𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨. 𝙎𝙞𝙭𝙩𝙮 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨. 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜.

The short blurb for the book above, plus the fact that one of the lovers is now an old curmudgeon (A Man Called Ove is one of my favorite books) had me immediately intrigued. But there is SO much else going on in the book that the main "mystery" seems like a very minor sideplot, even with the dual timeline. I think main character Chloe was written to be sympathetic and endearing but I just couldn't connect with her and found myself not really caring how her story would end. Just overall a disappointing read as I was excited going into it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thanks to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this heartwarming story. A small town librarian discovers handwritten love notes in books from the 1950s and decides to find out if the writers still live the community. A lot of coincidences happen but the plot is still believable. I highly recommend this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ novel. 📚📚📚 #netgalley #netgalleyreview #my2024readingchallenge #bookstagram #libraryofborrowedhearts #bookrecommendations

The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore is a story that centers around books and libraries. What more could this library worker and book lover ask for? I thouroughly enjoyed Gilmore's previous novel, The Lonely Hearts Book Club and was very excited to get a chance to read this one. While it's marketed as a romance, I would say it is more of a found family narrative with a little mystery and lost love mixed in for good measure. Told in dual timelines (present day and the 1960s) and through multiple perspectives this novel had so many wonderful literary references - some I knew very well and some of which I wasn't familiar with. Maybe I need to read a couple more classics? A librarian finds scribbled secret messages between J and C in the margins of classic novels at the library, she's set on finding out who they are from and what they mean. And what she finds includes her grumpy next door neighbor, a survival training expert, and her own brothers and sister.

I have really become a fan of the found family trope and enjoyed the curmodgeonly neighbor (Jasper) of our protagonist and her siblings. He wasn't as mean as he tried to be and I really enjoyed his growing relationship with Chloe's siblings as they kind of made themselves at home with him. I found the first half of this book to be wonderfully warm and engrossing. I loved the interaction between Chloe and her friend at the library as they find and try to figure out the messages in the books. But as the story progressed, I found myself losing interest quickly. The past timeline with Jasper was interesting at first, but I was turned off by the actions of some characters in that time. I also felt like the book just ended and was dissatisfied with how a major plot point was just done.

I was looking for the excitement and magic I felt while reading The Lonely Hearts Book Club (yes, there's a nod to a character from that book!) but felt like this just didn't reach that mark. However, there are many great reviews and people that have loved this novel, so I encourage you to check it out. Overall it was good, but not a great read for me.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

If you love romcoms you will love this one so so much! It’s incredibly moving and just so sweet, I loved every second of this book.

I loved how romantic and heartwarming this one was. I know I’m late reviewing but I wanted to take my time with this one and I’m so thankful I did! This was one to savor

A beautiful and sensitive book. Well written, with a touching story that deserves to be read by everyone. I highly recommend reading it!
Thank you NetGalley for making this work available!

This was a cute read, and I was hooked and needed to get to the end with Chloe. I was rooting for her and liked her as a FMC. The romantic tale was sweet and pulled at my heartstrings.

What a sweet book! Librarian Chloe leads a quiet life, work and taking care of her younger siblings, but it's not really the life she would have chosen. When she finds an old, rare book in the library's trash pile, she thinks that selling it might help her situation. Then she discovers writing in the margins, and this leads her to an intriguing love story.

The characters are well drawn, the story is full of heart and moves swiftly. The story fluctuates between Chloe's story in the present day and the story of the young lovers who corresponded through the writing in the margins of the book. Both stories are captivating and very sweet. I could not put it down. Yes, it's a bit sappy. Yes, it's a bit predictable. But I just didn't care. Nothing new or shocking, but a fun, romantic book.

This book was really sweet! It was my first time reading anything by Lucy Gilmore and it definitely won’t be my last - I felt that this story was super heartwarming despite some of the heavier and sadder topics throughout. A book about books is always fun to read about and I loved that Chloe worked in the library, since that’s such a fun setting.
Her family’s dynamic reminded me a lot of Shameless, it was hysterical but also so sad and I felt for every one of the kids. They were written to be so dynamic and layered that they felt so real to me. I had suspicions early on about the reveal towards the end of the book and I thought it was clever. Jasper and Catherine’s love story was realistic and sad, but a bit over the top for me. But hey, it’s fiction! Jasper grew on me and I love him so much, I have a soft spot for grumpy old men I guess!

