If you are looking to read about a love story from the 60’s, a potential love in the current day, family unbuilt and built again, then pay attention. This book is an emotional journey with sprinkles and quotes from classic and infamous books made to apply to life then and now.
It could be considered a warm hug of a book to some while to others it may be a bit too mushy. I am somewhere in the middle. I loved the concept but am a bit too cynical to enjoy it to the fullest. I also hate jumping back and forth in time, but that shouldn’t stop others from enjoying it as the book itself is wonderful.

Small-town librarian Chloe spends most of her time caring for her 3 younger siblings. One day she stumbles onto a book annotated with a young couple's love story. With the help of her best friend, a mountain man love interest, and the grumpy neighbor next door she works to unravel the mystery of their story by finding all the books they corresponded in. I enjoyed the blend of genres in this novel: part romance, part mystery, part historical fiction. As the book goes on, we get chapters from a variety of perspectives, and I appreciated the unique narrative voice and heart in each of them. The beginning was a little sad, given Chloe's circumstances, but it picked up fairly quickly, then I couldn't put it down for wanting to see what happens to these characters.

I was able to read this novel as an ARC through Net Galley.

The way this dual plot story came together at the end was sheer perfection. The story of Jasper & Catherine was über engaging as they used messages in book margins to build their relationship. Then, adding Chloe, Zach, Noodle, Theo, Trixie and Gummy Bear brought another element to the story. As Chloe & Zach uncovered the mystery the real story of Catherine & Jasper is revealed. This is a heart warming story with family drama, love story, sacrifice for family and more. What a great book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a copy of this book.

📱 The Library of Borrowed Hearts 📱⁣
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⁣Genre- Contemporary. ⁣
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⁣Length- 368 pages. ⁣
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⁣My thoughts- The Library of Borrowed Hearts is a heartwarming tale about the power of books. Librarian Chloe Sampson is struggling with life as the legal guardian to her three younger siblings. When she finds a rare edition of an old book while cleaning the library basement, she decides to sell it- hopefully helping some with her financial woes. She soon notices it is filled with notes between a man and a women. ⁣
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⁣Things I enjoyed about this book:⁣
⁣- lots of talk about books! ⁣
⁣- Chloe’s complicated relationship with her grumpy, elderly neighbor. ⁣
⁣- The focus on found family and Chloe’s sacrifices to be a mother to her siblings. ⁣
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⁣Things I didn’t like about this book: ⁣
⁣- it moved sooooo slowly. It took me ten days to finish! I needed a faster moving plot. ⁣
⁣- A couple of the characters were selfish jerks and didn’t really apologize or have to deal with their actions. ⁣
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⁣I enjoyed! Three and a half stars… rounded up to four! ⁣⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you to @netgalley for an ARC. The Library of Borrowed Hearts is out now!

Absolutely incredible. It broke my heart, repaired it, broke it again, and I think this book will always stay there. I loved this one so much. It has a level of mystery that keeps you guessing. It has romance that I typically don’t love but this was crafted so sweetly that I couldn’t stop reading it. It wasn’t just romantic love but family, friend, community, and self love. It made me laugh, cry, and reflect on my own life. Sometimes what you have and what you need are right in front of you. Perhaps my favorite read of the year.

The Library of Borrowed Hearts had me feeling all of the emotions. Such a heartwarming and touching story, and I would highly recommend.

I received an e-galley of The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore from Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Library of Borrowed Hearts tells the stories of Chloe, a young almost-librarian, and her discovery of these love notes in old books that she finds in the library she works in. They provide a source of hope, love, and intrigue that contrasts with the reality of her life as she takes care of her three young siblings who were abandoned by their mother. As she tries to track down more books and the identities of the young couple that wrote them, she begins to build a new relationship with the cranky and elderly next door neighbour, Jasper. The parallels that she finds between her own life and that of her newest reluctant friend are ones that she can't deny as her own past comes back to confront her and secrets are revealed that will affect her and Jasper.

The two love stories in The Library of Borrowed Hearts worked in tandem to pull at my heartstrings. Both Chloe and Jasper face difficult situations that can not just be solved by pure hearts and love. There is a sense of reality that brings readers to face the inevitable truth - that love cannot always solve problems. But that love, in all its different forms, can still serve as a reminder that things can be overcome.

This was such a cute, heartwarming but also emotional book!
Filled with literary quotes and references, I found it so interesting. This was a story, within a story filled with book lovers. All the characters were so likeable and felt so real, personal favourite in the dog called Gummy Bear! I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend!
My only issue was I found the end was quite abrupt, I wanted to read more!

