The Memory of Borrowed Books
Claire Ashford is the head librarian at a small town library. The building is old and the town council wants to tear it down and put up luxury condos. Claire desperately wants to save the library but doesn't know how. Then late one evening, she discovers a hidden room that she has never noticed before, filled with mysterious books.
I've had a string of disappointing books lately, maybe because a lot of them are by debut authors. This was just okay, didn't love it. It had a strong YA feel. The grown-ups in the story are constantly calling and fussing over Claire, telling her to eat and go to bed and what to do, even though she is the head librarian at the town library, a position of responsibility. And she's almost 30 years old, for god's sake. It's obvious that there is some trauma in Claire's past but she isn't going to get past it if no one will let her deal with it (and it isn't that big a trauma when we get the big reveal, since we already suspect what it is). She also adopts a dog on a whim (you should really think about it before you take on responsibility for another living creature), but it does ground her. I know some readers loved her, but I found Grace to be really annoying. Also, librarians do a lot more than just shelve books and check out books for patrons.
Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.
