This was a book that I bought on a whim. I hadn’t heard much about it, but the synopsis caught my attention and so I decided to give it a try. While it didn’t blow me away, or give me all the feels that I expected, it was still a very sweet and enjoyable read.

This review does contain a few minor spoilers pertaining to the overall plot – nothing major, but if you want to go in completely blind, you may want to skip this one and come back next week.

The book starts off from the point of view of Sloane Parker – a friendly librarian from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Sloane lives her life under the radar. We learn early on that she is engaged to a chiropractor and his family have taken her under their wing. It’s not that Sloane is an orphan, it’s just that she doesn’t have the best relationship with her parents. The two of them have a very volatile relationship, and Sloane and her sister spent a lot of their time escaping into books while their parents screamed and threw things at one another. Sloane’s sister died when she was eight and after that, Sloane has moved through life in such a way that she never really grew close to anyone. It’s not that she’s standoffish, or not likeable, she’s just kind of quiet and does her own thing.

When she runs into Arthur McLachlan one day in the library where she works, he quickly insults her. What he doesn’t expect is that Sloane is pretty much unphased by his cantankerous behavior, and she stands her own against him. We eventually learn that Arthur used to be an English professor at a local college. He’s a widower and everyone at the library is scared to death of him. Everyone that is except for Sloane.

When Arthur doesn’t show up at the library for a few days in a row, Sloane breaks the number one rule – never look up a patron’s address and go to their house. She can’t help herself. At first she plans to just do a drive-by, but when she arrives and hears Arthur screaming, sending a person who appears to be a nurse running out of his house, she can’t help but go check on him.

Arthur has had a medical emergency and he has run off all of the home health aides that have been sent his way. Despite his refusal, Sloane insists on staying with him and since she broke the library rules, she loses her job.

As Sloane takes care of Arthur, she meets his neighbor, Maisey, from across the street. Maisey is a single mother longing to connect more with her teenage daughter whom she only sees on weekends and even then, her daughter wants to spend all of her time with friends. Sloane also meets Greg, Arthur’s estranged grandson. Greg made his mother a promise to his mother before she died that he’d try to form a relationship with Arthur – but Greg has no idea where to start.

Sloane, Arthur, Maisey, Greg and Sloane’s co-worker, Theo eventually come together and form a book club. They start by reading Remains of the Day, and then The Joy Luck Club and finally, Anne of Green Gables which holds a special place in both Sloane and Arthur’s hearts.

The book is divided in sections and told from the first-person points of view of each of our book club members. We start with Sloane and then Maisey, followed by Theo then Greg, then Arthur and then back to Sloane. I really liked this setup as it gave us a chance to learn more about the characters and their pasts, their hopes, their dreams and their worries. All of our characters are missing something in their life, and I loved how their little book club brought them close and helped them realize not only what they were missing, but also what they had and who they could be.

The book focuses on themes of self-worth, loneliness, love, the bond between mother and child, friendships and most of all – the way books can bring us all together.

At a time when certain idiots are doing all they can to ban books, this one was a nice little reminder of the healing power of books and how a shared love of a story can bring people together. This is definitely a love letter to book nerds like you and me.

It was a sweet read full of a lot of really likeable characters (I think my favorite was Maisey), and a cute story. It wasn’t world-changing by any means, but I did enjoy it.