Ashlyn Greer has been drawn to old books since the age of twelve when she visited her favorite bookshop, pulled a random book from the shelf, and felt a zing of shock and emotion so strong she felt it physically. Now the owner of the shop, she's going through a collection that was dropped off when she finds two beautifully bound books with no known author or publisher and so much emotion of regret and sadness. She becomes obsessed with finding out the books' history and healing their tragic romance, and in turn coming to terms with her own life.
I feel in love with the description of this book and just had to read it. The story is unique and I flew through the pages of this romantic mystery. It feels like three stories in one: Ashlyn story of investigating the books and both perspectives of the romance give wrong. I highly recommend this book to everyone! I love books about books!!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis. The cover, is what 1st drew me to this book! Ashlyn owns a rare bookstore and through another friend she discovers a pair of beautifully bound books that seem to be connected but appear to never have been published. Her gift of psychometry compels her to pursue the books origins and leads her on a journey of discovery. Along this journey she will discover new friends, a new love, a new family. She will overcome and heal past hurts while helping her new family to do the same. I love the premise of this book but I'll be honest, It took me a while to really get into it. A word of advice, stick with it! I found this book interesting and compelling enough to keep reading but I had not yet reached the point where I couldn't wait to get back to it. A little over 1/3 of the way in, I suddenly couldn't put it down. And when I had to, I found I could not wait to get back to it. I absolutely love the way the story all came the way the book ended, and the epilog. A fabulously unique story.

I was initially drawn in by the premise that this is a book about books. What bibliophile would not be interested? And yes, I loved all of the bookish references and quotes.

I discovered that this story has one of my favorite story tropes, that of long buried secrets and the consequences that follow. With a unique twist of a dual timeline, Ms. Davis pens the earlier 1941 storyline into two unpublished books that have surfaced 40 years later. Tucked between the pages is a beautiful but heartbreaking love story, one that leaves two lives shattered by betrayal. In 1984, Ashlyn and Ethan become enthralled in Belle and Hemi's stories. As they search for answers, they must face their own pasts and learn to trust again.

Content warning: References to a pre-marital affair, but no bedroom scenes.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author/publisher through Netgalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

From the author of THE KEEPER OF HAPPY ENDINGS and THE LAST OF THE MOON GIRLS comes a very endearing, heartwarming and heartbreaking story. A story of a love that should have been.

A young lady, Ashlyn, runs a second hand rare books bookstore named THE UNLIKELY STORY. She has a gift that has caused her a lot of pain growing up. A gift of knowing the feelings of previous owners of the books she touches. Ashlyn has had a hard life. From her mother to her late husband she has had to cover her feelings. Had to fight for love. To give up on being loved. How sad. She calls her gift books "ECHOES." A very fitting thing to call it as it is the echoes of their feelings.

When Ashlyn gets a copy of two books that are unpublished, no author, not a lot of any info other than the two people's feelings and thoughts contained between the covers. A lifetime of love and sorrow. Happiness and pain. Two people who blame each other for life's choices each made. Where love once was only bitterness remains. How sad is that...

This book is told in three voices. Ashlyns and each of the books authors. Belle wrote FOREVER, AND OTHER LIES. Hemi wrote, REGRETTING BELLE. Each is very sad but contains their love story which was beautiful. So beautiful that it's hard to believe they went separate ways. You get to know them and then each of them. You get to know Ashlyn and all she went through and root for her to find love. You will also get to know Mirian. Mirian was a wonderful character. A bit stubborn at first but still wonderful. I adored her. I also adored Belle and Hemi and Ashlyn and Ethan. Ashlyn and Ethan are such a big part of this story. Another love story possibly.

I did figure out two things in this book way before they were revealed but believe me it did not take away from it at all. Just reinforced how much I adored this book. It's told from past to present with each chapter. It's one of those that make you cry so much your eyes get all swollen and red. Even the good parts make you weep. Tears of happiness and for sadness. This is a wonderful love story. I don't know how this author will top this one but I do look forward to her next book. Always.

Thank you #NetGalley, #BarbaraDavis, #LakeUnionPublisher for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five huge stars and a three book of kleenex rating. Grab this one and let the journey begin.

Book lovers will fall for Ashlyn and will get lost in her story.

Ashlyn has a special talent; she can sense things simply by touching books. This sends her on a journey in search of answers from a strange book she encounters.

This is a quick read with a lot of heart.

Thanks to NetGalley for introducing me to this author. This is my first read by the author, although I have 2 others to devour. Adding her to my list of must read!

