Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

Paperback, 276 pages

Published October 19, 2021 by

Harper Muse

*****

5/5 stars

Sometimes fairy stories may say best what's to be said.

C. S. Lewis

Once Upon a Wardrobe is a beautifully written story that is perfect for this time of the year.  It's magical, meaningful and so captivating.  I'm a hard nut to crack when it comes to shedding a tear or two from a book but this one did it for me.

I'm so glad that I followed my gut instinct when it came to pre ordering this one - though now I regret not grabbing the hardcover vs paperback.  I went into this book blind, other than knowing it was about a wardrobe and Narnia.  I got way more than I expected, the writing flowed smoothly at a great pace.  The characters were real and I loved it.  I can definitely see myself reading this one again.

If you only read one Christmas book a year make it this one but truly you can read it anytime of the year.

This book was part of my 2021 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge.

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From the bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis comes another beautiful story inspired by C. S. Lewis’s ability to change the world and captivate hearts—including those of a terminally ill boy and his logic-driven sister.

Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford with dreams of solving the greatest mysteries of physics.

But equations haven’t been able to solve her biggest problem: her brother George, whom she adores, has a failing heart. It has been failing for all eight years of his life. When George is given a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and begs her to find out where Narnia came from, there’s no way she can refuse.

And so Megs moves completely out of her comfort zone, imploring the author and famous tutor of English Literature to give her the answers her brother so desires. What she receives instead is more stories . . . stories of Jack Lewis’s life, which she takes home to George.

Meg keeps trying to impose her trusty logic on the stories, but she slowly comes to realize that lists never answer the biggest questions. The gift she thought she was giving George turns out to be the one he was giving her: hope.