Review: The Library of Borrowed Hearts

The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Chloe Sampson works at the local library in her small town in northern Washington. After her mother left Chloe's three younger siblings alone and never returned and a neighbour called social services Chloe had to leave college to look after them. They are living hand-to-mouth on her pitiful salary and she tries to make a little extra by selling unwanted library books.

One day while clearing out a basement storage unit she finds what she thinks could be a very valuable copy of Tropic of Cancer only to discover that the copy has been defaced by readers writing in the margins, but not just comments on the writing, two people appear to have been conducting a romance. More intriguing, when her cranky elderly neighbour Jasper Holmes catches a glimpse of the book in her possession he offers her a blank cheque for the book, it seems he may have been one of the people writing in the book. Assisted by her BFF and a young man called Zach who runs wilderness/survival courses, Chloe starts a literary scavenger hunt for other library books which have been similarly defaced. The head librarian (whose wife is a believer of tall tales) tells Chloe that rumour has it Jasper killed a young woman (or maybe several) and buried them in his garden, which is why his flowers are so beautiful.

Intertwined with this modern story is the romance between a nineteen year old Jasper and Catherine Martin, the daughter of the Major who runs the 760th Radar Base in Colville. Like all good romances, Jasper is dirt poor, sending half his wages home to his mother and younger siblings, while Catherine lives in a big house and is expected to marry an officer (and a gentleman). Despite her father's authoritarian attitude and her mother's acquiescence, Catherine is a free spirit and a rebel. She alone seems to be able to goad the normally taciturn Jacob into expressing his feelings.

This story is broken into five sections. At the end of each section is some kind of revelation, some of which were more of a shock than others. Its a romance, but maybe also women's fiction, and a mystery.

(view spoiler)[This didn't go the way I wanted it to, but what it did do was make me finally understand that film The Way We Were and why it has to end that way.(view spoiler)[

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

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