This was just the most wonderfully charming book! With a realistically quirky cast of characters and so much heart, this has shot to the top of my favorite books so far this year. Just a beautiful story of old heartbreak and new love, family that comes in all forms, and mending hearts back together after decades of questions.

This one was very average to me. It was unfortunately a book that I know I will forget immediately and not remember details of; this is in part, likely, due to the fact that it seemed like not much was happening/there was not much of a plot. It is definitely more of a character focused novel, but I feel like parts of the relationships that I wanted more of (like Chloe and Zach) were missing. Chloe and her siblings were my preferred subject of the book, but I felt it focused too much on Jasper and Catherine, which I sadly didn't find super interesting. Overall, it was fine, and the ending was wholesome; I can understand why some readers would really enjoy this one- it just was not for me.

I enjoyed the perspective changes within the parts of the story and flashbacks. I was able to get to the know the characters well, but did not feel much of a connection to them. Some parts really dragged for me.

Não lembro de outra leitura que, ao menos esses tempos, tenha me deixado tão dividida no que pensar à respeito. Sentimentos mistos é definitivamente uma expressão apropriada para o meu estado após terminar de ler The Library of Borrowed Hearts, porque entre coisas que gostei e outras que me incomodaram, ainda estou processando esse enredo.

Digo o enredo porque, antes dele, os personagens até que se assentaram bem pra mim, e até então também consegui me envolver com um ou outro deles, e afins. Jasper foi o que mais me surpreendeu por, ainda que não tenha amado ele, ter me feito apegar à sua história, nas duas linhas do tempo da trama. Chloe também teve seus bons momentos, apesar de sua passividade com a situação familiar me dar nos nervos às vezes, mas era compreensível se certa forma, ela estava num misto de perdida e acomodada. Noodle também me cativou, queria guardar num potinho.

Catherine, por outro lado... não sei definir. Ela é outra do elenco protagonista, que se apresentou meio de surpresa e até me ganhou inicialmente pelo seu desejo de viver a vida de verdade, sem as fachadas impostas pelo pai e tudo mais, e achei bacana todo o seu plot se desenvolvendo com os livros e Jasper, mas ao longo da leitura ela me incomodou. O que era pra ser um auge de romance na trama, na passagem de tempo que se segue de 1960, desenrolou-se numa história que por vezes mais pareceu um passatempo da parte dela. Enquanto sabia das consequências de se viver um romance como o deles e assumia os riscos, Jasper mostrava uma maturidade que ela, por outro lado, me deu a entender levar como uma brincadeira. Sim, ela teve seus motivos e sim, eles faziam certo sentido, mas... muita coisa se perdeu ou foi interrompida por causa disso, e no final não mudou muita coisa do que se ela tivesse feito diferente, acho? Não sei, foi um romance triste de se ver, especialmente por como o Jasper ficou por tanto tempo após ele e mesmo até pelo final do livro que, em suma, ainda pareceu meio jogado.

Pareceu uma espécie de romantização de certos tipos de abandono, pra mim. Enquanto alguns são criticados, como o da mãe de Chloe, ainda que não tratados devidamente - ela entra e sai de cena sem nenhuma punição real pelo o que fez, não importa o quão sério tenha sido, tipo ???? -, outros, como o da Catherine em relação ao Jasper e tal, são colocados como altruísmo, porque ela queria o melhor dele, mas no fim a decisão dela não ajudou ele realmente - e nesse ponto entra a discussão que ele deveria sim ter tomado uma atitude mais positiva na vida e não só se acomodado nela, o que é real também, mas ele ainda foi muito afetado por ela.

Não sei, foi uma leitura bem confusa. Se os primeiros 40% fluírem muito e me envolveram, os 60% restantes se alternaram muito e eu sigo dividida, agora, no que achei desse livro. Uma pena porque o plot tinha um potencial bacana de abordagens diversas e todo o contexto de livros citados pelos personagens, mas ficou meio na superfície em alguns tópicos, enquanto outros foram aprofundados sem muito nexo ou equilíbrio. Enfim... fazer o que?

If you can’t tell, I’m obsessed with books. I can read them all day and own way too many. Knowing this, is it any surprise that I would try and seek out books about people who love books like I do? No, this isn’t a surprise at all. However, calling this book a book about books is a simplistic way of looking at it. This book is about so much more.

Switching between points of view and dual timelines, it was great to read about Chloe following the trail of love notes she found in some old library book, and it was interesting to read the romance unfold from the lovers point of view. That’s where it gets interesting though; one of the lovers is Chloe’s curmudgeon next door neighbor who’s roped into her family dynamic against his will. All the characters together, while very different and not without their own struggles, all have a large impact on the story. It’s hard to classify this one; it’s not just a romance, it’s not just a mystery, it’s not just a book about books. It’s all that and more!

