I will read anything about Librarians, but this one... was a lot. It took me forever to read, and I couldn't get into it. It was a bit too complicated to follow without fully focusing on it, and I couldn't fully focus on it because something was... off. It seems to be getting mixed reviews, and that makes sense - I can see people really vibing with it, I just couldn't.

This was a DNF for me (~15%). I was expecting more of a mystery from the start and didn't enjoy the drama and inner thoughts of all the characters. However, I think the author did a good job with the characters-- it did seem like they were fleshed out and had deep back stories. Ultimately, I don't think there was anything really wrong with the story... It just wasn't what I expected from the description, and it didn't appeal to me once I started reading it.

I'm a librarian so yes I am bias, but this book is SO good. From the begining, I felt like this was written by someone who worked in a library because while the library staff were all fictional many of the thoughts and feelings as well as situations felt so true. As far as the mystery goes, the jumping points of view are handled so well the reader is jever confused about whose POV they are reading. The slow reveal of everyone's history helped define this from other more cozy mysteries as well as building even more suspense.
Above and beyond the mystery this novel contains complex character development for each of the four main characters, about the past catching up to them as well as about the past not really being what they remembered it.

I did not finish this novel; 50% quit.
Wasn’t interested in the characters, the plot, or the villain. Not for me.
I am a huge Sherry Thomas fan - across all her genres. Such a bummer.

I love Sherry Thomas and have long spread the word of the Lady Sherlock series, and I was very excited to read this contemporary mystery from her. As with her Lady Sherlock series, Thomas introduces many characters that it can take a while to understand their motivations and background in the novel. However, once I wrapped my head around each of the four central librarians and the people in their lives, I greatly enjoyed this story. She deftly weaves romance throughlines for each of them as well. This is a great read for those of fans of Thomas' historical fiction work.

Being a library employee, I was intrigued by a mystery set in the library and the characters that would form around it. Unfortunately, this book became more complicated than it needed to be. There were just too many characters and storylines that needed to come together. On top of the mystery, the author added romantic ventures for the characters and also threw some social issues in. It was just too much for what I was hoping to be a cute, cozy mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book has intrigue, suspense, murder, mysteries, romance, and fierce friendship. I didn't know I needed a who-dun-it kind of thriller about librarians caught up in the worst kind of danger and espionage. The depiction of day to day library tasks was interesting and felt very accurate. Very much so for the cast of librarians. I adored them all and commend the author for writing each POV so diligently. Each librarian's backstory had a fascinating involvement in the current drama and I think the characters felt more real and the events more poignant because of it. My one critique was that I felt the story dragged on just a bit towards the end. I understand that loose ends must be tied together but I think some tighter editing can wrap things up nicely and succinctly.

4/5 stars

The Librarians by Sherry Thomas

I've read/heard all of Sherry Thomas's Lady Sherlock series so I wanted to give this modern day story of hers a try, especially since it takes place in my home state of Texas. Austin, Texas's unofficial motto is "Keep Austin weird" and I think the many characters in this story did a very good job of bringing that motto to life. There is a wide range of everything and everyone in this story and it reminds me of my visits to Austin in many ways.

I personally wish there could have been fewer characters and more library in the story. We do have four librarians as the main characters and they are a varied bunch. With them come friends, enemies, and patrons. Once the story gets going, which is pretty quickly, and we learn that everyone has one sort of secret or another. It begins to be hard to for anyone to trust the others, everyone acts a little or a lot shady, and with two dead patrons of the library, how can a person not be afraid that more people are going to bite the dust?

Overall, this story was too chaotic for me. With so many characters, so many plot lines, just so much going on, it was too much for me to enjoy the way I wanted to enjoy the story. The motivation of some of the characters were so out there, impossible to keep up in real life kinds of things, and there was just so much...I know I said that already, TOO much, that I felt lost and worn out. Now that I think about it, Austin always wears me out when I visit it. I probably need to stay in my rural area with its tiny country town (and a library with a librarian who writes your name on a piece of paper when you check out a book).

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC.

I really wanted to love this book because I am a librarian and to have a book that that has the main characters as librarians was really going to be fun to read. Unfortunately, it was hard for me to keep track of who was who and who was doing what. The story felt kind of forced and stilted.
I enjoy Sherry Thomas's Holmes mysteries but this particular title did not keep me engaged like I thought it would.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Let me preface this by saying that the book was one of my top 5 most anticipated books of the year. I begged and pleaded for this book because I'm a Chinese library worker who's a huge nerd. Sound familiar? Yeah, Hazel is basically me minus some of the backstory and immigration. It was fun to see all the accurate descriptions of working in a library and what we have to deal with.

But this is the first time I've DNF'd an ARC. I stopped reading this 85% of the way through. Why did I not just finish this if I got so far into it? Rooting for a story and the characters and slowly getting that thrill and enjoyment carved away every chapter was disheartening and exhausting. Halfway through I debated dropping it then, but I thought hey, we're getting more information revealed so let me see where it goes. By the time I got to where all the pieces had basically come together, I just couldn't do it anymore.

