The Librarian

The Librarian Chronicles #1

by Christy Sloat

He’s from 1892 England, she’s in a small library in 2017. And that's just the start of their troubles.

Emme never meant to stay in Maine. She'd come only to find a librarian for her Gram's library, a custodian for the collection of mysterious books she'd promised to protect. On a dark, wintery night, alone in the library, she takes her first glance into one of the antique novels and finds herself transported to 1892 England staring into the eyes of handsome and dashing hero Jack Ridgewell. As each chapter passes she learns you can truly fall in love with a character in a book, that book boyfriends are real and Emme must choose between the real world, and his.

When the last page is read he's gone and Emme feels the cold loneliness of lost love. Will she find Jack again, or will their love be forever lost? The answer lies within the pages…

Genres: Time Travel, Fantasy, Romance, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Books About Books, Audiobook

230 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2017

About the author

Christy Sloat resides in New Jersey with her husband, two daughters and her Chihuahua, Sophie. Christy has embraced the love of reading and writing since her youth and was inspired by her grandmother's loving support. She loves adventurous journeys with her friends and can be known to get lost inside a bookstore. She is the Best Selling author of ten novels including; The Visitors Series, The Past Lives Series and Slumber.


Check out her website www.christysloatauthor.weebly.com
Blog http://christysloat.blogspot.com/, Facebook: Christy Sloat Author www.facebook.com/christysloatauthor. Twitter: ChristySloat

Reviews

[Ben Alderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Thank you Christy for sending me this for a review.

I really enjoyed:
-Travel through book aspect.
-Description of modern day Maine and historical England & America.
-Friendship between Emme and T!

I did find some of the romance abit to heavy, but that is personal preference. I know alot of readers love a romance based novel & minor insta love. I did really like the main love interest, then hate him, then love him again. I found the end to be perfect, a really well thought out end. Both a sad and a happy one.

Really interesting idea of 'librarians' and their 'magical' job. The setting was great and I do really hope Christy writes a companion novel about another Librarian maybe?

[*The Angry Reader* · Rating 1 out of 5]

You discover you can travel through time via a magic book. What do you do? Arrive in 1892 (or 1893 bc the editor missed that) and discuss yoga pants and your attractiveness with some hot guy. Of course, you're the same person who invites a stranger to move in with you (convenience) and whines that your college friends don't really miss you (even though your grandma revealed a huge important family secret to you and then DIED) rather than focus on any other aspects of your life. Jittery writing. Immature heroine. Vapid shallow story-telling.

[Scarlett Readz and Runz....Through Novel Time & Distance · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a darling sweet story! Added with time travel and a magic library, voila! Heaven!
♥
Emme enjoys her college life. She is a runner, organizes fundraisers, is well liked with friends and she does not date seriously. She grew up with her grandmother in a sleepy town in Maine and left that life to explore the world. When a call comes in from her childhood friend that her grandma is in the hospital on life support, she does not understand right away how serious the situation is and that her gram is on her death bed.

Arriving just in time, gram is bestowing her with the responsibility of running her library back in Maine. This changes everything for Emma, as her grandmother left her a trail of breadcrumbs to follow, that lead her into becoming a magical library historian.

As Emme takes over the library and moves permanently into gram's place, she discovers secret books and a ring that were left for her to help her document history. The first time she time travels into the year 1892 England and meets the most handsome and respectful gentleman she has ever encountered. Jack Ridgewell. He is about to journey to the New World and follow his father’s footsteps. As Emme is figuring out how all this new magic works, she is revisiting Jack a few more times and inevitable changing his future. They fall in love madly, but Emme has to find a way to set things right. In her present time she finds out what happens to Jack, and she can hardly bare being responsible for his altered path.

Can she be the one that resets time? How will she fare in the brink of losing love?

***

This story reads swift and easy. It is utterly delightful. Seemingly predictable, there are unexpected surprises.
I am not a reader of romance, and picked this book for the premise of time travel, history and my love for libraries. If romance appears in books I read it is fine, but I don’t seek it. But this sweet, sweet heart fluttering love in here is simply darling. Many firsts, chivalry and grace to sweep the reader away. If you are a romantic, you will love this novel. I may have to reconsider my book choices…perhaps I do need some romance in my life!
♥
In all, simply lovely. Now read it you lovely people!

