I really enjoyed this book. The Library of Borrowed Hearts is a multiple point of view novel that takes place over 60 years with flashbacks to the early story of Jasper and Catherine and the contemporary story of the family and their neighbors. I loved how the book interwove the stories, the characters, and particularly the growth of Jasper in the later chapters. The different point of views add so much interest to the inner monologue of the characters. The only one who I honestly feel got short changed in the end was Chloe, I think there should have been a little more completion to her story.

"The Library of Borrowed Hearts" is an amazing story. Librarian Chloe Sampson has a lot on her plate. Aside from work, she was thrust into the role of caregiver of her three younger siblings. She is balancing life as best as she can while living next to her curmudgeon neighbor Jasper.

While at work, she discovers a rare, banned book from the 1960s and decides to swipe it in an effort to raise money for her family. While inspecting it, she finds little notes in the margins that tells a secret love story for the ages. She then discovers more books that were part of this clandestine relationship and is eager to see how the past unfolds.

This is a story of lost love, of found family, and of struggle. It was a charming read and I am so thankful to NetGalley, Lucy Gilmore, and Sourcebooks for gifting me this ARC.

I always love books about books and librarians then throw in found family and I’m in heaven.

This one has dual timelines, a couple of romances, multiple POVs, a bookish scavenger hunt, lovable pets and a grumpy neighbor.

With so many characters, some ended up a little underdeveloped, but this is a solid read or listen.

There is quite a cast of narrators in this one. Leanne Woodward. Aven Shore, Joe Jameson, and Bob Ball all do such a great job bringing such a large and varied cast alive. I love when there are multiple narrators for a book with a large cast. This group hit it out of the park.

You can't help but root for Chloe Sampson and her younger siblings! While the ending is clear from pretty much the beginning of the novel, and it wraps up way too quickly in my opinion, the characters are fun to follow and each timeline was enjoyable to read. This is my first Lucy Gilmore read, but unlikely to be my last.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish - and once I started it I didn’t want to put it down! This story jumped between timelines - which I always love - but it was the characters and all the literary allusion I quickly became enthralled with as the two timelines converged. I loved the found family in this book as well. A few times I had found myself hoping for a different ending for the characters I came to care for but this book is a journey I’d recommend to everyone. And I love that all the works referenced in this story are in a list at the end of the book.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced electronic version of this story in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this story! The character dynamic, the found family, the drama! Such a fun read filled with nostalgia.

Thank you Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the eARC of The Library of Borrowed Hearts! All opinions in this review are my own.

While I enjoyed this one, I found the pace to be very slow. I loved the storyline of Jasper and Catherine, and Chloe finding their correspondence in the books. When it wasn't focused on that, I impatiently waited for it to go back.

I found the blurb and general idea of this book to be quite unique, and having enjoyed The Lonely-Hearts Book Club, I'm sad to say didn't enjoy this nearly as much. Most of the characters were pretty interesting and okay, and I get what the author was trying to do, connecting everyone together, but I didn't like the revelation and the justification made no sense to me. I won't spoil it, of course, but it just felt so morally wrong (this isn't just about my love for HEAs, the closure has to be right).

This was cute. I liked the back and forth of past and future, and how everyone was connected or found a kindred spirit. I think the end was wrapped up too fast and I have a lot of questions. Overall it was a cute story that intertwined books, a chaotic family, a lost love, and found family. Triggers of abandonment, injury, bullying.

I liked Chloe. She’s an earnest young woman who is doing right by her younger siblings after their mother abandoned them.
Jasper was my next favorite character. Every cranky curmudgeon has a backstory and his was especially interesting.
I had no use for Chloe’s mother and I also didn’t care for Catherine. I thought she was selfish and very unfair to Jasper.
I liked the book references through tin and that Chloe worked in a library.
The book shows that kindred spirits can be found in the most unlikeliest of places.

In Lucy Gilmore’s heartwarming novel, The Library of Borrowed Hearts, Chloe's life is a balancing act between caring for her younger siblings and trying to make ends meet as a library assistant. When she discovers a rare book with a hidden love story in the margins, she hopes to sell it to secure a better future. However, her world is turned upside down when her brother gets into trouble and breaks his leg.

As Chloe navigates her responsibilities and desperate circumstances, her curmudgeonly old neighbor’s offer a small fortune for the book and the park ranger who rescued her brother both offer a glimmer of hope. But it's the mysterious notes in the margins that truly capture her attention. As she deciphers the clues, she becomes obsessed with uncovering the story of the past lovers.

This captivating novel masterfully weaves together a dual timeline, slowly revealing the secrets, struggles, and charms of the characters. The author's skillful storytelling will have you rooting for the entire cast. With its unique blend of mystery, romance, and heart, The Library of Borrowed Hearts is a must-read for anyone looking for a story that will leave them feeling uplifted and inspired. This was a five-star read for me!

