reading romance books, I think I like the natural progression better because it does read like something a bit more realistic and actually capable of happening.

In addition, the strong female characters that this book features are so important in the progression of the story and really make it what it is.  Without the strong female characters, this story would not be as good as it is and probably not last as long.  It was fun getting to read different storylines within this book and encounter so many strong women.  This book is set in the South and reads just like it because of the hospitality towards everyone, the quirky magic, and the general small-town feeling.

My critique of this book is not a big one.  I think that, for me, this book was a bit slow as it started and drug a little in the middle.  By the time I got to the end, the plot had grown so much, but so little was being resolved.  It felt almost as if the front three-quarters were big and busy, and the last quarter of the book really had to work to get everything wound up and resolved.  The epilogue also worked more than the front half of the book by resolving even more plot questions and truly ending the book.  For me, this wasn't a real problem reading it, but it did cause me to slow down reading as it started to drag a bit.  But, once you get past that part and can see the story resolution coming, it gets a lot better.  I enjoyed seeing the story wrap up and seeing the end.

Also, really quickly, let's talk about how cute this book cover is!  I definitely love this cover and it was what really drew me into this book before I even read the book information.

Overall, I gave this book three stars just because of the short lag in the beginning/middle and because the plot progression, after those slow bits really goes a bit too fast.  You don't get to read about the festival, that is such a big part of this story and the town.  The apple festival is glossed over and is something I would have loved to have a full chapter on, just to fill the reader in on what happens with that and how it generally progresses.    Otherwise, this was a cute story with an even more fitting setting.  I can definitely see where this will become a series, as there are plenty of Doves to help tell the stories.  I can't wait to see what comes next in this series!

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What a sweet book!! A combination of romance, friendship, self-actualization, and fairy tale, this is the story of two head-strong women in a small town coping with life. The characters are realistic and endearing, their motivations are true and understandable, and I couldn help but root for everyone in the story (even the minor characters). Yes, it was a bit predictable, but radical twists and turns just wouldn't fit the atmosphere or the characters or the setting of this story. Even the magical overtones became believable and natural for this story. A joy to read. I really enjoyed it.

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I loved the beginning of the book where Sarah starts to talk to books as a child. After that as she is grown up it turns into a more romance story and the magical realism seems to disappear. I would have loved for there to be more of it in this book.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

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Expecting this book to be about Sarah Dove & her sense that books speak to her, I was surprised to see her take a secondary roll in the story. The Book Charmer is an enjoyable read, one I hope will continue as a series to see where the characters may go. Grace Wheeler comes to terms with her foster mothers Alzheimer's, as well as learning to be a parent to her niece all with a move to a different town & a new job. A cute story, "cozy" if you will. It will be interesting to see if the next book is more about the Dove sisters, vs the towns people & their issues. Thank you to NetGalley & Gallery, Pocket Books for an advance copy in return for an honest review

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Grace Wheeler’s life started out difficult, but in her adult years she has established herself as a successful financial analyst in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her elderly foster mother Mama G has been living in a nearby town raising Grace’s eight year old niece Daisy for Grace’s wayward sister Hannah. Three separate events happen in a short period of time that drastically change Grace’s predictable workaholic life. Hannah dies in a tragic accident, Mama G is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and Mama G’s house suffers irreparable damage during a storm. Grace decides she has no choice but to take over the care of Daisy and Mama G, and opts for a clean start in Mama G’s hometown of Dove Pond, North Carolina. No fan of small towns, Grace considers Dove Pond a temporary fix and vows to move the family back to Charlotte as soon as she can. She secures a job as town clerk and moves her family into a dilapidated little house which is owned by Mama G’s cousin.

Despite her internal struggle to remain aloof and distance herself from the townspeople and their activities, Grace eventually finds herself immersed in the charms of Dove Pond. After some resistance, Grace befriends several neighbors who make her feel more at home in the town. One neighbor is Sarah Dove, the town librarian who has some special talents. The Dove women have always possessed some unique mystical abilities, and Sarah’s powers are those of a “book whisperer”, where she can converse with the books in the library. Grace’s other neighbor is Travis Parker, a rough but attractive war veteran who seems to be fighting demons of his own that can rival Grace’s. Grace reluctantly settles into small town life and soon finds herself involved in helping the town in ways that she never dreamed possible.

The Book Charmer is a heartwarming story of an idyllic town whose charm and residents will likely remind readers of Star’s Hollow (Gilmore Girls) or Mayberry (Andy Griffith), with some magical moments mixed in for good measure. Karen Hawkins is gifted storyteller who has crafted a novel complete with very likable characters, a touch of romance, and a fantasy element. This winning combination will capture her reader’s attention and make them feel good… just like a Hallmark movie.

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What begins as a story of a small-town librarian and the books in her care who talk to her, turns into a touching story about family, home and heart. While there is a gentle wave of the magical realism wand, this story is a sweet romance or women’s fiction story with characters that you’ll want to meet for coffee and pie.

Sarah Dove is the seventh daughter in her family, and the Dove family was a founding family of Dove Pond, North Carolina. Legend has it that when a seventh daughter is born, portentous changes happen. Sarah hopes this is true because her small town needs help.

Dove Pond could be Mayberry. Shady trees, old homes with character, quaint shops, it’s a g-rated family place. But the town is fading away, and declining. When the prickly Grace moves in to town with her family, Sarah senses that Grace is the help that Dove Pond needs. (One of the books whispered to her and confirmed it!)

Grace needs help. She was a foster child, shuffled from home to home until “Mama G” took in her, and her sister. Grace ends up succeeding and getting a good education and job. But when sadness hits, Grace takes an opportunity to move to Dove Pond with Mama G and her motherless niece Daisy.

Something good needs to happen to Grace, Sarah, the brooding biker guy Trav who lives near them, and the town. Will Grace finally come “home”?

While the magical realism of the talking books with personality was just a light sprinkling of whimsy, the main story of Grace, Daisy, Mama G, Sarah, and Trav, and the business travails of Dove Pond, is as warm as the sun in Dove Pond and as cozy as a swing on a front porch. Enjoyable!

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster for a digital ARC. This is my honest review.

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This book is a light cozy romance. Once I realigned my expectations to that reality, I was able to stop criticizing the book for what it wasn’t and begin appreciating what it was.

Based on the publisher’s blurb, I was looking forward to a contemporary literary fiction novel, with deep human drama mixed with elements of magical realism. Maybe not as intense as Isabel Allende or Laura Esquivel, but something along those lines. My thought was that there would be interesting insights from known literary works in distinct voices.

The book was none of that. However, it definitely fit the formula of a cozy romance, right down to the happily ever after ending that you expect in a romance. I don’t read in that genre so I really can’t judge whether it was an above average specimen or not. The author did put a lot of effort into developing a sense of place, so I suspect there will be more Dove Pond books focusing on the other sisters’ talents. I won’t get sucked in by those because I now know what to expect from the series, and it isn’t my cup of tea.

I received this book as a digital advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

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This storyline fell a little flat for me, both in character development and its advertisement of “magical realism”. There was a lot of potential in the plot ideas laid out, but these ideas were never fully developed. It just felt a little light weight. Thank you for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

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Grace Wheeler comes to Dove Pond for the sake of Mama G who is suffering from Alzheimer's. She is determined to stay no longer than a year. That is, until Sarah Dove and others in the community get her involved in the town's affairs and her next door neighbor Trav catches her heart. A totally charming look at a town filled with love.

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