Book Review - The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan

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Title: The Secret Christmas Library

Author: Jenny Colgan

Format reviewed: Ebook 

Source: Netgalley 

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Publication Date: 9th October 2025

Rating: 5 Stars

After Mirren Sutherland finds a priceless antique book in her great aunt's attic, she is contacted by Jamie McPherson, who is hopeful she might be able to find another one - a book lost in his own house. He doesn't even know the name of it, only that it is so valuable it could potentially save the entire estate from ruin, and time is running out.

On arriving at Jamie's vast crumbling home in the highlands of Scotland (on the family train, no less), Mirren meets rival bookseller Theo Palliser, whose motives are not remotely honourable; and sets out on the quest.

Jamie's grandfather was a book collector, a philanthropist, a hoarder and a great lover of puzzles and treasure hunts - as the snow falls in the highlands, cutting off the outside world, the three of them, plus Maggie, the estate manager, do their best to uncover the last hope of the MacPherson clan before the year ends: following clues, discovering the secrets of the house and forming and breaking alliances in a race against time and the weather.

Caught between devastatingly attractive and immoral Theo, and the distracted and worried Jamie, will Mirren find the book ... and lose her heart?

So is Mirren on a wild goose chase or a treasure hunt, as she is hired as a book finder by Jamie, who lives in the highlands?

What he doesn't know is what the book is, where it could be other than in his house, and there is a deadline due to needing to sell this ultra valuable book if it exists, in order to save his home.  What Jamie fails to initially mention is that his home is actually a massive castle, that has multiple libraries, plus books just about everywhere, there is a private library train carriage that takes Mirren and rival Theo up to Scotland that sounded totally amazing, and that his grandfather is a fan of puzzles, and they have one poem as a starting point. 

I loved Jenny Colgan's descriptions of this castle and it's inhabitants, as well as opening people's eyes to just how hard it is to maintain these sorts of ancient properties. In Jamie's case, there are so many issues but he can't really sell, it can't be developed, and it is in a very remote location. 

So the heavy snowfall that traps them into the house / grounds means that this assorted group of people end up spending Christmas together, in the most magnificent, but cold of surroundings.  

It's a story sprinkled with Christmas magic, and I was completely hooked on each and every page and couldn't read this fast enough. It's another truly wonderful book from this author, with excellent characterisation and development, set in her beloved Scottish highlands, and is a book that has enchanted my heart. 

I loved every single moment of this story. 

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.