About The Book

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Book: Love in the Castle Library

Book: In the Castle Library, Book 2

Author: Ann Swindell

Genre: Christian Romance

Release Date: October 15, 2025

Predictability and efficiency have marked Delphine DuVert’s orderly life as Castle Stewardess in the small European country of Lethersby—until she is tasked by the monarchy to hire a British researcher.

Lethersby needs help solving the 100-year-old mystery of their Lost Queen, a young royal who disappeared into the night during World War I.

Delphine’s split-second decision to hire Jack Worthington, a doctoral student at the University of Oxford, has long-lasting consequences when he steps in to protect her from an angry colleague determined to ruin her life. The only catch? That protection looks like Jack posing as her beau.

Jack Worthington believes that his instinct to protect Delphine was the right one, but he’s determined to stay focused on his research for Lethersby—and keep his emotional distance after reeling from a broken heart. Yet as the clues to discovering the Lost Queen’s story unravel and the Delphine’s future hangs in the balance, both Jack and Delphine must step out in faith, choosing to trust that what God has ahead for them is worth any risk.

About the Author

Ann Swindell writes stories that point to Christ’s presence in our day-to-day lives and the hope He brings to our hearts. She is the award-winning
author of multiple books and the owner of Writing with Grace, where she teaches Christ-centered writing classes for women. Ann lives in West Michigan, and she enjoys adventuring with her family…usually with a cup of Earl Grey tea in hand.

More from Ann

Love in the Castle Library is set in two of my favorite places—one imaginary, and one real. When I started the In the Castle Library series, the main character’s journey in book one (Christmas in the Castle Library) takes her to Lethersby, a small, fictional European country full of tradition, beauty, and charm. I tried to put much of what I love about Europe into this fictional country that I wish existed. From what readers have told me, they wish it was real, too!

Book two, Love in the Castle Library, is also set in the castle in Lethersby, but I decided to make my hero and heroine take a jaunt to Oxford, England—my favorite real country outside of the USA.

I spent a summer in college studying abroad in England, and Oxford was the city that captured my heart. The “city of dreaming spires” is ancient, beautiful, and academic—a heady mix for a nineteen-year-old girl who traveled there for the first time. I even gave a nod to one of Oxford’s most well-known professors through the hero’s name, Jack.*

I had the gift of getting to go back to Oxford with my family over a decade ago, and while I’m aching to go again, including some of my favorite places in Love in the Castle Library helped me to enjoy the city vicariously through my characters. Look for some of my favorite

places to eat—including Ben’s Cookies and the King’s Arms—when the characters visit. And if you ever have the opportunity to make it to Oxford, make the effort to buy one of those cookies (they’re sold by weight!) and enjoy some ice cream at G&D’s…the hero recommends chocolate of any kind (and so do I!).

I hope you love this story as much as I do, and that these tastes of beautiful places, both real and imagined, point your heart to the beauty of Christ that is at the heart of every story I write.

*Jack was C.S. Lewis’s nickname, and he taught at Magdalen College in Oxford from 1925-1954.

Devoted To Hope's Review of Love in the Castle Library

Ann Swindell writes with a rare attentiveness to the inner life. This story must have been written with prayerful intention, as though each page was entrusted to God before it was entrusted to the reader.

Delphine DuVert’s world is built on precision, duty, and inherited responsibility. She has learned to keep everything running smoothly, to anticipate needs before they are spoken, to serve with excellence because excellence feels like safety. Watching that identity begin to tremble is one of the most honest things this novel does. Delphine’s journey unfolds in small reckonings of the heart, where faith asks to be trusted beyond performance and beyond approval. Her growth feels earned, tender, and deeply human.

Jack Worthington enters the story with a steadiness that immediately signals something different. His faith is lived, practiced, prayed. It shows up in how he listens, how he pauses, how he asks God for wisdom rather than rushing to prove himself. What I admire most about Jack is his yieldedness. His relationship with God shapes every decision, every hesitation, every act of courage.

This is clearly Christian storytelling at its finest, where belief shapes behavior and Scripture breathes naturally through the narrative without ever feeling staged or artificial.

Love in the Castle Library understands quiet holiness. It understands ordered lives interrupted by grace. It understands what it means to walk faithfully when certainty feels fragile and obedience feels costly.

The relationship between Delphine and Jack develops with restraint and depth. Their connection grows through trust, shared purpose, and spiritual alignment. The romantic arc feels rooted in something eternal rather than emotional alone. Faith in Jesus Christ is the soil from which everything grows. Watching them learn how to trust God with unanswered questions, with past wounds, with the risk of loving well is profoundly moving.

Then there is Lethersby itself. The castle library is written with such care that it becomes a character in its own right. This space carries memory, mystery, and meaning. It holds the weight of history and the hush of prayer. The ongoing search for the lost queen adds a layer of depth that mirrors the characters’ inner journeys. What has been hidden. What has been misunderstood. What God has been quietly holding all along. The way this historical thread weaves into the present story feels purposeful and thoughtful, inviting reflection rather than rushing resolution.

One of the most beautiful facets of this story is its understanding of God’s nearness. Scripture is not quoted for effect. Prayer is not decorative. Faith is portrayed as a living relationship marked by trust, wrestling, humility, and hope. This story affirms that God is active in what we see and in what we do not yet understand. It honors the slow work of healing. It respects the complexity of family relationships. It speaks gently to anyone who has learned to measure their worth by anything other than being made in God’s image.

When I finished Love in the Castle Library, I wept. I felt seen. I was encouraged. I was reminded that faithfulness often looks ordinary, moment by moment, and that God does some of His most beautiful work while we are quietly obedient and attentive to His way and His plan, all for His glory.

This story meets the reader with quiet grace and leaves the heart cared for, strengthened, and at peace.

This book carries a sense of beautiful, joyful rest that lingers, the fruit of truth handled with care.

I read with my Bible open and my heart attentive, because stories like this invite reflection, prayer, and gratitude. I am deeply grateful for this novel.

For readers who love richly written romance anchored in Scripture, characters formed by lived and authentic faith, and stories where God’s presence is woven naturally into every page, Love in the Castle Library is a gift worth lingering over again and again, and a gift worth giving.

I received a digital ARC from the publisher and Celebrate Lit. I was not required to write a positive review and received no compensation. All thoughts and opinions shared here are my own, offered honestly and with care, with a focus on the writing, faith content, and overall reading experience.