The story is a mishmash of contemporary fiction, mystery and mild romance and is filled with many literary references - some I got (Anne of Green Gables) and others I didn't (Hemingway, Wuthering Heights). I enjoyed the mystery element as Chloe tries to piece together the identities of the couple from the 1960's who wrote love notes to each other in books.
But despite dysfunctional family issues and a couple memorable characters (Jasper and Noodle), the story fell a little flat for me and I finished it wanting more depth, more connection to the characters and believable motivations for a female character's brusque and (I feel) heartless decision.
There is a delightful grumpy, tell-it-like-it-is elderly neighbour in Jasper and even though Ove (A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman) has my heart, some of Jasper's comebacks to characters were some of my favourite parts of the book.
This story had a good premise about lost love, books and libraries and will delight fans of easy-going, small-town stories.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for the complimentary digital copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.
My Rating: 3 stars
Author: Lucy Gilmore
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
First Published: April 30, 2024
Book Description from GoodReads: A.J. Fikry meets The Bookish Life of Nina Hill in this charming, hilarious, and moving novel about the way books bring lonely souls together.
Two young lovers. Sixty long years. One bookish mystery worth solving.
Librarian Chloe Sampson has been struggling: to take care of her three younger siblings, to find herself, to make ends meet. She's just about at the end of her rope when she stumbles across a rare edition of a book from the 1960s at the local flea market. Deciding it's a sign of her luck turning, she takes it home with her—only to be shocked when her cranky hermit of a neighbor swoops in and offers to buy it for an exorbitant price. Intrigued, Chloe takes a closer look at the book only to find notes scribbled in the margins between two young lovers back when the book was new…one of whom is almost definitely Jasper Holmes, the curmudgeon next door.
When she begins following the clues left behind, she discovers this isn't the only old book in town filled with romantic marginalia. This kickstarts a literary scavenger hunt that Chloe is determined to see through to the end. What happened to the two tragic lovers who corresponded in the margins of so many different library books? And what does it have to do with the old, sad man next door—who only now has begun to open his home and heart to Chloe and her siblings?
In a romantic tale that spans the decades, Chloe discovers that there's much more to her grouchy old neighbor than meets the eye. And in allowing herself to accept the unexpected friendship he offers, she learns that some love stories begin in the unlikeliest of places.
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