Speaking of Books by Milou Koenings

Do you like talking about books? Are you a fan of book clubs?

My BFF (let’s call her B for short) is a librarian with whom I swap books every time we meet. And we have a mutual friend who last year suddenly bought a bookshop.

Oscar Chevillard

That’s a story in itself. About three years ago, I walked into my favorite used bookshop like I did every Tuesday. 

I’ve been going to the same bookstore since I was sixteen years old, so it’s like my home away from home. 

I had the words, “Hi, Michael!” on the tip of my tongue, already tripping past my lips, when I realized it was not Michael behind the counter.

Huh? There was a woman there I didn’t recognize. “Where’s Michael?” I asked. Not once in over twenty years had he not been there when I’d come in. He was as much a fixture there as the bookshelves.

“Michael decided to go traveling,” she said. Except he didn’t go on vacation. No, he’d just up and sold the store, and this woman and her husband had bought it. Just like that. On the spur of the moment.

A woman who would do something that big, that spontaneously had to be someone I want to know, I decided.

So, we’ve become good friends, bonding over the books we like or don’t. It also helped that somewhere along the line I discovered she’s B’s neighbor.

Z does a lot of business with book clubs all over towns and in neighboring suburbs. Strangely enough, I’ve never gone to a book club – not once. Why would I want to hear other people’s thoughts about books when I could be home reading, is what I always think. But Z and B and I have our own impromptu virtual book club, reading different books at different times and discussing them in stages, since we’ve never all three of us been in the same room at the same time.

I was thinking how much I enjoy our friendship and our pseudo-book club when I realized that at least two books of mine have the hero and heroine bond over a book they both like — or dislike.

In Sweet Blizzard, my first Green Pines holiday novella, the main characters have a strong disagreement over the Rainbow Fish. Several other children’s books feature in their courtship — and he buys her one of my favorites for a Christmas present. (Read to the end to find out which one!)

In my upcoming Christmas novella (yes, it’s summer — Christmas novella time!) it’s a shared love for A Wrinkle in Time that smooths over an awkward encounter. That’s definitely one of my top 100 books, although not as highly ranked as The Arm of the Starfish, by the same author, that sits up in my top 10 list.

Have you ever made a book friend? Which books do you especially enjoy sharing with others? And – do you do book clubs?



Milou Koenings is a USA Today bestselling author. She writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with happy endings bring more joy to the world and so make it a better place.

Her Green Pines sweet romances, I Love You Three, Reclaiming Home, The Kampala Peppermint Twist and Sweet Blizzard are available on Amazon,  Amazon.uk, iBooks, Nook, Kobo and all your favorite e-book retailers.








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