📚Book Lovers
🩷 Long Lost Loves
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Complicated Families
🌞 Reverse Grumpy/Sunshine

A charming, funny and sweet novel about the power of books to bring people together.

When Chloe discovers an old book at a flea market she notices writing inside the pages. On closer inspection, she realizes it is a conversation between her cranky, older neighbor next door and an unknown woman. Intrigued by the unfolding drama and curious about the history, Chloe is led on a scavenger hunt of books detailing their love story.

Gilmore has created a moving story about romance, love and the lessons we can learn by those around us. Readers of Freya Sampson’s The Last Chance Library and Emily Henry fans will love this upbeat story.

I have finally completed this book. This was a book that I found really hard to stick with, mainly because it felt quite slow to me.
The ending was really heartwarming but it all felt really cliche, and unfortunately I didn't really feel a lot of connection to the characters.

All that being said it was beautifully written and I loves the quotes and knowledge of books that were sprinkled throughout this story.

This one was not for me but I can see how this would well and truly be loved by many.

The Library of Borrowed Hearts felt like a hug for my soul! This whirlwind romance written into dueling timelines had me swooning and kicking my feet. I loved all of the literary references and the theme of found family. This is one of those books where I finished it and now stare blankly at a wall wondering what to do with my life now that it is over. My only critique is that I wish there was an epilogue! I had so many questions, so many threads I had hoped to see tied neatly with a bow, that I can only hope the lack of epilogue means a potential sequel?

I just finished The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore and here are my musings.

Chloe Sampson is struggling to make ends meet. Her mother left her and her three younger siblings and she is now in charge. Working in the local library is what barely pays the bills but when she finds a rare edition of a book she knows might bring in some extra money, she takes it home. Her crotchety neighbor offers her an obscene amount of money for the book which makes Chloe take a closer look.

The book has written messages in it. She realizes that her neighbor, Jasper, was definitely one of the writers. This triggers Chloe and the man who saves her brother, into a scavenger hunt to find more books by the love birds written inside the pages of some classic books.

The more she gets to know Jasper in the pages, the easier it is to get to know the old man next door. A man with sadness and loneliness in his eyes but begrudgingly starts to open up to Cgloe and her siblings. The unexpected friendship that blossoms between them, Chloe realizes that not all love stories start or end the same.

I think I was just as invested in finding those books as Chloe was. To know that Jasper’s lost love was something he never got over, decades later, was so heartbreaking. Thanks to Chloe finding and returning the book, it ended up opening Jasper up into letting people into his heart again. He spent a long time in utter sadness and it took remembering the lost love in a new way, not in darkness, to really start living again. The book reminded Jasper that he loved to read too. The book is loaded with family drama, romance and unlikely friendships.

It was amazing to get both timelines. Jasper’s past and how the writing got into the books and the present. It hit me right in the feelers. Chloe gave up her life to take care of her siblings and she didn’t realize just how much she is loved. I’m tearing up just typing this review.

It has some really sweet moments and some really deep parts and a chuckle or two. It was my favorite read of the month and that’s saying something.

4.5 stars. If you love women’s fiction books about books with a little bit of everything… This has to be your next read

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcecasa for my gifted copy

I really enjoyed The Library of Borrowed Hearts! It's filled with different POV's, timelines and interesting characters! The storyline is sweet, engaging and full of interesting relationships. I didn't want the story to end and it left me wanting a follow up sequel! I highly recommend this book!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What’s not to love! An adorable cover, found family, hunky outdoorsman love interest, grumpy old man neighbor and a bulldog named gummy bear. Lucy Gilmore has once again written a charming story, previous was The Lonely Hearts Book Club. The Library of Borrowed Hearts is a duo timeline story involving a 1960 romance through books and a modern day librarian who finds one of the books.

This will be a great Summer Read 💗

Thanks NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an early copy. All opinions are my own.

The main character of the book is Chloe and we understand quite quickly that she works hard to support her younger siblings after their mother ran away. We get to know her and her siblings while she discovers the old love story through the books. The story is told both in the present and in the past, when the texts in the books were written. It's interesting to follow the love story and we got more and more pieces to puzzle together.

I really like that there is a certain focus on family relationships and new, unexpected friendships. The relationship with the neighbor Jasper is initially very frosty, but it also develops. I think, however, that the pace could have been turned up a notch, or that the book could have been shortened somewhat.