While all the characters are intriguing enough for a mystery book, the pacing and constant time jumping was difficult to keep up with and I ended up forgetting which development went to which character and when we learned them vs when other characters learned about them. Some of the traits I was unsure why we needed to know that, and I also was confused on how they helped the story along overall.

The writing style of this leaned very formal, with many of the main characters sounding like they came out of either Victorian England (which makes sense given Thomas' main works) or the early 2000s which was jarring.

Mystery books will always have new reveals and twists to keep the reader guessing, but some of these twists I was just absolutely confused by. And then the BIG reveal? Huh? It felt like quite a letdown for all the buildup with the characters and how they could all be connected to this murder.

Obviously, there are people who enjoyed this read and good for them! I deeply wish I was one of them.

(no star rating given on Goodreads)

If you can get over the lengthy descriptions of people’s appearance, down to the color of their nail polish; if you can ignore the rambling flashbacks; if you can suffer through the gratuitous use of the F word…then you might enjoy the story of these librarians and friends who solve a missing person, his criminal background of embezzlement, and the search for his hidden crypto funds.
Struggled to finish this one.

The Austin Public Library seems like a pretty quiet place. But things are taking place behind the scenes. The four main characters work for the library. But they have secrets. One has a former lover who ghosted her. But when he turns up again, he turns up dead. Another murder soon follows.

It's up to these four librarians to band together and use their respective skills to solve the murder and find the killer.

This book was well written. The characters were intriguing and involving. I highly recommend this book.

This is a fun light-hearted novel that has a charming cast of characters. It is for those who love libraries and books about people finding a community of friends. It is a mystery, but it is not solely that. There is romance, camaraderie and international cryptocurrency intrigue.

Thanks for the ARC, but I got 27 pages in and called it quits. As much as I love seeing an accurate representation of library work, but it’s honestly boring on paper. Three chapters in and I can’t get past how much this author is about tell and not show. Every character is introduced with their name, height, gender, race, and shoe size. I just can’t.

I wanted to love this, but I found myself struggling through all of it. There was too much going on with the various subplots to make a cohesive story.

The Librarians is the newest romantic mystery from Sherry Thomas, author of the delightful Lady Sherlock series. The book centers around a group of public librarians who become embroiled in a murder case when a patron dies after leaving a library event. The main mystery plot as well as the romantic and family subplots pull the reader through the story as it shifts through multiple perspectives. Fans of Lady Sherlock will enjoy this one too!

I gave this book a shot, and stuck it out through 40%, but I just couldn’t keep going. I was confused with characters and timelines and had no idea how anything was connected.

DNF at 39% (no rating on Goodreads)

I was drawn in by the red hot book cover and the smoking gun! (Take a good look at that wispy smoke!)

Two patrons of a small Austin library found dead after attending its inaugural murder-mystery themed game night and a bookish setting sounded like a perfect fit for me!

The four librarians, Hazel, Jonathan, Astrid, and Sophie drawn into the investigation.

But, unfortunately, I am not finding myself engaged by this story and I can’t relate to the quirky characters (example: one pretends to have a Swedish accent). There is too much focus on them and their backstories and not enough on the mystery, at this point, and I am not curious enough about the outcome to continue on.

No book is for every reader, and sadly this one isn’t for me.

Thank You to Berkley for the gifted ARC provided by NetGalley. As always these are my candid thoughts!

This is the story of four library co-workers who are hiding secrets, resulting in them all being friendly co-workers, but not actual friends. Sophie, who's secret is the most grave, is the highly professional branch supervisor, raising a teenage daughter alone. Astrid is the quirky children's librarian, who's dealing with the heartbreak of falling for a library patron who ghosted her. Jonathan, another librarian, former star athlete and ex-Navy SEAL, is now out but still struggles with insecurities in regards to his closeted past. Finally, Hazel, who is brand new to the branch, spent her childhood in Austin (our setting) but moved to Singapore with her mother as a tween. She's working at the library at the behest of her grandmother, whom she's returned to find comfort from a recent tragedy. These four bond when shortly after Hazel's arrival, at the end of a successful "game night" program, two persons with ties to the library and its staff are murdered. Overall, I enjoyed this novel, and the first few pages got me hooked as there are many library details the author gets absolutely correct. The strength of the book are the bonds that form between the characters' and their vulnerabilities. However, there is a lot of suspension of disbelief. For example, in Hazel's case all these characters spill their guts to her. very quickly, when it's clear they haven't shared many of these secrets with anyone. The action seems a little over the top as well (it's convenient that there is so much combat training among these four). There is intrigue, romance, past regrets, and second chances. A fun read, but you have to be willing to overlook some pretty big plot holes and some somewhat confusing back and forth

I've never read any of Sherry Thomas's books before, but this was given to me for advanced review as a library professional since the theme was so on the nose. It takes a little bit to get going, Thomas takes her time with the exposition and establishing her characters. But the payoff is well worth it, an intriguing but cozy mystery with suspense and thrills in all the right areas. You also genuinely care about the characters involved and the struggles they face since they were given such a rich build early on. And there's also a longer conclusion given to readers at the end, to fully wrap up the characters and their individual stories in a way that feels real and satisfying.