Book Review: Tomes, Scones, and Crones by Colleen Gleason

I was given a free e-copy of this novel by NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

At forty-eight, Jacqueline Finch has a nice, easy life with few responsibilities: she’s been a librarian in Chicago for twenty-five years, she doesn’t have a husband, children, or pets, and she’s just coasting along, enjoying her books and a small flower garden now that she’s over the hill. That is, until the Universe (helped by three old crones) has other ideas. All at once, Jacqueline’s boring life is upended, and the next thing she knows, she’s heading off to Button Cove to start a new life as the owner of Three Tomes Bookshop. The bookstore is a darling place, and Jacqueline is almost ready to be excited about this new opportunity until Mrs. Hudson and Mrs. Danvers show up. Somehow, the literary characters of Sherlock Holmes’s landlady and Rebecca deWinter’s creepy and sardonic housekeeper are living persons who work at the bookshop. Not only does Jacqueline have to contend with them—and the idea that people regularly eat pastries while reading books in her store!—but the morning after she arrives, the body of a dead man is found on her property. Things start to get even more strange after that: Jacqueline is befriended by three old women who bear a startling resemblance to the Witches Three from Macbeth, an actual witch shows up at her bookshop and accuses Jacqueline of killing her brother, and the two women who own businesses across the street seem determined to befriend Jacqueline. And then there’s the police detective with the very definite hot-Viking vibe who shows up to investigate the dead body. The next thing Jacqueline knows, her simple life is no longer quiet and unassuming, and she’s got crones, curses, and crocodiles to deal with. And when a new literary character appears on the scene, things start to get even more hairy and Jacqueline is suddenly faced with a horrible life and death situation that will totally push her out of her comfort zone if she’s brave enough to let it. After all, isn’t forty-eight too late for an old dog to learn new tricks? (Fantastic Fiction synopsis)

I have read Gleason’s Stoker and Holmes series, and loved it. So I was super happy to find that I really liked this book. I originally started out not liking Jacqueline, but as she progressed I began to like her more. I was glad that she stopped quoting her deceased friend’s words, and made friends with Nadine and Suzette. No one should allow others to dictate their life, or to become so boring. I am looking forward to (hopefully) a potential romance in later books.

I even enjoyed the literary characters being brought to life. I would have loved to have Mrs. Hudson making me tea. Not so much Mrs. Danvers, because she’s creepy, but it was still an interesting concept to a magical bookstore setting. I can think of hundreds of other characters I would love to see. I don’t want to give spoilers but the third literary character’s story was unique. I would never have thought of this character’s side of the story, and again I hope this is a continuation in later books.

There are a couple of phrases that had me baffled. For example, in chapter 4 Jacqueline lets the cat Sebastian “ooze from her arms to the floor,” and then two paragraphs later she walks into another room with Sebastian still being carried. There was no indication that she had picked the cat back up. One other example was in chapter 11, when “it occurred to Jacqueline that she’d never even learned which side of her family Cuddy Stone belonged to,” but a few paragraphs later “her mother finally remembered that the Stones were from her side.” Again there was no time progression between the two statements. It felt off, but not enough to take anything away from the story.

Overall I rate this novel 4 out of 5 stars.