In Nina George’s previous book, The Little Paris Bookshop, a beautiful story about a man who decides to open a bookstore which is on a boat and floats to the towns along its route and all the interesting characters that are met on its journey. The premise of the story was that the main character had read a story about a gifted girl, and suddenly got the idea for his floating bookstore.

Well, now Nina George has written the book which inspired the floating bookstore in the previous story. The Little Village of Book Lovers is the tale which the main character read, and it is magically beautiful, the writing poetic, the plot enchanting, imaginative and heartwarming.

The tale begins when a little baby is suddenly orphaned as fate would have it. Her name, Marie Jeanne. This was during the 1960’s in a small town in France. She is watched over by love and fate. When she is discovered by a worker named Francis, he and his wife Elsa decide to raise her. They know somehow, she is special. Unbeknownst to them as Marie Jeanne begins to grow, she somehow is able to see people’s glows. She doesn’t yet understand why. And for some reason, she herself does not glow.

Then her foster father has the idea to create a mobile library which travels by van throughout the area. Elsa has her concerns as Francis mortgages everything they own to make this happen. As Marie Jeanne begins to grow up, and travel with Francis in the mobile library which soon becomes popular, she realizes what her talent is to be used for. She is somehow able to match people’s glows by how they look and what they read.

The older she gets, the more she sees how she is able to make people happy as she matches them, and their enjoyment as how books play such an important role. But Marie Jeanne is unable to find her own soulmate it seems. She has never seen a glow from anyone for her. But she accepts her fate on love and just relishes what she is able to accomplish.

But as she knows, fate and love are her friends. They’ve taken care of her all her life. She wonders…if she asks, will they grant her the ability to find her own soulmate? It’s then that love and fate who adore Marie Jeanne must make a decision. But how can they let her go?

The Little Village of Book Lovers is a wonderful story filled with extraordinarily imaginative characters all who feel they must somehow accept loneliness for the rest of their lives, but through the magic of a young girl and books their destiny changed.

Thank you #NetGalley #RandomHouse/BallentineBooks #NinaGeorge #TheLittleVillageofBookLovers for the advanced copy.

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George was a magical read. I had not read George's previous books, but I will be going back to read them now! This lovely little tale had me enchanted from the very first page, where the personified Love, the narrator of this tale, communes with the Olive Tree, under which the infant Marie-Jeanne is lying peacefully in her cradle. Every scene in the French countryside is so beautifully written, each character is so delightfully quirky, that it is easy to suspend disbelief and accept the magical realism that is the crux of the story. I have never wanted to visit France more than I do after finishing this beautiful story about the transformative power of both books and love. Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this e-galley.

The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George is a beautifully- penned novel that revolves around family, friendship, love and the transformative power of books.
As the story begins we meet orphaned infant Marie-Jeanne who finds a family with bric-a-brac dealer and deliveryman Francis Meurienne and his wife Elsa the Valley of Nyons in the 1960s, both of whom care for her deeply though Elsa isn’t too expressive of her emotions. As an infant Marie-Jeanne has a strange encounter with Love, that leaves her with a special gift – the ability to see how Love impacts the people around her, the “glow” that is evident in those touched by Love – a gift that initially confuses her because others cannot see what she sees and eventually as she grows up has her concerned when she cannot see the same “glow” on herself.

Encouraged by her curiosity about writers and books, her foster father thinks of starting a bookmobile service – a venture Marie-Jeanne enthusiastically participates in, enabling her to interact with residents of the neighboring towns in Nyons. Her love for books and her perceptiveness of love enables her to study those she believes have been touched by Love or are waiting to find their significant other. The narrative follows Marie-Jeanne as she uses her gift and love for books to not only encourage children, men and women from Nyons to develop an interest in reading and thereby explore different ways of life but also to bring people together. She hopes to find a special someone in her own life, but is happy to be helping others, combining her matchmaking skills with her knowledge of books.

With elements of magical realism, a cast of interesting characters and a unique narrative structure (told from the perspectives of Love , Fate and an eight-hundred-year-old Olive Tree), this book is a treat for bibliophiles and romantics alike. This is a slower-paced novel and does require a bit of patience but the story, the beautiful passages, the literary references and the underlying message cast a spell on me and I found myself rereading certain segments time and time again. This isn’t a plot-driven novel but one that explores love in its various manifestations – family, friendship, romantic love, empathy and kindness. A running theme in this novel is books can bring people together. Overall, this is an enchanting read that will leave you with a smile on your face and happiness in your heart.