The beautiful cover and enticing title had me clicking on request immediately. The story is intriguing, following Ashlyn, a rare book dealer with the innate ability to discover facts about an event or person by touching an object, in her case books, associated with them (Psychometry). When a book, with no author, finds its way into her store, she is intrigued. Then another book, seemingly an answer to the first, shows up. It’s back and forth storyline opens a mystery Ashlyn needs to uncover. Dual timeline, 1954/1984. The prose in the old books is true to the time and beautiful. Love forbidden, heartbreak, class struggles and racism and hate. This story sucks you in with each authors side of their story. Ashlyn, also has a mystery and story to tell, which, thanks to these books, she does slowly, awakening in her feelings long buried. Her story was conflicting for me, loved her background but the brief love story within it didn’t go with the feel of the storyline for me. The ending was beautiful and satisfying. The quote at the beginning of the each chapter sets up what is coming perfectly.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

This book is told in two timelines- 1941 and 1984. It is told from the point of view of a rare bookstore owner, Ashlyn, as well as from excerpts of two books.

I love this mash up of historical fiction, magical realism, and romance because it’s like reading not one book but three!

This book also brings some surprises along the way which I feel would make it a great book club read

Ashlyn can feel the emotions from the books’ owners just by touch. She finds two beautifully bound books that have no author. These two books, REGRETTING BELLE and FOREVER, AND OTHER LIES, tell the same story but from two different perspectives.

As Ashlyn reads this book, she tries to find the authors which leads her to uncover secrets as well as love.

Rare and used bookseller Ashlyn has a gift of feeling the emotional echoes of past readers attached to used books. One day a pair of mysterious bound volumes fall into her possessions. They have no identifying information and are both the story of a tragic love story written by each persons point of view. As she gets sucked into the story, she is convinced this tells a true story and is determined to find out who wrote these beautiful stories and what became of the characters. Here search leads her through secrets, betrayals, misunderstandings, and even overcoming her own trauma.

This had so many elements I love in stories, dual timelines, tragic love, a sprinkle of magical realism, second chance romance, letter/diary entires, and a bookstore setting. The writing was beautiful, the story was so well crafted and unique I tip my hat to the author for pulling off such a complex story. I felt so many emotions throughout the book, right along with the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. This was my first book by Barbara Davis and I look forward to reading more! Ashley has the ability to feel the echos of previous book owners. She finds one that has no author but wants to solve it! Romance and mystery!

The Echo of Old Books is an interesting novel for every reader since it is a story based on a mysterious book that a rare book dealer, Ashyln, finds in a box left by someone. So it is a book based on a book. What can be more fascinating than that!

This novel has dual timelines and different points of view. Set in 1985 and 1941, it is the story of Belle, Ashlyn, and Hemi. This can not be reviewed without giving out any spoilers. So, I am not going to give away a lot.

I enjoyed reading this book, but I initially had a little difficulty with the pace of the book. It does not pick up for some time, and once it hits the 60%, it does pick up a bit. Having said that, what a beautiful story it is of finding love again!

Thank you, Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley, for this book.

CW: Mention of suicide, self-harm, guns, and abandonment.

I love a good dual timeline and this did it for me. The characters lacked to me but I did enjoy the storyline and the way it unfolded.

"The Echo of Old Books," by Barbara Davis is a touching, heartfelt story that follows, Ashlyn Greer, a rare book dealer who has a special gift of feeling the emotions, the "echoes, " of previous book owners. When Ashlyn finds two rare, uniquely bound books, each telling the opposing perspectives of true love lost, Ashlyn makes it her priority to find out as much as she can about the authors, Hemi and Belle. In so doing, she comes to find answers to many of the challenges she has struggled with in her own life.

The story, written from different perspectives, required, in part, reading the "books within the book. " This was unique but at times a little confusing. I found the characters in the story complex, occasionally not-likeable, but always nuanced. The story not only maintained my interest, but by the second half, I really could not put the book down. It would be a great option for any book club.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing!

Summer rainstorms, the first time you hear your favorite song, the smell of fresh mowed grass... You know all your favorite things in the world? All the things that bring you all the best feelings? That is what The Echo of Old Books is.

I cannot even begin to express what this book has done to me. It is a story I will carry with me for a great deal of time. For me reading this was like what I would imagine reading a dance would be like.

Thank you Barbara Davis for telling the story I didn't know I so desperately needed. The Echo of Old Books is a historical romance whodunit. It is a little bit of everything. Love, loss, betrayal, unanswered questions, loyalty and trust. Everything is questioned. Everything is tested. Everything lost is found.