Enjoy :)

Review on my site: https://scarlettreadzandrunz.com/blog...

[Alaina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Librarian was so good! Yes, it had some boring parts but it was still enjoyable to me! It probably helps because it was an audio and it made work fly by.

So in this book you meet Emma. Her grandmother owns this book store and wants Emma to one day run it. Of course Emma doesn't want that - she want's to a college far away and live out her dreams. Well, until her grandma ends up in the hospital and things don't look good for her. Nope, her grandma dies and Emma has to take over the book store.

Emma was kind of a lovable character but she annoyed me a whole lot. It's like her decisions to do things just irritated the shit out of me. The whole time travelling aspect was enjoyable but it wasn't better than some of the other time travelling books I've been reading lately.

The whole book time travelling thing was interesting but Emma not wanting to keep the bookstore EVEN after her grandma died and told the super important family secret was just annoying to me. I get that she wanted her old life back before everything hit the fan.. but come on! Book jumping through time sounded awesome!

Overall, I liked listening to the audio book while at work because it made time fly by. However, I probably wouldn't have read the kindle version for fun. The ending was underwhelming and a disappointment. It also had boring parts that didn't hold my interest. Oh, and if the main character didn't annoy me then I would've rated it higher.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, I was attracted to this book by the cover and by the ratings, but the story did not live up to either.

After reading about 20% of the book, I realized that the story was going nowhere. I started to skip a lot and didn't miss anything. The writing seemed to be a child trying to be a adult, throwing in swear words and sexual innuendoes.

The basic outline for the book was good, time travel and romance. The story just didn't reach it's potential. Too bad.

[Lisa (Remarkablylisa) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun time-travel story but I was a little put off with the fact that Emme fell in love with two guys in a short amount of time. Well, she fell in love with a man from the 1700s and then she couldn't date him so she fell in love with his descendant in the end. Weird. Other than that, it was fun and light. Perfect for people who want to escape.

[Victoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. It's just boring...
The idea of the book was so promising, and the cover looked awesome. A librarian who travels in time through a book, sounded very cool and magical for holidays. However, it ended up so dull and boring. The heroine is so immature and stupid, I just couldn't continue reading and wasting my time...

[Jessica *The Lovely Books* · Rating 1 out of 5]

There goes a few hours I’ll NEVER get back. Boring—but what made what looked like a promising book terrible, was the fact that it had such a shallow and idiotic heroine. Yuck. How the hell do I forget I read this?

[Jaime (Two Chicks on Books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this and I have many thoughts and feelings about it. This was an amazing story! It was romantic but bittersweet. I loved that Emme time traveled through a book. It was kinda like Inkheart but for a NA crowd, so yes there's some swoony smexy scenes. I fell hard for Jack, he was handsome, dashing, smart, funny, and a true gentleman. Emme was such a cool MC because she wasn't this kick ass and take names type of chick she was just a normal girl with normal problems, like what to do with her life and I loved that about her. She stumbled, she messed, up, but she didn't give up! She learned and loved, and fixed her mistakes when she made them. I also love the twist Christy threw in there at the end! I kinda saw it coming but I didn't care one bit because it was an awesome twist! I know this is a standalone right now but I really hope Christy decides to write another book, or three, or four! There's librarians all over so we could have a few companion novels and I hope that Emme and J make an appearance here and there because I love them and would miss them if they didn't :)

Make sure to pre order this one it comes out soon!!

[Paola · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book broke my heart, I loved it's first part and the fact that this librarians are people that with the use of magic and science can travel in time through a book in order to preserve history, I believe every reader would love to meet some characters and interact with them.
That been said I think that although this book had the potential to be a favorite for me, sadly I felt disappointed with it's last chapters, I understand the author and the reasons why she wrote that end, but I would enjoyed more something different.

[Karima chermiti · Rating 1 out of 5]

I always believed that time travel could never be anything short of spectacular; I certainly did not think it could be boring and stupidly ridiculous. But then I came across the librarian.



I am hurt to say I was wrong and the librarian is a tangible proof to that. I am really amazed how a book that contains so many cool and interesting elements ends up with the charisma and the appeal of a piece of wood, harsh, I know but it is my honest to GOD opinion.



