After losing both the beloved grandmother that raised her and her job as a local librarian, Jess decides she needs a new start. The problem is she doesn't know how to get it so fate helps her. While driving through the English countryside, her car breaks down. She sees a charming cottage for sale and buys it on a whim.

As Jess works on the rundown cottage, we meet the quirky townspeople - including her grumpy and handsome neighbor. They all want to know what Jess is going to do with the red telephone booth that is on her property. With a collection of her grandmother's cherished books in boxes, Jess decides to turn the phone booth into a library. Through the library, we see Jess become a member of her new village. The books help others and through that she is able to start to move on from her grief.

The characters are all going through their own struggles and we see how hard it is to be vulnerable, have faith in yourself and others, and to take the leap.

Just when everything seems ideal though, Jess's new life is in jeopardy of disappearing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and all of it's characters.

A wonderful read! As a librarian, I often seek out books about books and this lovely story made me feel as though I lived in the charming, tiny village in England. This is my first Poppy Alexander book and the first thing I did when I finished this book was to see if she had written other books. A tiny dream of a library, a dash of romance, and a delightful cast of village characters made this a must have purchase for our library and a warm hearted read indeed.

This was a really cute book and made me want to travel to England and find this cute telephone library box. At the beginning it was a little bit of a slow burn, but as the story went on the pacing got a lot better. The grandmother story was so heartwarming as well, and overall was a fast but meaningful read. I would recommend!

A heartwarming, cozy read that ticks all my tea-loving boxes! The Littlest Library deposited me squarely in the middle of a charming little village...and I'm thoroughly annoyed to be back in the real world! I found this book to be a real escape from reality, and I loved the village characters, those cheeky gin and tonic afternoons, and the romantic entanglement that keeps this story's emotional heart ticking along. Just a real pleasure.

The adorable cover drew me in but this one wasn't for me. Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the free ARC.

I was excited to read this book as the cover is so cute and I liked the story line, also who doesn’t look a book about books. It started off good but as I got further in the writing just fell flat. Certain aspects of Jess’ storyline were underdeveloped and others were repeated a bit too much. This story is great for an average reader but just didn’t hold my attention.

A fun, if somewhat predictable, romantic comedy. It was the perfect escape from my normal dark reads.

A big thank you to Obsidian for bringing my attention to this book with your wonderful review. Thank you also to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my objective review.

What a lovely, cozy story! This is one of those books where you want to curl up in a comfy chair with a cup of tea and read all afternoon.

The main characters were so likeable as were most of the supporting characters. The plot was intriguing and charming including a sweet love story.

I had mixed feelings about the backstory of one of the supporting characters but her delightful personality eventually won me over.

I look forward to reading more by this author.

No profanity and G-rated love scenes.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley
Such an adorable idea for a book I'm so glad that I can get my hands on it thank you so much.

Slow start, but cute concept. I stopped at 15%, but if it continues as it has, our average reader will find it average.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC.

As a book lover and librarian, I absolutely could not put this one down! I loved the sweet setting of this story, and the way the little library brought the community together, because in my experience, that is what books do in real life, too. This story makes me want to move to the idyllic countryside and cultivate a sweet little garden! I felt so immersed in this community, and loved the story, as I typically love Poppy Alexander's stories...quick, fun read!

Jess is 32 and she’s lost her librarian job, her beloved grandmother who raise her recently died, and her only close friend has moved to New Zealand and married a “hunky veterinarian”. Knowing she needs to move on, no matter how scary that is, Jess buys a charming but ver rundown cottage in a charming but declining village. There no library, no post office and folks are going to a nearby town for most of the purchases. Jess digs in with gusto to spruce up the cottage and garden and starts to make friends with a host of interesting villagers….especially Aiden, a cute tree surgeon and divorced father of 12 year old Massie.
Charming and heartwarming, The Littlest Library will warn your heart.

I wanted to read this book because of the cover and title.
I thought it was a good story about starting over, stepping outside your comfort zone. Who doesn’t love a book that has books in it too. It sounded like a lovely place to live.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy of this book. It was really good

I really thought that the narrative of this story had some real depth to it and I was excited to see how the character navigated so many changes in her life, but in the end I just kind of skimmed to get the story. The writing fell a little flat and I found a lot of instances where the old writing adage “show me, don’t tell me” would have been very beneficial. I did enjoy some of the dialogue about books, but found the rest of the dialogue and writing lacked nuance.

A really solid book. The only reason that I didn't give this 5 stars is that things started getting a wee bit repetitive regarding Jess's need to get a job and her ongoing thoughts surrounding Aiden. And I thought that some things about Jess's personality were not 100 percent consistent throughout. We know that she has a hard time maintaining friendships and getting out of her comfort zone, so it felt a bit off that she decided to start buttng in on people's lives. What was lovely though is that Jess finds a place she can call home in Middlemass and finds herself some other friends outside of her long-term friendship with her best friend Hannah. I loved the discussion about books. And I really wanted a library in my backyard that is installed in an old telephone box. 

