Strong vibes of:
🏡 Small Town Romance
🍀 Starting Over
📚 Lesbrarians
🥰 Books as Therapy
🌶️ Spice
🌈 Gay

The New Town Librarian is ultimately a love story to books with a side of queer love story. It follows 50-something lesbrarian Nan as she moves to a small town in New Jersey to run the local library. But it’s not all quaint and idyllic — the library is housed in a former town jail, a board member is determined to make things hard, there are mysterious messages being left in library books and oh, there’s a hot butch deli owner who’s a tempting fling when Nan is desperately trying to break her hookup habits and find a healthy relationship. It’s a journey of her getting out of her own ruts, finding her people through books, and helping more people find themselves and their people through the power books. It’s a sweet story of love, found family, and self growth with books as the backdrop and throughline.

If you’re in the mood to fangirl over libraries this is the book for you. It certainly was the book for me!

I enjoyed this one! 50's, single, queer librarian who gets a job she isn't quite qualified for with some great comedy. The writing style isn't generally what I jive with but the premise and humor kept me engaged.

This was a lot of fun! A queer, cranky librarian moves to a small town to run a barely functioning public library and shenanigans ensue. Great comedic timing, wonderful cast of characters, and a lovely display of librarianship and how libraries can impact a town. Timely and delightful

I enjoyed the small town and the fun characters there. However, it took some time to have any feeling towards the main character. I understand that character growth takes time but all the emotional feel good or bad was in the last half of the book. If I didn’t need to review the book, I wouldn't have finished it. As soon as we got to the good stuff it hit all at once, I laughed, literally cried and felt the joy, pain and love of the characters. I wish more of that was throughout the book as a whole.

I picked this book because the description of a small town librarian had me intrigued! I LOVED this book. I loved Nan's story, especially her descriptions of life in her small-town library. I found her accounts to be so spot-on. I only wonder if non-librarians will get it. Nan was fun to root for as she makes her way in her new leadership role. I found the romance aspect inspiring-I love second chance love stories! Nan is a character I will not soon forget-I feel like I had so many "me too" moments (not the movement, but the "I can relate-type:)

Reading books with middle aged queers is my jam! But this was my burnt toast.

Main characters don't need to be likeable, but this one was annoying rude, especially to children.

Fifty-year-old queer (and single) Nan Nethercott is a quirky, wisecracking librarian with a mediocre career and no love life. She randomly applies for library jobs she's not qualified for, and lucky her! She ends up landing the position of head librarian in a small New Jersey town.

So she moves from her crappy job in Philly to no-name Jersey. She moves in to the upstairs apartment with a bizarre couple living downstairs. Immaculata, the landlady, just barges in all the time, cleans, cooks, and slowly becomes a good friend without Nan realizing it. As Nan takes charge of the (very bad) library, she finds her footing through dealing with the challenges she faces. She inadvertently makes friends, and ultimate ends up finding herself in this heartwarming and delightfully weird novel reminiscent of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

If anyone is interested, the sex stuff is almost non-existent in this book, besides some oddball flirting. Even if you don't normally like lesbian stories, it's not much a part of this story, other than the fact that it's one more reason she often feels alone and alienated from others. But seriously, her personality is enough on its own! 😂

If you enjoy quirky and like reading about people who've spent their whole lives lost finally finding their way, this will be a delightful read for you! ❤️

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I thought this would be something I loved, but the plot was very slow and we don’t meet the woman Nan ends up with until almost the very end of the book. I appreciate the attempt to depart from a normal rom-com plot, but I felt like there wasn’t a lot of buildup to their relationship and we didn’t really get to know Sophia well enough to be that invested.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/b20bf2e4-7f85-4c55-8ac4-8135b06111d8

The New Town Librarian is a heartwarming and humorous tale about Nan Nethercott, a witty and slightly anxious librarian, who embarks on a fresh start in a small town. As she adjusts to her new life, she encounters amusing challenges, including an eccentric landlady, mischievous kids causing chaos at the library, and mysterious notes left by an unknown reader.

Despite the hurdles, Nan forms surprising and endearing friendships while seeking genuine love. Through her journey of self-discovery, she learns to confront obstacles with creativity and determination, leading her to a sense of belonging and purpose.