An absolute beautiful story of a journey and the unwavering search for answers.

Instead of Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Echo of Old Books is a tale of Four Tragedies and an HEA – at least – and on both counts. The story folds together the bitter and the sweet into a saga that begins in mystery, middles in anger and ends in hope while it puts the readers, both of the story and within the story, through a wringer of emotions, keeping them turning the pages of not just the book in hand, but of the two mysterious books within.

It all begins with Hemi and Belle and the two seemingly anonymous, most likely privately published books that hold their separate perspectives on their clearly doomed, inevitably tragic WW2-era romance. But those little books are only the beginning of the web that has been woven.

A web that catches rare-book dealer Ashlyn Greer within its sticky strands. At first, she is snared by the emotions that she can feel pouring off the pages. And then by the mystery of how these two books came to be.

She knows, with her gift of psychometry, that the emotions held within the pages are real – but can’t be certain whether the story told within is the true story of the seemingly star-crossed lovers or merely a fiction intended to conceal a deeper emotional truth.

As she reads, and as we read with her, she also becomes caught up in the puzzle of it all. Were Hemi and Belle real? If so, who were they? And how far will she need to travel in order to learn that truth?

Her search takes her to an intrepid librarian who ferrets out much of the historical data with a twinkle in her eye and a spring in her step. But the real treasure trove of information comes from Ethan Manning, who brought the books – along with many other considerably more mundane works – from his late father’s library to the used bookstore where Ashlyn first encountered Remembering Belle and Belle’s response in Forever, and Other Stories.

Together they read the story of his great-aunt Marian (nicknamed Belle in the books) and the love of her life. Whoever he was and however he broke her heart – just as she broke his. Along the way, they learn more than either of them wanted to know about a past that STILL isn’t quite dead.

And discover that the tragedies locked in their own pasts do not mean that they can’t find a brighter future, if they can just manage to paradoxically, let it go.

Escape Rating A: I’m pretty sure I initially grabbed this for the cover. Because books. Seemingly endless stacks of books. I couldn’t resist the story even if I can now manage to walk out of a bookstore without carrying stacks of books out with me, if only because text is hard these days and ebooks are much easier to read and to carry.

Howsomever, I moved this book to a bit earlier in the week for two reasons. One, I was hoping for an unequivocal happy ending, which wasn’t possible in some of this week’s books and seemed disappointingly out of reach in yesterday’s.

But even if this did not turn out to have a happy ending I could tell that it was at least going to have a cathartic resolution of some kind. Even if that resolution was bittersweet or downright sad. I needed something definitive, and I most definitely got it in this absorbing, compulsive page-turner.

I got all of that and more in The Echo of Old Books.

This is kind of a timeslip story, and it’s also more than a bit of a treasure hunt story. And appropriately, it’s the timeslip, the story within the books themselves, that grabs both Ashlyn and the reader first. So the story of Belle and Hemi dominates the early parts of the narrative in a way that is both clever and absorbing.

We also start out Belle and Hemi’s story knowing it’s going to be tragic, so it’s not exactly a spoiler that their 1941 idyll gets, well, spoiled. What we, and Ashlyn, are desperate to learn is how. And the way that the story spools out, at first being a whole lot of Belle and Hemi with only hints of Ashlyn, carefully shifts over the course of the story to less and less of the past – even as it gets more searing and races towards its seemingly inevitable denouement – and more of Ashlyn and now Ethan’s presents.

And their own searing, scarring pasts. The more we learn about both couples, the more we hope for HEAs all around – no matter how impossible that might seem. We become invested in both stories every bit as much as Ashlyn does Belle’s.

The Echo of Old Books was absolutely the right book at the right time for this reader, with its combination of historical mystery, tragic romance and historical ambiance both in Belle and Hemi’s 1941 and Ashlyn and Ethan’s “present day” of 1984.

I’m definitely going to be snapping up this author’s next book as soon as I see it. In the meantime, I’ll be picking up a copy of her next most recent book, The Keeper of Happy Endings, for the next time I need a book with an absorbing puzzle, a bit of an ugly cry in the middle, and satisfying, cathartic resolution with hopes of an HEA to keep me turning pages until the heartstopping end.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @amazonpublishing for an early copy of The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

About the book:
Rare-book dealer Ashlyn Greer’s affinity for books extends beyond the intoxicating scent of old paper, ink, and leather. She can feel the echoes of the books’ previous owners—an emotional fingerprint only she can read. When Ashlyn discovers a pair of beautifully bound volumes that appear to have never been published, her gift quickly becomes an obsession. Not only is each inscribed with a startling incrimination, but the authors, Hemi and Belle, tell conflicting sides of a tragic romance.

