“The Charmed Library” by Jennifer Moorman

The Charmed Library (Harper Muse 2026) by Jennifer Moorman, is Jennifer’s seventeenth book. I met Jennifer Moorman at The Pat Conroy Literary Center and was immediately charmed by her. So charmed that I offered to read and review her book. I was surprised, delighted, annoyed, and wondering; from the foreshadowing, I spent most of the book anticipating a very different ending, but in the end, I was happy with it.

We are first introduced to Stella and she is one hot mess. She is bereft about a love affair gone awry, her mother disappeared when she was a child, her father recently died, she is depressed, and if that isn’t enough, she may be just a little bit nutty. She sees words swirling around her all the time. They arise from the flames in a furnace, they skittle across the floor, slip out from the pages of books, they have no boundaries. They form in a myriad of colors, although mostly purple, which could be because she uses a purple pen to write them down.

It is auspicious that Stella is an assistant librarian in the Blue Sky Valley Public Library; however, the library itself has no connection to her words. They seemingly come out of nowhere, usually in groups of three words or phrases—never complete sentences—but they all carry a specific message. Interpreting those messages is, at first, a conundrum to Stella. Later, they turn out to be her super-power.

Stella’s dear friend Arnie is the head librarian and her boss. He is acutely aware of her emotional self-flagellation over the break up with her former flame, Wade. Stella is psychologically wading through the detritus of his abrupt and unexplained departure from their relationship, and her first act of rebellion is to burn her journal in the library furnace:

“Stella Parker had never burned a book in her life. Had never once thrown pages of text – much less handwritten love letters and poetry – into a fire. Yet there she was, purposefully setting fire to one of the most precious things in her life: words.”

When Arnie sees the smoke coming from the basement, he finds Stella and tells her, “You can’t burn away the past.” She may not have burned away the past, but she sure set some things for the future in motion when she took that bull by the horns and decided to be proactive:

 “Words formed in the cavorting shadows. Goodbye. Forget. Next time.”

Stella’s best friend since fourth grade is Ariel, whose bohemian lifestyle is a stark contrast to Stella’s quite conformist way of looking at things. Ariel is a mobile dog groomer and is the person who can make Stella laugh:

“Stella opened Ariel’s text: The first customer of the morning asked if I could dye her poodle red and cut her to look like Elmo. How do you cut a poodle to look like Elmo, I ask. She shows me a YouTube video that I can’t unsee.”

Ariel understands Stella, and her heartbreak, and finally challenges her about why she doesn’t want to get over Wade and move on with her life. Stella accepts the challenge and decides to consciously move forward. Meanwhile, Stella’s brother Parker, who lives in Florida, is pestering Stella to sell their parents’ house where she lives, and get a real job. Arnie thinks she could go back to school and get a degree in something she actually likes. Everyone wants more for Stella, except for Stella herself.

So many words twist and turn around her—her brother’s words, Ariel’s words, the words that come out of nowhere and everywhere. Then, one night when she remains after the library is closed, she thinks she hears voices. No wonder she finds it difficult to maintain her equilibrium.

 And then, the magic begins to happen, fictional characters appear in the library, each having their own agenda. What are they doing there and how did they get there? How many other secrets are being kept, and by whom and why?

Imagine, just really call to mind for a minute, your favorite character in a book:

“That was the thing with characters and books: they were real to the reader. Readers felt as though they immediately knew their favorite characters, like they were long lost friends, best mates, and sometimes sworn enemies. Talking about characters provoked genuine emotions in readers.”

For people of a certain age, you might remember the dinner party or parlor games, where you were asked if you could meet someone from history or fiction and have dinner with them, who would you pick? It was a “what if” game; but what if it wasn’t? What if you could actually pick someone from a book, what if you could actually bring them to life for a brief moment in time? And if you could, who would they be and what might actually happen?

You will be introduced to some of your favorite characters and may find that they have a different personality in this novel than you thought when you initially read about them. Drama, intrigue, melodrama, magic, love, loss, humor and heartbreak all abound. I’m not going to tell you whom you will meet because that would spoil the fun, but I’ll give you one tidbit: pirates are not necessarily nice guys. And your mother may not be who you thought she was.

One thing that is keeping Stella grounded is writing the words as they appear to her in a new journal. As they add up, she can see the beginning of a story. As those words finally amount to something that makes sense to her, Arnie, Ariel, and her other friends benefit not only from Stella’s ability to see words emanating from people, but also from her new found ability to interpret them.

For everyone who has ever loved a library and knows it is not just a sanctuary but also a place where magic really happens the minute we place our hand on the spine of a book and prepare to take it off the shelf, this is a story for you.

Enjoy!

Jennifer Moorman

Jennifer Moorman is a USA TODAY bestselling author known for her heart-forward stories filled with Southern charm, unforgettable characters, and a touch of everyday magic. Her novels include The Charmed Library, The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds, The Magic All Around, and the beloved Mystic Water Series. Her creative work also includes folklore retellings and the Strawberry Shortcake children’s books. Jennifer lives in a magic house in Nashville, Tennessee.