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved it. I thought the story was beautiful and so wonderfully written. I was totally invested in the characters and just didn't want to put the book down.

I made it three chapters before I had to quit. I wanted to enjoy reading it because it takes place in a library and the premise sounded good, but the main character drove me nuts.

I really loved this book at first. It was giving me kind of The Notebook vibes but with star-crossed lovers using book annotations to communicate (which I loved, btw, what a nice idea, and it was executed well). Chloe, the person who finds the annotated book and starts looking into it felt like a real person. I loved her family, those kids were so much fun to read about, and I connected with her struggles. Then, when we started learning more about the star-crossed lovers from the past, I really liked their characters as well.

However, I don't love where things went. I understood the reason why the two lovers couldn't be together, but:

1) Catherine faking her death was so melodramatic and felt so unrealistic that it took me right out of the story. I also didn't love the final conversation between Catherine and Jasper, and how they worked things out. It felt so anticlimactic and I was like "Oh... is that it???" cause it was barely a conversation. Again, I understood the reasons, but the execution of these things wasn't great IMO. I also felt like "Oh, okay..." when the reveal about Zach happened. It was just not executed well. I would've loved for hints to be dropped from the moment Jasper and he met; that would've made the reveal feel more in place. It felt like it was just dropped in there.

2) Chloe and Zach's romance was severely undercooked and it felt unfinished, like an afterthought the author had and she just didn't have or didn't take enough time to marinate the idea in her mind and make it fit better into the overall story.

3) The way things were resolved with Chloe's mom, I hated that. No confrontation from Chloe, no nothing. It was all internal and at least there's that, but I hated everything about the mom coming back like nothing happened and Chloe just allowing that shit to happen, and also just letting her walk away again without saying something poignant and powerful that would stay with her mom for the rest of her life about what a shitty parent and person she is. I didn't want a screaming match, I just wanted something to happen externally, not just Chloe telling us how she severed her mother from her heart and then thanking her as they said goodbye.

This book started as a solid 4-star, but it ended as a 2.75-star rounded up to 3. I think maybe the author needed to take a bit more time sitting with these ideas or better guidance from editors and this would've been a banger. The ideas are there, the characters were good, and the writing is solid, but the execution didn't work IMO.

Maybe this book resonates so much because as a librarian, we inherently understand the treasure of the library's collection of books. Or maybe it's because we know, intimately, the transformative power of reading. Regardless, Chloe and her siblings, along with Jasper, are characters who learn and grow, showing incredible character development and landing a spot on this librarian's RA list.

This was such a sweet book-think A Man Called Ove meets The Sweet Spot. I'm also a sucker for books about books!

Chloe is struggling as an almost librarian. She is the guardian for her three younger siblings. When she finds a rare old book in the library basement, she's hoping it might be worth something, but when looks inside it, she finds notes from two young lovers. She figures out that one of them is her cranky, slightly scary next-door neighbor. She begins to piece together his story and look at him differently. Meanwhile, she finds a little room for love too.

I gave this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars. I love this trope of the grumpy neighbor has a backstory and a heart. I fell in love with Cloe's family and Jasper. It has dual timelines and POV. All of my favorite things wrapped into a story to remember!

Told through multiple perspectives in dual timelines with a plot that includes a wonderful selection of literary references with scribbled messages in the margins of old books, the main character is a librarian who is intent on solving the mystery behind the identity of the two lovers who used books as a way to communicate in the 1960s.

This was such a sweet read! I love a dual timeline and I feel that this was executed pretty well. Both stories were cozy and romantic.

A book about books, this delightful novel will charm its way into your heart and settle there. Highly recommended!

THE LIBRARY OF BORROWED HEARTS by Lucy Gilmore (The Lonely Hearts Book Club) is another wonderful feel good book with plenty of references to titles, authors, and their characters. There are two time periods; one is 1960 where Jasper, a logger, and Catherine, library employee and daughter of a military commander, tentatively make each other's acquaintance by leaving notes in books. The other is present day where wannabe librarian Chloe is responsible for her rather eccentric siblings (15-year-old Trixie, and 11-year-old twins Theo and Noodle). Chloe discovers the decades old correspondence and uses that former attachment (and the search for more books related to it which she undertakes with Zach, a local outdoorsman) as an escape from a stressful reality. Turns out Jasper is her elderly neighbor and both he and young Chloe transform throughout the story. With special appeal to fans of tales like A Man Called Ove, THE LIBRARY OF BORROWED HEARTS is a light, diverting read filled with amusing banter and slow burn romance. The many book titles to which characters refer are especially fun and they are listed in an appendix, along with a Reader's Guide. Reading it made me smile – a lot; this would be a charming summer read for book clubs. Enjoy!