I have been very excited about this book. I love the idea of a book within a book, and when it's done well, it's such a blast to read.

This book has two parts...one is the correspondence between Leo (the American) and Hannah (the Australian author) about her upcoming novel. Leo is proofreading it for her, and adding American-isms to it. At some point, the reader begins to feel uncomfortable with Leo, and the build up to his reveal is satisfying. I do wish, however, that his part to the story was more fleshed out, or that Hannah made the Leo in her manuscript the murderer so that he would have reacted to it in some way. It was a short book, and the author could have given us more with the correspondence between the two of them. I wish there had been more of that!

The book within the book was a fun mystery...four strangers bond over who killed a woman in the Boston Public Library while all of them are in the adjoining room. They become fast friends and work together to solve the mystery. There are a lot of twists and turns, and the ending is satisfying.

I had a lot of fun with this book, and enjoyed the quickness of this read.

This was an engaging plot with smart characterization.
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill was a great story idea. Unfortunately it fell flat for me and didn't hold my attention. The characters felt lackluster and the story within a story point of view was irritating at best.

This is a book within a book within a book. An author is writing a story about a writer writing a story. Confused yet? The plot really isn’t this confusing and the real story told is told in a unique way. An author is sending chapters of their book to someone who communicates back to her his thoughts on what she is writing. Each chapter alternates with the story she is writing and the emails commenting on what she has written. The book is described as being twisty but the twist (or really the actual story) is given away half way through and spoils the natural progression of letting the reader figure it out and realization of what the real story is. The ending became anticlimactic for me. Anyway, the story within the story was interesting.

Truthfully, I read this story back in May of 2022.

When I forget to leave a review, I can still go back and think of how I received it. But right now I am drawing an absolute blank. In those situations, I go back to reviews and synopsis to help jog up my memory. Yet, nothing is really coming back to me.

Therefore, I can only assume one thing. This book was subpar at best. But without the details, I can't tell you why it didn't quite hit the homerun plate with me.

The Woman in the Library one caught my interest right away and I couldn't put it down until I found out what happened. I enjoyed the different POV storyline but you definitely had to really pay attention. Was a thrilling read that kept me guessing.

This suspense story was told in a very interesting way, through the POV of a fictional writer, who is a character in an in-progress novel, and emails sent to the "real" author by an adoring fan.

In the beginning, it took me a bit to get my bearings with the alternate story telling methods. The story unfolded slowly, but once the action picked up at around the 50% mark, I was hooked and flew through the pages to find out what happens next.

I did feel like the characters were sort of clichés, and were not developed with much depth. The MC was so painfully naive, and the insta-love had me rolling my eyes.

But still, this was an entertaining murder mystery, with quite a few twists along the way.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. The characters weren’t my favorite and I dent the story dragged on. I got about 50% before I DNF’d. But this is my opinion, if you think it’s something you will like definitely give it a shot.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

In the beautiful and quiet reading room in the Boston Public Library, the peace was shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Everyone is advised to shelter in place until the threat has been found, four strangers start talking and wondering what was going on. Once the all clear is given and it is revealed that a woman was found murdered in room closed by. The four strangers go out for lunch and it is revealed one of them is the murderer.

This is a novel inside a novel and well written. I look forward to more books by this author.

I just loved this fun 'book within a book'. The actual mystery was nothing special, but the back and forth between Hannah and Leo mixed with the book chapters and the addition of the character named Leo was so clever, The correspondence was actually the part I enjoyed most, but I liked how it it all worked together. If you've ever been part of a writers' critique group, you'll get an extra kick out of Leo's advice and what Hannah chooses to do with it. Very entertaining read!

This was a little tricky for me at first. The whole story within a story murder mystery, mystery was a lot to take in. Won't lie, got confused a time or two in the first couple chapters until I was able to sort things out in my own mind. (That isn't a jab at the writing itself, rather an observation of myself I felt was worth noting.)

With that being said, this was an incredibly well written and twisty story that had me guessing the whole time, who dunnit?

The elaborate way in which every nuanced detail of the location, characters and general surroundings was written really made me feel like I was sitting in BPL watching this all unfold. Truly a talented writer to make that happen and to hold that feeling throughout the story.

Enjoyed getting immersed in this story and all of the characters.

As a librarian, I absolutely had to read The Woman in the Library. There was/is a lot of hype surrounding this book and it is there for a reason. Read this thriller and you will not be disappointed! Did NOT see that twist coming...

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
Publication date: June 7, 2022

Date read: July 17, 2022



The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the silence is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. While they wait for the all-clear from security, four strangers sitting at the same table pass the time in conversation and a friendship is struck. Each person at that table has their own reason for being in the reading room that morning - it just so happens that one of them is murder.

This book is kind of two books in one. First, there is the murder mystery. Second, there is the writing of the murder mystery. Between chapters, we are shown letters from a fan of the author who she is using as a proofreader and resource (since the reader lives in the Boston area and the author does not). Confusing? At first. But after a few chapters, I got used to the format and ended up really enjoying the choice to write it this way.

There are a lot of unlikable characters in this book. I definitely found myself getting angry about comments or choices that characters made, only to realize later that the comment was not a mistake by the author, but rather foreshadowing about the motives of a character. So give the author a little more benefit of the doubt than I did.

Murder mysteries are hard to review, because I really don’t want to give away any plot points. So I’ll speak only in general terms about the book itself, rather than the plot.

I thought that the book was written pretty well, if not perfectly. There were some obvious cliches and some romantic relationships that had me rolling my eyes a bit. But it was a decent murder mystery and I feel that the reveal holds up and doesn’t leave any unanswered questions that I can recall. So while I didn’t love the characters and relationships as much as I wish I had, I enjoyed the mystery enough that I would recommend this one.

Overall, it’s a fun murder mystery with a little added twist of a fourth wall break (the mystery being shown to be a book that an author was writing). Enjoyable, as long as you don’t take it all too seriously.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Trigger warning: murder, pandemic, physical assault, mentions of sexual assault, mentions of Australian wildfires, racism, stalking

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

Fab little mystery/thriller for fans of Agatha Christie! I loved it and it kept me on my toes, I couldn’t guess it! Wonderful writing and I will recommend it to all of my fellow thriller lovers!

A story that starts with a mysterious death in the Boston Public Library? Count me in. I thoroughly enjoy this book. The alternating chapters between Freddie's story and her Leo's letters kept things interesting. I may have been there more for Leo's storyline by the end - suspenseful and well done! I'll definitely be recommending to friends.

Unfortunately, I have been locked out of my netgalley account for a few months and was not able to see which books I had on my list, in order to properly read and review. I do apologize and am doing a 3 for neutral. Will update once I’m able to obtain a copy and read!

Who doesn't love the idea of the best private room in the library being used for murder? While that may be a morbid question it doesn't mean that weird stuff hasn't happened in one before. Thi was such a fun read and I loved every twist and urn, I mean turn.

Thank you to #NetGalley and publishers for the ARC of #TheWomanInTheLibrary in exchange for an honest review.

This book was set up so that the author is writing a murder book and getting editor feedback from someone who is also murdering people. It’s a little meta and if that’s not for you, you might not like it - but not in the breaking the fourth wall sense. The murder book story is fairly straightforward and I had it figured out about halfway through. The editor-writer story is set up so that there could be a sequel if they wanted.

A twisty tale that was filled with characters I didn’t necessarily love but who kept me flying through the story. I also loved the setting and the peeling back of the layers of each character underlying story.

I will definitely be picking up this author again.