A book will break your heart

Most readers love books about books, which is probably why there have been so many of them coming out recently. I liked them too. Until it all got a bit too much for me. They feel oddly the same, with different character names and settings. I can probably read one or two now and then, but I’m not like my friends who buy these books as soon as they find one.

I haven’t even read the synopsis of The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore. Back then, I didn’t want to be involved with book clubs. However, I recently picked up her second novel, The Library of Borrowed Hearts, because nothing else interested me and I needed a new book to read. “Two young lovers. Sixty long years. A book mystery to solve,” read the synopsis. I thought it would be a light-hearted novel that I wouldn’t be able to finish if I didn’t like the story. But I devoured the book in two days. The plot was so fabulous. It switches between the present day and the 1960s, which makes it charming and intriguing.

Chloe Sampson works at the library. She’s struggling to make ends meet. She has three younger siblings to look after since their mother abandoned them. Then, at the library, she stumbles upon a rare book while they’re sorting out old books. Her grumpy neighbor – who never returns her brother’s Frisbees when they inevitably land in his garden – offers to buy it for an exorbitant sum. Chloe is surprised and examines the book, only to find notes in the margins – between two lovers from when the book was new.

She can’t resist following the clues, and one book leads to the next. Soon Chloe is wondering what happened to the two lovers who wrote to each other in the books. What does this have to do with her grumpy old neighbor? Why is he suddenly friends with her siblings? Searching for answers while trying to navigate her life as best she can, Chloe finds herself in the midst of a lot of real-life drama and heartbreak.

The book can be classified as a romance novel, but there is much more to it than that. It is about broken families and their effects on children, friendship and aging. The love story is also not an ordinary one. It has a certain subtlety that makes it deep and meaningful. Jasper and Catherine were young, but their relationship was not frivolous. They really cared for each other and were willing to make sacrifices if it meant the other would be happy. The writing style is beautiful, with lots of one-liners and effective dialogue and passages. Although there is a lot of random advice, none of it comes across as preachy. Everything fits seamlessly into the plot.

Set in two different timelines, The Library of Borrowed Hearts is a beautiful story that I wish was longer. Don’t get me wrong, the book ends well, but I wanted to know more about Chloe and her siblings. The story ends hopefully, but I would have liked an epilogue to find out what happens to Chloe, Jasper, and Catherine in the future. I imagine it would have been nice to know the author’s version of the story. If I confessed that I’m going to the bookstore this weekend to buy Gilmore’s The Lonely Hearts Book Club, would that tell you how much I enjoyed The Library of Borrowed Hearts?

The Library of Borrowed Hearts

Lucy Gilmore

Published: 2024

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Number of pages: 358, paperback