New Book Alert: The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins; Charming Magical Southern Tale About Friendship in a Small Town
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: There are bookworms and there's Sarah Dove. She is the type of reader in which books talk to her, literally in her case.
In Karen Hawkins’s charming and magical novel, The Book Charmer, Sarah first hears the voices of books when she is a little girl. She hears the voice of her ancestor's diary begging for her to read it. After much deliberation and argument (Sarah wanted to read about dragons), she agrees and becomes fascinated with her family history.
The Doves are a unique family in Dove Pond, South Carolina. They have always produced seven daughters and each one is bestowed with some unique ability. The seventh (in this case, Sarah) is the most powerful and is often the head of the family and her community. Sarah's ability to hear books calling to her is put to good use in her role as town librarian. The books long to be matched to the right person and tell her who should read them. Sarah is able to match a Reader with the right book to solve their problems or answer their questions.
However, a once thriving town, Dove Pond is now dying. Businesses and residents are leaving. The mayor, an honorary position, is tremendously lazy and is inept in handling the town's funds. Even many of Sarah's sisters have left leaving only her and Ava, a horticulturist who hears plants the way her sister hears books. If Sarah doesn't act fast, there won't be much of a Dove Pond left.
Enter Grace Wheeler. Grace arrives in Dove Pond with her troubled orphan niece, Daisy, and her dementia-ridden foster mother, Mama G., to accept the job as Dove Pond’s Town Clerk. Sarah's books tell her that the new arrival will be the one to save Dove Pond, so she wants to get Grace to join the committee of the upcoming Apple Festival as a springboard to save the town. At first, Grace is reluctant but when the two eat coffee cake and carpool together, a friendship begins to develop.
The plot of The Book Charmer is similar to many of the other books of this type. Big City person visits a small town (usually in the South) of good-hearted eccentric locals. At first, the City Slicker has their own personal problems and doesn't want to have anything to do with them but still they begin to like it there, and become an active member of the community helping to save it from dying. Expect some cute little magical touches and a friendship and/or romance with a local.
It's not a bad plot, and if done right the results can be quite pleasant. Luckily Hawkins does it right. Grace and Sarah make for an interesting duo that play the familiar plot rather well.
One way is that they compliment each other so well. Sarah is a romantic almost otherworldly figure. She takes much of the strangeness of her family and the town in stride. She treats her beloved books like wise old friends and she is always on the lookout for signs and omens like flowers inexplicably changing color to let her know she is on the right track.
Sarah is an engaging people person who knows a great deal about the locals’ personalities, interests, and of course reading habits. She takes her role as a community lead seriously because she loves Dove Pond and doesn't want to see it die.
Grace is the more cynical realist. A former foster child, she developed a tough exterior that she uses in her relationships with others. While she could have been written as a heartless yuppie or an urban snob, Hawkins instead writes her as someone who is overwhelmed. She is trying to care for her niece and mother so when the mayor forces her to chair the Apple Festival, it's no surprise that at first she instantly delegates it to someone else and automatically resigns.
However, once she is tricked into rejoining the Festival committee, Grace shows a strong business strategy and work ethic. When she realizes the town's finances are in bad shape, she is able to plan a business outreach to send businesses to Dove Pond for the festival. To reach out to local business owners, she needs to get to know them and that's where Sarah comes in.
Grace and Sarah make for a great team that work well together and are able to use their talents to achieve their goals. Sarah wouldn't have the business acumen to draw in various companies without Grace and likewise Grace wouldn't understand how the town works without Sarah. They are practically two halves of the same woman representing the realist and romantic sides.
There are also other interesting characters that go through great change throughout the book. Daisy starts out as a rebellious sullen girl, but begins to enjoy being a part of the town when she is given extra duties such as reading to children. While Mama G’s faculties are diminishing, she is still on hand to provide a sympathetic ear and some words of encouragement. There is Trav Parker, an Afghanistan war vet and childhood friend of Sarah's who begins to develop a fondness for Grace and Daisy. His relationship with Grace and her family allows him to move beyond his PTSD and self-imposed isolation. There are also other memories of the community that are likable and charming in their own ways.
That's what this book has plenty of. Charm. The Book Charmer is a sweet book that casts a gentle spell on the Reader. While it does mention serious topics like dementia, death, mental illness and others, the book does not overwhelm the Reader with them. Instead it suggests that even when things are at their darkest, there is always a solution out of it. There is some light to be offered whether it is through the kind words of a friend, a gentle walk through town, a slice of coffee cake, the smell of a new flower, or the pages of a beloved book.