At first, I was intrigued by the premise of a librarian who can only travel to the past to witness the life of an important individual and record his most important achievement so it would be known to the public as it really happened. I was like where do I sign please. Add to that a star-crossed lovers romance and I was hooked.

But then, ridiculous and boring things kept happening and I was in denial at first because I wanted to love the book but after reading more than its half, I could not keep doing it and I just slapped myself with the truth: this is a very boring superficial book with nothing interesting whatsoever and the chance that it gets better are slim to none right now.

This book is a the proof of how you take a very promising idea and then you butcher it with annoying immature characters and an unconvincing flat romance that has no passion, no chemistry and no fire. To make it more clear why I hated the romance, I need to say that I am not a fan of insta-love, it just does not work for me because it throws everything fascinating about a relationship development out of the window. And in this story the female protagonist falls in love with the male protagonist after meeting him twice for a couple of hours. They spend those hours ogling each other, drooling on each other and flirting with each other, add to that the lack of the chemistry and connection and I find myself annoyed and disappointed.



And we are supposed to believe that it’s an epic love story about sacrifice and tragedy of loving someone you can never have. Give me break. She goes back in time and corrects their first meeting so that he never loved her. Then she meets another man of his lineage who looks exactly the same and falls in love with him. She gets over him prettily easily like she never really loved him that epic tragic love she kept whining about. As a result, the only emotional growth or development that our characters endured is erased and sacrificed for the necessity of a happy ending that’s as boring as the rest of the book.

[Lydia ☽︎ · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of this book held a lot of promise for me but was executed so poorly.

The writing was clunky, lacked subtlety in its foreshadowing and the dialogue could be cheesy at times whilst shallow and vapid during others.
Some plot points didn’t even make sense, for example, Emme is describing photographs taken between 1850 and 1950 and describing the women in the pictures...including their hair colour.
Yeah....I think photographs from those time periods maaaay have been black and white and whilst you might be able to tell if someone had dark or light hair, you certainly would not know that someone had red hair or dark blonde like she describes. She also goes on to describe the colour of the jewellery the women are wearing.
*sighs*

And then we got this line:
“Of course they weren’t going to let it be, were they?
No, because that was girls for you. Girls were catty and lived for gossip; trust me I am one”
(And this is the exact quote taken word-for-word from the book...I wish I was joking or paraphrasing)

.....And this one:
“I’m not your average girl”. Yep, that little treasure of a line.
It was at this point that my feminist self wanted to lob this book out the nearest window, all the while cursing every author who ever used the phrase “I’m not your average girl” and then punching a wall.

There was also a pathetic attempt at deflecting any curiosity or questions the reader might have about how “the librarians” originally figured out how to start going back in time which I shall now paraphrase:
“Oh, you want to know how we were able to invent time travel? Well, it was something very sciency, very complicated, quite boring to be honest, you wouldn’t want to know”
It was at this point that I gave this book a very big “fuck you” and punched the wall again.

The characters were one dimensional, underdeveloped and I didn’t care about a single damn one of them.
Emme turned into a giggling mess as soon as she met Jack and immediately had thoughts of undressing him.
I felt like I need to chuck a bucket of cold water over a fictional character.

Like I said, this premise held promise for me and is probably the only reason I didn’t DNF this book at the half way mark (as well as it being mercifully short). But overall it was just vastly underwhelming, not the best written story and filled to the brim with tropes that I cannot stand.

I always feel mean writing reviews like these as I can appreciate how hard it is to write a book, since I’m attempting to write one myself. And I know what a labour of love each book is for the author but there were just so many mistakes, typos, underdeveloped plot lines and characters and overused tropes and phrases and I couldn’t overlook any of these when I’d spent money on this book.

[Auj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't a romance in the traditional sense, though there is a romance. I wasn't expecting the book to go in the direction it did, and to be honest, it made me a little sad.