With clever humor and relatable characters, The New Town Librarian is an engaging and uplifting read that celebrates the power of resilience and the beauty of finding joy in life's unexpected moments. As Nan navigates through the ups and downs of her new life, readers will be charmed by her unique perspective and inspired by her pursuit of happiness and genuine connections.

I loved the set up and the main character. I am always excited to see queer characters and characters over 40. A lot to enjoy about this one. Was slow for me to get into but over all very good.

This book spoke about the courage to do new things and stepping out of your comfort zone. The author never strayed from the plot and they kept me wanting more. I love the LGBTIAQ+ aspect where they weren’t scared to push those boundaries on the pages. They made sure the main character knew exactly who she was and wasn’t afraid to be herself.

I loved that the protagonist is 50 and queer. And a librarian moving to a small town from a big city! She is really having to reevaluate life as she once knew it, and isn't so fond of new things. No worries, sometimes we need others to help push us into new experiences and living arrangements. Can I find some landlords that bring me food and homemade wine? Please!?

I really enjoyed this story of a middle-aged librarian looking to make a change in her life by making the move to become a big fish in in a small pond. Librarian saves the library is always a fun trope, but this book gives so much more. I love all the different characters that Nan comes into contact with. The way that she builds up a group of friends in this new place is so real and relatable. I love her relationship with her landlords and book club. If I have any complaint about this book, it's that it was too short. I think that more time could have been spent delving into some of the different relationships. In general though, it is a solid slice of life story.

Look, right off the bat, I was excited about this book. As a library science student, it just appeals to me and what I like. I was a little sad to see Nan characterized in the way that she was. She didn’t feel like most librarians I know, and her judgmental view of “fantasy worlds” felt dismissive in a way that I found uncomfortable.

It was generally a decent read, but it kind of felt like a book that was more vibes than plot, which in most cases is I don’t mind. It was fairly low-stakes and feel-good, which I enjoyed, but I’m not sure that I would read this again. This book did offer a nice moment of escapism with a variety of feelings.

Anderson has written a delightful female main character in Nan. She is a force to be reckoned with and lively ups everyone's life.

Give this a slot in your summer beach reads list.

Thank you to Ninestar Press and Netgalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

A fun romp about a librarian who shakes things up in her new community.

Nan reminds me of my favorite humor author, Laurie Notaro, if she were a lesbian librarian. On the brash side, which mayt not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought Nan seemed like a blast. I loved her tactics for dealing with troublesome teens, the hypochondriac hotline, and the “discuss whatever you’re reading instead of assigning a specific book” book club. While I wasn’t particularly invested in the love interests, they weren’t really the focus of the story. This was more a fish out of water story with a few dashes of romance.

If you love libraries and could use a chuckle, definitely check this out.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

This one sounded so good but it’s definitely not for me. DNFing pretty early on. WAY too many exclamation points right from the get go. The writing style is way too choppy. I appreciate the effort but it’s a no from me! Thanks anyway for the ARC.

If you are looking for a snarky, summer beach read with an unabashedly queer, middle aged protagonist trying to kickstart her life in a small South Jersey town, then this is the read for you. It's a great quick read due to its casual prose and has its literal laugh out loud moments.

As a Jersey girl myself, Pinetree was a wonderful slice of home. Diners and delis, overbearing Italian aunties, the Jersey Devil, and so much more.

However, the protagonist Nan is pretty one dimensional, with little character development outside of "rebel" and the plot is not very deep. The story had a lot of potential to be something really engaging, but overall it falls a bit flat at times.

A fun, quirky read but that's it.

I thought this was such a cute book! It was deff a cozy style of writing, and an easy read, but it touched on some really serious and heavy topics and I found myself crying more than once.. good crying and sad crying. I don't want to give too much away- but I think we can all relate to the MC at some point in our lives. And the ending involves a cat so.. enough said.

THE NEW TOWN LIBRARIAN was a sweet story of a queer middle aged woman making a lot of life changes and learning personal lessons by running a library in South Jersey, but the plot and the prose were underwhelming. Some of the cast of side characters were funny or memorable but others were forgettable. The main character was also kind of annoying and not particularly sympathetic. Anderson did a lot of telling and not showing, and I wish I could've emotionally connected more to this book. It had a lot of potential.