Though this novel is tied to The Old Paris Bookshop, it can be read as a standalone. I loved the Author’s Postface where she discusses the connection between the two books and her motivation for writing this novel.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine and NetGalley for the much–appreciated digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

If you love to read and believe in the power of books - this is a must read. If you want to believe in the power of love - also a must read. Nina George - author also of The Little Paris Bookshop - advocates beautifully for the power of stories to shape the lives of readers who read books. She lays the groundwork for this idea in The Little Paris Bookshop, and this librarian/literature teacher was dazzled - the way George intertwines this idea in The Little Village of Book Lovers with love and the fates and hate who are CHARACTERS no less is just stunning.

To summarize this title feels silly to me. How to recapture in a few words the intricacies of what George does, in fact, seem a bit impossible. She begins with an orphaned baby, a sentient olive tree, an overwhelmed love, and a family. She creates within the new father this unexpected urge to read and to surround himself with readers and more importantly to surround his daughter with readers. His daughter sees lights that no one else can, and the child struggles to figure them out -she reads, studies, and talks to others. The whole village becomes involved as she learns what it means to love and be loved.

So you don’t know that you need to read Nina George until you do.

As a lover of books about books, Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop holds a special place in my reading life. When I learned of a new book inspired by The Little Paris Bookshop, I was in. The Little Village of Book Lovers is about connections and finding love through books, a beautiful intention shared in the most lyrical prose.

Thank you to Nina George, NetGalley, and Ballentine Books for the opportunity to read and review The Little Village of Book Lovers.

This is an unusual novel that began in such a slow, convoluted way that I had my doubts about its value. However, after that initial challenge, I discovered a story full of wisdom, insight, and quirky characters. The story revolves around a special girl names Marie Jeanne who is somewhat mythical and can see glowing hands, face, head etc on people around her but no one else can. There’s this magical olive tree that also gives wisdom to her. The book is a lot about the unseen factors in life that determine our decisions like: love, death, friendship, jealousy, passion, fear, hate. It shows so deeply that Love is complicated, messy, heartbreaking, warm, simple, torturous, easy to miss, and maybe even easy to find. In small moments of everyday life, in big moments, and daily trials, we are shown how people try to fight love, or find it, or rail against not having it. We see pieces of peoples’ hearts as they observe the person they love, and we see people learn about themselves and face their own fears where love is concerned. It isn’t focused on only romantic love either, but love between family members, friends, and communities.


Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher

Nina George’s latest novel, The Little Village of Book Lovers, is a prequel of sorts. In her amazing novel, The Little Paris Bookshop, a book is referenced that inspires the bookseller, Jean Perdu to begin his journey. Also in that book, Jean Perdu states that some books are written for just one person, and The Little Village of Book Lovers is probably written solely for Jean Perdu.

I liked The Little Village of Book Lovers, but I found it a bit slow through most of the first half of the book. The narrator is “Love”, and other fates/emotions are characters as well. I found it interesting and unique to have Love, Fate, Chaos, et al tell Marie-Jeanne’s story as if watching her life on a screen. Another unique character in the story is an ancient and wise olive tree.

Through the first half of the book, we and Marie-Jeanne learn of her special gift. Once Marie-Jeanne decides to take action, the pace of the story moves much more quickly. The Little Village of Book Lovers crescendos in the most delightful way and concludes very satisfactorily. While this book is a standalone novel, I highly recommend reading The Little Paris Bookshop first to maximize your appreciation of Ms. George’s writing style and her take on magical realism.

In The Little Village of Book Lovers, you will find a unique story. A story about love and relationships, a story about people and their relationships.
At first, in the first chapters it was hard for me to get into the story, due to the way it is told. However, once I got into the story, I found a beautiful story that was both fascinating and gripping.
The story went straight to my heart and made me feel connected to Marie-Jeanne and all the characters. I loved how it talks about love and how complicated and yet beautiful it is. I also love how it talks about the power of books and stories. I really liked the idea of the bookabus and the Littéramour gatherings. It made me want to leave in Nyons and joined the characters.
Overall, I really enjoyed it. And since I haven’t read The Little Paris Bookshop, I am now dying to do it.

I have loved Nina George's other novels, but this one was a bit tough to read. "Love" and "Death" are characters in the novel. This book is based on interesting concepts, and the language is gorgeous. However, I had trouble getting into it and even more trouble connecting with the characters.

What a charming read, a love letter to readers, books, and a bit of magic, is a beautiful combination.

Set in the 60s in the south of France, Marie-Jeann is a little girl who loves books, reads them, talks about them, and makes her own stories, books are magic, and one day she realizes that she also has a little bit of magic too, she can see small spheres of light around people that light up when they are near their soulmates, she will soon be a matchmaker. She lives with her adoptive father who runs a mobile bookstore, Marie-Jeann accompanies him through small towns, and she sets out to find the perfect books for the residents and their soul mates.