When Emmeline's grandmother dies, she learns that she's part of a family of women who have the ability to travel through time via books. Their purpose is to preserve history. (She also inherits her grandmother's library.) Emmeline enters the life of Jack Ridgewell, a wealthy British transplant to Maine. He later founds the town in Maine that she lives in the present day. She and Jack fall in love. She isn't sure if she should stay in Jack's time or hers. Later she learns, they're supposed to observe but not interfere, which she did. Because of her interference, Jack was never happy. He didn't love his wife because he was still hung over Emmeline. Emmeline has to go back in the past and change their first meeting, so that she didn't have a big impact on his life, and so that they never fell in love. This was the sad part to me. But that's okay, according to the author, because instead she and Jack's descendant, Jason, fall in love. I hated Jason at first, not gonna lie. Writing this part of the review just makes me question why I'm giving this 3 stars instead of 2.

The sex was 98% clean. I had a feeling it would be. It was disappointing. And the romance was pretty insta-love. Despite all that, the story was unique and interesting.

But yeah, don't read it for the romance.

[Skyye Breeze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh this book took my breath away and I fell absolutely in love with the story but also the characters!
In all my years of reading books I've never read a book with a story quite like this one before..
Such a fresh and brand new idea!!!!
I've always dreamed for a concept like this one and the author made it come true.... and it is EPIC!!!! (I'm dying to tell you more but I don't want to give too much away so you'll have to read it and find out what all my excitement is about... LOL!!)
It's perfectly written, easy to follow along, and oh so much fun to read (there are a few scenes that will have you in tears.. have tissues handy!) After a few words not only was I curious and intrigued I was Hooked.. I couldn't stop reading !!!!
While reading you can see that alot of time and research went into writing this book. it's very descriptive and informative for the time era that the characters live in. it's easy to let your imagination run wild while reading this story it feels like you've become a part of everything.. that you're in the story with the characters too! It truly is an amazing feeling to have that kind of connection to something!
I love how the story plays out I feel like everything happened the way it was supposed to and it brought us to the most beautiful and perfect ending!
You really can't ask for anything better than that of this book.. It has something for everyone!!!

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a beautiful story and we'll written...

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Librarians are NOT 19 year old undergraduate students. Librarians are professionals with MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science) degrees. REAL LIBRARIANS would know to RESEARCH the historic time period in order to speak and dress appropriately for time travel. Smart and sassy and even a little sexy is fine, but whiny and immature and oversexed is not. Love the concept of time travel/historical romance, but not this heroine. If you aged her up to mid-to-late 20s and cut out the college co-ed party hook up girl nonsense, this would be a nice story. A few bookish references would've been nice too. And leaving it open at the end for a new relationship, not falling in love/meet the parents/tie it all up with a bow at the last second...

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was such a cute concept - girl inherits grandmother's library where she travels into books - but the execution was just so uneven. The beginning was great - the setup, the characters, the pacing. Then it suddenly turned into a romance. Then it suddenly felt like the author ran up against a deadline and had ten minutes to end everything tidily because it was supposed to have a happy ending, so all the loose bits (which is where the best parts of the story were, for me) were swept together, regardless of whether they belonged there or not... It was quite a disappointment, all in all. I think with a more evenly executed late-middle/ending, this could have been a very cute cozy book.

[Laura Snider · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, whiny & a complete waste of time.

I would read a chapter and think to myself, “this sucks. Why am I reading it?”

Then I’d think, “now, come on, give it a chance.”

I shouldn’t have given it past the first chapter. Don’t fool yourself. This isn’t one of those books that starts slow and picks up later. It doesn’t get better.

Save yourself the time and energy and choose another book. A better book. Anything, really, would be a better choice. Like one written by your six year old nephew. At least his will be written in funny little kid letters that will make you smile.

[Marianne Moresco · Rating 3 out of 5]

MEH. Superficial? Thankfully no unhealty relationships/stupid tropes whatsoever. But yeah.. nothing exceptionally remarkable and a bit silly at the beginning, just a light, fast, cheap summer read.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about someone who can enter into the books she reads and travel through time - what's not to love?!!

At times it was a little on the soppy side, but for the most part it was a really good read! I've suggested my library buy the second (and third) in the series, so I hope they do...!

[The_Book_Queen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content warning: loss of a grandparent, on page (the grandma was the heroine's only family, they were very close).


NOT a romance. Just keep that in mind going in. For a time travel tale with a new twist, this one wasn't half bad. I felt like the jumps in time -- not the time travel, mind, but rather how long had passed between one chapter and the next, or one scene and the next -- was very choppy and confusing at times.

[Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute little time travel novel. YA oriented…..

[Jenny Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my full review at http://blackwords-whitepages1977.blog...

What if getting lost in a book wasn't JUST a figure of speech? What if you could actually get lost in another book, fall into another time or place, have your very own book boyfriend?

Think about it for a minute.....

Well, now that you have thought about it, you have just experienced the mind of Christy Sloat and this new adventure.

On to my review...
This was a refreshing and enjoyable read!! It was so intense at times, but was also inspiring and very addictive. This book took me on a fantastic adventure that no one else has ever dreamed of writing that I know of. Sloat took us on a memorable adventure that literally took me out of the real world for a few hours just to end up the realm of this story. I felt as if I was floating along as the story progressed.

The characters were incredible and there was a lot of feelers in this story. The story-line touched my heart and kept me turning each amazing page to find out more. The mystery in the story just captured me and kept me wondering and guessing at each corner.

Sloat has really outdone herself again with this awesome piece of artwork and I highly recommend it for all to enjoy.

[Denise · Rating 1 out of 5]

You do not need me to give a synopsis of this book. Look above and read the summary. What you will get here is a critique. It is my opinion, and you do not have to agree with me.

I almost did not finish this book. I don't normally finish books to which I give one star, but the fact that the book was relatively short, and I was listening to an audio book version on 1.25 speed helped me get through it in a timely manner.

Here are the critiques:

1. There were just too many stereotypical comments made about the setting of the book. Frankly, I am not amused when places are stereotyped the way that Maine is stereotyped in this book. I have never been to Maine, but I would definitely like to visit some day. This book does nothing to encourage me to see the beauty in the Librarian's surroundings. It would have been one thing if these comments had only been at the beginning of the book, but they just kept going on, and on, and on, almost throughout the entire story.

2. The moral character of the protagonist was also full of stereotypes that I did not find appealing. At first it felt like the girls' sexual history was just a result of her being a college student (a complete stereotype BTW). Then it felt like so many of the protagonist's psychological issues were the cause of her having sex whenever she felt like it. These psychological issues could and should have been addressed in so many different ways that were healthier and more thought-provoking.

3. By the end, the character had matured a bit, but the reader was only given the development of this maturity from a very one-dimensional perspective -- it all seemed to be attributed to a relationship with a new guy. In real life, growing up is multi-faceted, takes years to complete, and can happen at many different levels at many different times of one's life.

I have left this book feeling like the end should be somewhere around chapter 3. Is there more to come? Is there a sequel? Might the author bring another round of the Librarian to life? If so, I might actually read it...simply because...(sigh)...librarians are always loyal to other librarians...even if they are made-up characters in a one star book.

[Trish R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was kind of silly, and not for grown-ups at all. Emme was 19 and Jack was 20. I think it would have been better if they’d been adults. She talked about Rose being her best friend but I don’t see how that was possible. Rose was a cardiovascular surgeon and would have had to spend years in college. When she went to college Emme would have been just a kid. So, when and how were they best friends? And sometimes Emme would talk and act like she’s 30 and then it was like she was 16.

I can’t think of one good part of the book. I don’t even know why I finished it, unless it was because I was hoping it would get better. It didn’t.

No sex and a little swearing by Emme.

As to the narration: When I listen to a female narrator the only way I can tell if she’s any good at all is if I don’t cringe every time a man speaks. If he doesn’t sound like a girl then the narrator isn’t bad. Good for you Piper Goodeve!

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about a college student who has to go home suddenly and learns the "truth" about her family.

I didn't LOVE the book. As I was reading it, I was impatient because I thought there were be more of a historical or sci-fi aspect to the story. In the end, it was a little like a romance, a little time travel, a little sci-fi, but then it felt like nothing mattered.

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry to report that this book is terrible. The writing is juvenile and predictable, and it is rife with grammatical usage errors.

[Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

The storyline and the cover of this book seemed so promising to me. Unfortunately, it was a lame story that felt very rushed.

[A. Giacomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really loved this book, it had me hooked from the first line! I have often wondered about being transported into a book and this story allows you to do so, but also to consider the consequences! I really wish there was more, if there is a second book in the works I say bring it on!!!

[Coco.V]

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