"The Littlest Library" follows Jess Metcalf. Jess is reeling from losing her job at a library and the loss of her grandmother Mimi, months earlier. Jess is at a crossroads when she decides to take a car trip to get out of Bourton-on-the-Marsh and ends up in the village of Middlemass. She gets stranded and comes across a cottage for sale with a telephone box in front. Before she knows it, Jess puts down an offer and moves out of her grandmother's old home to start anew in Middlemass. Jess starts trying to fix up her new home but keeps running across her neighbor (who irks her) Aiden and his daughter. But she also meets some of the other villagers like Diana, Mungo, Paddy, and Becky who start to fill in some of the spaces she has let go empty for so many years. When Jess somehow ends up agreeing to run a library out of the telephone box in front of her house, she finds herself more fulfilled than she has been in years.

All in all a lovely story. I liked Jess a lot. She loves books, and turns her head to building up her beautiful garden. The book follows her over several months and you get to see her changing and her yearning for something more with Aiden though it looks like that may be out of the cards. 

The book's main tension is that some in the village don't want the library and Jess has to decide what she is going to do about it, and what is she going to do about finding a job. 

The other characters are delightful and I loved all of the goings on with everyone. I did say above that Jess sticking her nose in and being judgmental of some people does creep up now and again, but she's quick to realize she's doing it. 

The writing was great. Alexander really does make you feel like you are in the middle of an English village living in a cute cottage. This book did make me miss summer, but also the month of September. 

I loved the ending. It's a quiet thing and you can guess at what happens next.

This is a delightfully charming tale about Jess, a young woman who loses the grandmother who raises her, and moves to a small town to rebuild her life. She manages to put her grandmother's book collection to good use by turning an old phone booth into a makeshift library. Things get complicated when she develops feelings for her hunky neighbor, she doesn't have a job yet, and the littlest library is at risk of closing. While it was predictable for the most part, for me it was a welcome respite from all of the heavy historical fiction I have been reading lately. The characters were likable and quirky, and each were richly developed. While some aspects seemed a bit contrived, albeit but for the sake of happy endings, all loose ends were tied up to a satisfying conclusion. My one criticism was that the author seemed to have a very bleak outlook about the future of libraries, and this was mentioned throughout the book. I believe that when something is spoken about/written about, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps libraries are more at risk in the UK and Australia than they are here in the U.S., but it still was disconcerting to read over and over. I also didn't care for the way the author seemed to play into the stereotype that librarians have to dress in bleak, frumpy, out-of-date clothing (especially since this is a present-day story).. Overall though, if you are a book lover looking for a lighthearted tale to enjoy and are attracted by the title of this book, go for it! Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for an advance e-reader copy of this book.

This book felt like coming home. I could not put it down. I loved the community brought together by books and how everyone helped each other, and especially the philosophy that there is a book to cure every ailment. While I am a sucker for a swoony romance I appreciated that a man wasn’t at the forefront of a solution for Jess.

Such a sweet, charming, delightful and happy book. It was such a wonderful escape - I wanted to move next door to Jess and borrow books from the littlest library and find an inscription that meant something to me from Mimi.

The Littlest Library
By Poppy Alexander
3.5/5

The idea of a little library built into an abandoned British phone box is all it took for me to pick up this one! #booklover #anglophile

Jess is adrift. The grandmother who raised her from age 4 has recently died, and she has lost her librarian job. Nothing is keeping her where she is. On a whim, she lists her house for sale. As she’s driving during a viewing one afternoon, she finds a small village with a cute, albeit rundown, cottage on the edge of an idyllic pond. As she’s investigating, she finds the cottage is for sale and impulsively purchases it.

Jess soon finds out the purchase agreement requires her to deal with a urine-soaked, abandoned phone box sitting in front of the cottage instead of removing it. She’s met by a typical cast of characters as she learns about the cottage and phone box options: the dramatic city council lead, the older gay bachelor, the overworked and overtired mom of three, and the hunky yet emotionally unavailable neighbor.

Coincidentally, not only is Jess a librarian, but she also has ten boxes filled with her late grandmother’s favorite books. She turns the phone box into a little library and finds it fills the gaps in her life: purpose, a growing circle of friends who visit the library, and confidence to try things she wouldn’t in her life before. The story is not without adversity and a touch of romance, and of course, it has a happy ending. I enjoyed following Jess’s growth, though got annoyed with her jumping to conclusions. There were a few repetitive themes that were a bit trying, but overall, it was a fun, warmhearted read.

Thirty-something homebody Jess has lost her job at the library as well as her grandmother who raised her and is feeling rootless.

Eager for a new beginning, she impulsively sells the house, packs her grandmother’s books, and buys a rundown cottage in a new village that comes with a red telephone box in the yard. And clashes with previous owner Aidan.

She turns the box into a little free library, connects with her community, and starts a pretty weak romance.

The writing is descriptive and the setting comes alive. But our librarian Jess thinks “…the digital age were making traditional librarian skills increasingly obsolete.” and “Libraries are a dying breed...” So, I have my doubts about how much effort the author out into understanding librarianship. If that’s true, then how realistic are her other descriptions and what else did she get wrong?

Jess is afraid of change and is still dealing with the trauma of the loss of her parents when she was 4. She struggles to form friendships and is lonely, but she isn’t shy. Still, I had a hard time connecting with her and her choices. It’s a cute story about getting out of your comfort zone and making connections, but I found it slow paced.

I received an arc from NetGalley