It was okay.
A very basic story with a very basic wishfullfilment ending.

I liked the story about the women and their friendship and their work as librarians. However, the love stories could have been removed because they just felt forced.

Margery was happy as a single woman, living alone, taking care of her farm and working as a librarian. But then she gets pregnant and suddenly she abandons every principle she had, she now wants to live with a man for the rest of her life, she gets to bad feelings about having a child even though she didn't want children before, she agrees to getting married, and in a church with a lot of people, even though she was very much against it the whole book, she also seems to be calmer and not such a fighter anymore just because she now has a family and a house with a white fence. She was just unhappy before I guess so that was why she was just a rebell and a woman who took charge to help others. But now she has a man and a baby so she doesn't need to be like that? Great way to evolve a character...

Bennett and Alice. Their marriage was the weirdest. Why didn't he want to have sex with her? That is never really explained. Was he so in love with Peggy that he couldn't? But why did he marry Alice then? His arch was the messiest by far. And also weird to give him a redemption arch. He did nothing good, but then he in secret is a good guy and he gives Alice the right information that is what they need for everyone to get a happy ending. He was a coward, I did not care for him getting a good ending. And will he really have a good life with Peggy? His father did not approve of her before, and he is still a coward and a prude so I don't get how she could be happy there. But maybe Bennett was the hero all along. He just wanted to save Alice from her life in Britain and he knew that if they never consummated their marriage she could be free....

There are a few parts that should have been removed. The minstrel song when they save the children. And that Margery mentions in passing that she has Cherokee blood. I mean... Also, how the only black characters were written was not very good. Sophia is just the cheering squad without any life of her own. She is just happy being locked in a library every day, and she will never get a new man because she has loved once before but Alice you need to get your man and take your chances and don't stay here with me and keep me company I am fine all by my lonesome. Also, that so many people would be fine with a black woman working in the library is a bit simple. I know there is some squabbles, but it calmed down really fast.

The ending. I've only read two books by Moyes and they both end the same way. Everything getting solved by some random person stepping in that has not been in the story before and they refused to talk to anyone but the protagonist can convince them to help them and also they have that specific information that changes everything.
The ending also went so fast. In 70 pages Margery is thrown in jail, has a baby, gives up, goes on trial, they find the thing that will save her, she gets a happy life, Alice tells Fred about the sex thing, she doesn't have to move, and then it just speeds up even more. Every question mark or trouble is solved so fast. Just tied together with a nice bow. And how they went up to Verna to find the solution and we don't get to hear it there but they do the movie jump cut where someone is talking in one place and then there are in a new location and the conversation is the same, like they teleported. The reader is supposed to go ooh and ah about that information that Verna had, but it was not satisfying at all. So, the fight we saw in the beginning is settled because he was going to return a book and fell and died? For me it sounded like he ment he would return the book and kill Margery, but I guess that's not important. And also his daughters who have been spoonfed his poison are fine with living next to Margery? Shouldn't that feud somehow come between them?

Alice and Fred and old Van Cleve. So, Alice tells Fred that she and Bennett never had sex, so he has sex with her. Before he even refused to kiss her because she was married. But now they have sex? Also, how Van Cleve not does a whole trial where he tries to get her name even dirtier is beyond me. They all know she and Fred has spent a lot of time.together, or have noone besides the librarians known about it? Seems hard to believe in s small place where everyone talks about everything. That Van Cleve would give up and just let her go like that is weird and uncharacteristic.

Also there is no real solution to the mining problem and all the people who suffer there. It is kind of just faded out. It was all about the feud between Margery and Van Cleve in the end.

So yeah, basic story. It was fine. But I wanted so much more. I was expecting a lesbian love story where Margery saves Alice from a loveless marriage, and also maybe Bennett was gay.