In this historical fiction title, the author depicts rural Kentucky during the Great Depression when the Works Progress Administration undertook the Packhorse Library Program. Under this initiative, volunteer librarians delivered books on horseback to families living in the hills of Appalachia in order to promote literacy. It is within this setting that Moyes sets her story of several volunteer packhorse librarians, including Alice, a recent transplant from England who has married the son a coal mining baron; Margery, a stubborn and fierce defender of free access to books; Sophia, the only librarian with any actual experience in a library but who can only secretly mend books for the library because she is Black; and two other young ladies named Beth and Izzy. Their determination and friendship will be the glue that binds them as Margery, who has a reputation as a loose woman of poor moral character, is accused of murder. Though the pacing could be tighter at the beginning, Moyes provides us with well-developed plot surrounding a little known piece of history, doing so with strong female characters that readers will find themselves rooting for.
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