The premise of this story was great and had me excited to read, but the story was very slow moving for me and I had a hard time getting into it and wanting to pick it back up. I had to put this down a little more than 1/4 of the way through because other books were catching my eye.

Book lovers and rom-commers will come together for this delightful read! This book keeps you cheering for Chloe and her family as she investigates a long lost rare book that connects two lovers. This was a lovely book that kept me hooked and entertained!

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.

I thought this was a nice book, but it just moved a little bit slow for me. There were a lot of points of view, and it was sometimes hard to keep track of all the details. I know a lot of people enjoyed it, but I think it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this Advanced Reader Copy. All opinions are my own.

It took me a really long time to finish The Library of Borrowed Hearts. While the storyline could have been great the book was so slow. I had a hard time staying focused on it. I was not a big fan of the characters and had no emotional attachment to them.
Just wasn’t the book for me.

I 50% through and was just too bored. It was a cute story but just too slow for me. Thanks for the opportunity.

3.5 stars, rounded up!

This book definitely wasn't what I expected, spanning multiple generations, focused on families that were struggling. The cover is so bright and cheery! I ended up getting into the story, but it just felt a little bit off for me.

I love books that have anything to do with books and libraries.
This story was no different. Chloe is struggling to take care of your younger siblings after they are abandoned by their mother. On top of that having to deal with a grumpy old man next store. She comes across an old book at a flea market with a romantic message inside and starts connecting the dots with other books she finds while working in the towns library.

Thank you source books and netgalley for an arc.

I liked The Lonely Hearts Book Club quite a bit for its found family themes. However this one just missed the mark for me. It's SO slow, and when I actually think about it nothing much happens really.

Set in two timelines--one the present day, where Chloe was forced to leave college because her mom abandoned her three younger siblings. She's now working at the library and raising them, while navigating their curmudgeonly older neighbor Jasper. Chloe finds a copy of Tropic of Cancer in the library basement and smuggles it out in order to sell it to help pay the bills. It's filled with notes between a young man and a young woman. When Jasper sees the book, he offers Chloe a blank check for it. As it turns out, it was the way Jasper and Catherine, his love in the 1960s, communicated with each other, their developing love story is the second timeline.

There were way too many things going on in this book, but none of them were heartwarming. I mostly felt depressed and other than Chloe, I really didn't care for any of the characters. The mystery of what happened between Jasper and Catherine wasn't really a mystery, I found her incredibly selfish and full of herself. The story would have been more believable had it been set in the 1920s, but I couldn't believe a logger in the 60s was really that destitute.

The entire storyline with the mother of the four kids was just overall weird--it felt underdeveloped, but so did what happened with Noodle and the romance between Chloe and Zach. I don't know the entire book just fell totally flat for me.

I listened to the audiobook, and there are different narrators for various points of view, which was entertaining. But because so many of them were just brief snippets, it was all the more glaring that there were way too many points of view to make a cohesive story that reaches the reader emotionally.

There are lots of people who enjoyed this one, it just didn't work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it.

I will readily admit that romance is not my genre of choice. However, I need to build the romance part of our collection due to patron requests. Maybe my lack of appreciation for most romance titles influenced my feelings for this title, but I felt like this is amazingly slowly plotted. It made this a slog that I had to finish. I think this is contrary to most other reviews - so take my review with a grain of salt. It is just not a title for me - others seem to love it.

Chloe has a lot on her plate. She has taken on the responsibility for her younger siblings and has therefore disrupted her career plans. Rather than being a full blown librarian, she works in a library doing a variety of more menial tasks.

One day, Chloe is asked to clean out the books that are to be discarded by the library. She makes a few finds while there. One is a trove of Harlequin romances that her friend wants for her grandmother (Chloe agrees to sneak them out). The other find is a former banned book that may be worth enough to make a difference for Chloe. She takes it.

Chloe later finds that this book has writing in the margins. Much as in The Book Swap, the messages have significance. Someone offers to buy the book; why does he especially want it?

How will lives change? Will characters grow? Find out in this story that takes place in more than one time frame.

I always am drawn to books about books so I was eager to read this one.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for this title. All opinions are my own.