I read The Library of Borrowed Hearts and really enjoyed it, so when this one popped up on the Libby app I was keen to read it.
Here’s the blurb …
Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely…but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane’s day that when Arthur doesn’t show up one morning, she’s instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another.
Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden…and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur’s gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart—and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages.
This is not a romance, although if there is a sequel there might be a romance. This is about a group of lost and lonely people who connect, firstly through kindness and then through books. I loved all of the bookish references, in particular The Anne of Green Gables mentions (for me the novels of L M Montgomery were life changing – I have even been to Green Gables). The characterisation is great – no one is perfect, they all have flaws, and most of them are hiding from life.
A review