The provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of The Change, brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything.

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome” dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town…and change it forever.

I’d heard plenty of buzz about this book, but I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. This one comes in under 300 pages, yet somehow it delivers a full cast, a full story, and a whole lot of emotional punch packed into a tight little package. It’s sharp, funny, painfully familiar, and wildly satisfying.

Right from the start, the town of Troy, Georgia, feels recognizable in the way that only small towns can. If you’ve spent any real time in a tiny community, you know these people. And if you haven’t, you’ve definitely seen their lookalikes on social media. You’ve got the sensible folks who just want the world to function without nonsense. And then you’ve got the loud, Fox-News-poisoned, self-proclaimed “good Christian” crowd who see an agenda lurking in every corner while clutching their pearls over books they haven’t even cracked open.

That’s the beauty of this novel. The satire lands because these people exist. They are out there in church basements and school board meetings yelling about “obscenity” while standing on a Jenga tower of misinformation. Kirsten Miller manages to capture that energy in a way that’s infuriating and hilarious at the same time.

The book follows the long-standing rivalry between Beverly Underwood and Lula Dean. Beverly is grounded, logical, and genuinely trying to make choices that help the community. Lula Dean, on the other hand, is convinced she’s been chosen for a holy mission to protect the town from corrupting influences… despite not reading any of the books she’s trying to ban. When she starts her own “pure and wholesome” lending library, it feels like something that would absolutely happen in real life.

Enter Lindsay, Beverly’s daughter, who becomes the secret hero of the whole operation. At night, she sneaks into Lula Dean’s carefully curated little free library and stuffs it with banned books disguised behind wholesome dust jackets. So the townspeople think they’re grabbing etiquette manuals and “uplifting” Christian texts… but really they’re walking home with Toni Morrison, subversive feminist manifestos, queer stories, and civil rights history. Watching those books crack people open from the inside was such a joy.

My favorite part is how community becomes the engine of resistance. The people who borrow from Lula Dean’s unsuspecting little library start talking, connecting, and questioning. They begin pushing back. And when the showdown between Beverly and Lula comes to a head, they show up. They speak up. They reveal who they’ve become because of what they’ve read.

This book could have easily been heavy-handed, but it isn’t. It’s funny and warm and cutting in just the right places. And while it wears its politics proudly, it never forgets to be a good story first. That’s what makes it work. You root for these people. You want them to wake up. You want them to read something life-changing and realize they’ve been spoon-fed propaganda their whole lives.
And let’s be real. Watching a bunch of willfully ignorant busybodies accidentally radicalize themselves with banned books is just plain satisfying.

It’s a small book, but it hits big. Sharp humor. Big heart. A cast that feels real enough to follow home. And a message that’s both timely and timeless without ever turning preachy.

I’d recommend this to absolutely everyone, especially right now. If you love books about fighting censorship, celebrating community, or watching petty tyrants get what’s coming to them, move this one up your list.