I Love to Tell the Story || The Librarians of Willow Hollow Book #2 || A Book Review

Hello everyone! After Amanda Tero released her newest book, A Strand of Hope, I was eager to read the rest of the series she had helped to co-author! So I was excited for the chance to read Book 2 right away! Today, I’m reviewing the book, so let’s dive in!

I Love to Tell the Story
By Faith Blum
The Librarians of Willow Hollow #2
(2020)
Series Rating* || 2.5 Stars || Solo Rating || 3 Stars
|| Amazon || Author’s Site ||
*Compared to the other books in the Series*

About the Book ||

Bored with her life in Castle Town, Montana, Lillian Sullivan follows her friend’s suggestion and joins the horseback librarian program in rural Kentucky. Not only does she anticipate sharing her love of books, but she also wants to spread the gospel among the mountain people.

However, Willow Hollow presents her with one trouble after another and she struggles to step outside her shyness to share the gospel.

What will it take for Lillian to share her love of the Best Story? Can the power of the gospel overcome the shyness of her own heart?

This novella is part of a series with different authors, but can easily be read as a standalone.

About the Author ||

Faith Blum is an author of multiple books in various genres. She loves to write, read, play piano, knit, crochet, sew, watch movies, and spend time with her husband and infant son. She lives in Wisconsin in a small town with her husband, son and cat where she can write to her heart’s content during the day. Faith’s goal in her writing is to encourage Christians in their walk with Christ.

My Review ||

Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts are my own.

I was a bit disappointed with this book. After reading Ms. Tero’s, I was expecting more from this story. Lillian was a sweet character, and I enjoyed learning about her mother through her memory journal, even though the excerpts had little or nothing to do with the furtherance of the story.

The book was supposed to be YA, but the style was more middle-grade level, in my opinion. It was disjointed and choppy. Solutions to issues were far too fast. (Ex. Problem is presented, and the next paragraph or page solves it.) And all through the book, it was asserted that Lillian was shy, but the only shyness I saw in the story was were the Author happened to mention she was shy.

The Stuarts were not consistent with A Strand of Hope, coming off rough and domineering. And the head librarian didn’t feel consistent either. Lena, however, seemed the same, and I was glad for that.

The book is titled after the song I Love to Tell the Story, but the song is not referenced in the book. Also, with how juvenile the style of writing was, I was surprised the author decided to mention things that were not suitable to a young audience. (If you have questions, please contact us.) And the ending was quite abrupt. I was left confused and thinking, “That’s it?”

The spiritual lesson of the book was confusing, as well. It was supposed to be about pride and how that keeps us from sharing the gospel and insinuated that that was Lillian’s struggle. But it wasn’t. Which made no sense. Also, the scriptures were not King James, so I don’t even know if the verses were used in context.

The best scene in the book was the librarian meeting. It was smooth, and it was fun meeting all the characters, though Ivory kept dropping swear words, which I found shocking for Christian literature.

Sadly, I couldn’t hand this over to a sibling with a clear conscience or without a lot of explanation. I’d recommend a reader be at least 16 before trying it, but I honestly can’t recommend it.

In Christ,
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22