With no trace of how these mysterious books came into the world, Ashlyn is caught up in a decades-old literary mystery, beckoned by two hearts in ruins, whoever they were, wherever they are. Determined to learn the truth behind the doomed lovers’ tale, she reads on, following a trail of broken promises and seemingly unforgivable betrayals. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story—and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.

I think it’s already a staple that I love dual timelines, and The Echo of Old Books just makes two different timelines make sense so beautifully and flawlessly.

Ashlyn is an interesting character, being able to feel the emotions of the people who have owned the books she holds previously, that in itself + the novel being achingly heartwarming, were what drew me into this novel. She comes into possession of two books with no authors written on them, but as the story unfolds between the different timelines we find out that they are written by Hemi and Belle.

Rating this ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5.

I really can't resist books about books or books with bookish mysteries at their core. Throw in a protagonist who owns a used bookstore and has a unique gift to sense the feelings of book's previous owners and I was hooked.

Told in a dual timeline structure as recently widowed Ashlyn reads passages from two mysteriously linked books that tell of a love story from the past. Reading with her is the writer who donated the books and who has a family connection to one of the authors.

Interesting and heartfelt with a strong cast of characters. This was my first book by Barbara Davis and I'd definitely recommend it. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

I loved, loved, loved this book. A story about books and book lovers. You can't go wring with that combination!

The Echo of Old Books first captured my attention by this beautiful cover. I just knew I had to read whatever was inside. And a book about books? Yay! And then there's the fact that I've already read a few of Ms. Davis' books, with several more on my TBR list. and loved them all. She is such a good storyteller! I figured this was a win-win all the way around.

I fell for the characters Belle and Hemi and their tumultuous love story from the very start. I loved how the author revealed their relationship through the journals they wrote to each other, with the reader getting both sides of the story.

I am also fascinated by the idea of books giving off 'echoes' of their previous owners and what their lives were like and the emotions they had while owning the book. What an interesting gift Ashlyn had.

Like I said at the beginning, I really loved this book—everything about it—and it will stick with me for a long time. Of course, I highly recommend it and encourage you to put it on your TBR list. You will not regret it!

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book and I am so glad that I read it. It was so well written with an enchanting and relatable storyline and well developed characters who will live rent free in my head for a while

I love a book that gives me all the feels!
Ashlyn Greer owns a used book store. She also has the rare ability to feel the emotions of the previous owners of the books she sells. When she acquires a beautifully bound book that has no author or publisher listed but has an intriguing inscription her interest is piqued. It was also strange that the book gave no 'echo' from its previous owner/author. What she finds within its pages is a tragic love story that Ashlyn is convinced is biographical. When she acquires another equally bound book that matches the first, with its own inscription, she finds the story within is from the perspective of the lover of the author of the other book. This sets Ashlyn on a compelling quest to solve the mystery of who the authors are and what became of them. What follows is one of the best, beautifully crafted stories that I've ever read.

What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic who loves a good mystery that is masterfully written with characters that come alive within its pages. The stories within the story trope was handled brilliantly with two timelines, each as emotional as the other. How the stories come together in the end is as satisfying as any conclusion I've read. If you're a fan of the author I know you'll fall in love with this one, if you've never read one of Barbara Davis' stories before, I think you'll become a new fan.

When rare bookseller Ashlyn Green finds a pair of almost identical, beautifully bound books, she knows … she can FEEL ... that they are special. They are inscribed almost as if they are letters to one other, and read as conflicting sides of a doomed romance. His side of the story. And her side. ⁣
⁣
She becomes obsessed trying to figure out who the couple is. What happened to them? It’s a literary mystery that as a reader - you will become quite engrossed in as well. Somewhere out there two hearts are broken and as you read more into this intricately woven story - while also reading the two sides of this tragic love saga within it - you can’t help but hope for a happily ever after for everyone involved.⁣
⁣
I really love books about books - and stories within stories. The Echo of Old Books has lots of twists and turns as I've come to crave in any good love story, and there’s another romance that evolves as the mystery is unraveled, that is just as sweet and surprising.⁣
⁣
It’s the perfect read for book lovers and anyone who has ever wanted to start over and rewrite their own story.