It's a lyrical story, has a dreamy style, and the narrators are mythical creatures, like Fate, Death, Oliver Tree, and others (this reminded me of The Book Thief and Lovely War). It's a story that makes you want to travel to the places mentioned, reread your favorite books, try to read more classics, and form a little book club with people who love books just like you do.

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Random Books - Ballantine for the ARC

Read it if:
You love books
Enjoy slow stories
Want something with a dash of magic
Are you in the mood for something peaceful with relaxing cozy vibes

This book wasn't what I was expecting it to be. I was not a fan of the symbolism and ended up not finishing the book.

I wanted to love this so bad but the first half of the book absolutely dragged and kept me wanting for more. The second half did end up being more endearing but this was not for me.

This book has numerous fascinating characters, a glorious setting in Provence, thoroughly described in detail, as well as a loving depiction of a way of life in the French countryside that rarely exists anymore. It doesn't have an actual plot, but is more of a lyrical storytelling experience that meanders like a river, takes frequent detours, and eventually is quietly subsumed into a greater whole.

Once I understood that the purpose of the book was not really to tell a story, but rather a rumination on the themes of love, fate, chance, death, etc. I stopped expecting anything much to happen and instead slowed down and switched on the philosophical side of my brain to digest it better. It is beautifully written, but a bit too dense and packed with too many life lessons. I kind of wish the author had picked just a few main themes and stuck to those instead of trying to pack a whole universe of wisdom as well as a whole range of diverse characters into one relatively slim book. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

The beginning of this book is slightly confusing and I feel this would be a great audiobook listen as a lot of the names/words are in Italian and I know I am 117% butchering the pronunciations.

The story revolves around a special girl names Marie Jeanne who is somewhat mythical and can see glowing hands, face, head etc on people around her but no one else can. There’s this magical olive tree that also gives wisdom to her. The book is a lot about the unseen factors in life that determine our decisions like: love, death, friendship, jealousy, passion, fear, hate, etc.

Throughout the course of the book Marie is connecting others together in the form of love but delivered by books via the “bookabus.” The big question is, is if Marie ever finds love on her own or if she is just destined to be the one helping everyone else find love.

The Little Village of Book Lovers is a whimsical piece of magical realism set in southern France in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It’s narrated by Love (other characters mentioned include Fate, Logic, and Chaos), but follows a group of people living in a small village in Nyons. Marie-Jeanne has the gift of being able to see love in the form of “southern lights” on people’s bodies, but she has no such light of her own. While she can set others up with their soul mates, she, sadly, will never find her own love.

In the first half of the book, the main focus is on Marie-Jeanne’s dad, Francis, as he spreads a love of reading throughout their village. Previously suspicious of books, all the inhabitants soon become avid readers and discuss the many classic novels they all regularly read. This is how we meet a wide cast of characters around town, many of them single and pining for love.

The second half of the book focuses more on finding your soul mate and opening up your heart to love. This is where Marie-Jeanne steps in, helping nudge people in the right direction of their one true love. Even so, she wishes she could be one of those people finding her own soul mate.

The Little Village of Book Lovers is a sort of parable, and between its main plot, it’s also filled in with numerous asides about various characters and themes. It’s charming, but this format is part of what prevented me from fully connecting with the story overall. While it’s a quick and easy read, it feels very surface level. It’s somehow both warm and rather distant from the characters. Even the many mentions of well-known books were nice, but not enough to hold my interest.

One oddity that rubbed me the wrong way: There’s only one queer character here, but for some reason she’s the only one who a) doesn’t get to find love (as her soul mate died many years ago) and b) insists that she doesn’t want love in the form of physical intimacy. Why is she singled out like this? It feels homophobic?

In any case, one early line in the novel that stood out to me is this: “If love is the poetry of the senses, books are the poetry of the impossible.”

The Little Village of Book Lovers is a cute and fanciful novel, but I don’t think I was the right audience for it. The writing style isn’t to my taste, but might appeal to fans of magical realism and books with wider casts of characters.

The best way to describe this book is that it felt like a warm hug. This was an absolutely sweet story about a young girl in 1960s South of France, Marie-Jeanne, who has the ability to see little lights on others' bodies that act as manifestations of love. Her foster father decides to start a mobile library business, and along with him, she spreads stories and love throughout her village. The novel is narrated by Love, whom which Marie-Jeanne has a special connection with.

I decided to read this book after finishing a couple heavy books that led me to feel an impending book slump. This novel absolutely stopped that slump in its tracks. It reminded me of all the reasons we love stories - their ability to bring people together, transport us to different worlds, and allow us to live a multitude of lives. The descriptions of the story also highlighted the qualities of love - its ability to apply to everyone, how each individual feels and shows love differently, and the ways love can nourish our lives. I felt refreshed, invigorated, and inspired upon finishing the novel.

One of the key features of this novel that readers may enjoy or feel uncomfortable by is its narration by Love, and characters including Wonder, Fate, and Death, which are embodiments of the forces that make up human nature. Personally, I felt that this unique feature of the novel was refreshing and allowed me to consider different perspectives that I had not in a very long time. For the story's plot being relatively small-scale, it was the exact type of story I needed to remind me of why I read, and why the desire for human connection is so fulfilling.

I am so grateful to have had this book be the first ARC I received from NetGalley, as it served as an inspiration for why I have chosen to throw myself into my reading. This book was as bookish as it was beautiful, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this digital ARC.

At first, I wasn't sure about this one. I was confused and kept asking myself how it had anything to do with books. The more I read, though, the more I realized how truly lovely this story was. Told from the POV of Love, it is magically realistic in the way that we always ponder the how, why, when, where, and who we will fall in love. While Love (and in this case Marie Jeanne) can give love a nudge, it is up to us to have open hearts, eyes, and souls. Books become the conduit to allowing the minds to truly open up to the world and love. The author uses amazing imagery, allegory, metaphors, and fantasy to weave a really good story together.

I was so excited when I saw this book being touted as a companion piece to The Little Bookshop in Paris. I read that book in 2016 and while it’s not the freshest thing in my mind (seven years and at least five hundred books later), I remembered loving the characters, the imagery and the flow of the book. I had hoped to find the same here, but I felt like this one fell flat in a lot of ways.

The beginning (and, honestly, a good half the book) seems to be in third person. We get to know Francis and several other amazing characters with this. But then “I” keeps coming forward. Love- yes, the embodiment of the emotion- comes in talking about her job, her family (Death, Hope, Logic… you get the idea), and adding asides on how they see the people and things around them. I think this was the author trying to take a stab at different genres, though I could be wrong. There’s a bit of magical realism here, but as there’s also the olive tree and Marie-Jean’s ability…. I think that’s too much of the magical to be strictly considered so. For me, what it did was land it in the genre of metafiction. Love, with her asides, drew me out of the story and made me remember that these characters I love so much are fictional- that I am reading a book instead of hearing about friends. I hold back on claiming Histiographic metafiction because the author never actually tells us this, and infact treats them as real. It is the jarring motion between narratives that remind me again and again that it’s fiction.

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Maybe I am wrong, and the author didn’t want to try different genres, only wanting to create Love. I could wish that it was a cleaner break between narratives. Some times there will be headers, or a different font… but in the copy I got, it didn’t always happen (hopefully that will be changed in the finished copy). It just seemed a bit sloppy to me.

Aside from the technical and flow of the book, though, it was amazing. The characters were brilliant and I wanted more time with all of them. I loved seeing them move together. Francis and Elsa have a special part in my heart. There is a miniscule tie in to the earlier book which was lovely, but not nearly enough for me to think of it as a sequel. This can be enjoyed as a solo book if you haven’t read The Little Paris Bookshop (though I recommend that book for its own sake- five stars all the way). Marie-Jean is a fantastic character and I loved watching her grow. Even Love was an interesting character, well formed and rather charming. I see a lot of other readers talking about all the “Quotable Moments”. There were tons of pieces that I loved so much I had to stop and think about them and, in some cases, write them down. George is an amazing writer and always had that effect on me.

All in all, I found this book enjoyable, but not their best. The bones are good- great characters, and interesting premise and glorious imagery. Honestly, I am planning on buying a paper copy to revisit my favorite parts. There were a few issues with execution, but it was a great book despite it all. Three stars.

⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
On the adult content, there isn’t much. Some language, light flirting… nothing over the top. It’s geared toward adults, I would say seventeen and up.


I was lucky enought to recieve an eARC from Netgalley and Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.

A story narrated by Love... The characters are very charming and I really enjoyed the small town setting in France. This story is made for those who enjoy books about books. Fans of Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop will enjoy this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC.

This book is so special. A love letter to love, books, and the power that both have to change lives. So enjoyed that Love, Fate, and Death are important characters in the story. “She regarded books like the sea-she could swim through them . . . her plan was to look back at the end of her life over the long and exciting course she had swum through times and hearts and currents of knowledge and different worlds and emotions.” Highly recommend, releases Tuesday, July 25th!