"Libraries are more than just a storage place for books, they are treasure troves filled with creativity and knowledge. And that knowledge can be empowering.” - R.L. Hemlock

This was the perfect book to end my reading slump!

Two people - Tom is a lonely teenager. Maggie is in her 70s and lonely as well. What brings them together? A library!

I love how Tom and Maggie formed a friendship. They were both what the other needed. I also loved how the library was a catalyst for change in both of their lives. How two lonely people, who on the surface, had nothing in common except for coming to the library for solace and belonging. When the librarian learns the library was in threat of closing, both pick up the torch and vow to help save it. In the process, they just might save themselves as well!

This was such a charming book that also dealt with difficult subjects. I have been reading some less than amazing books lately and this one was just a pleasure from cover to cover. It does address some heavy subjects such as alcoholism, loss, loneliness, and relationships to name a few.

I enjoyed the writing and story. I appreciated how the author dealt with the difficult subjects and how the two main characters found each other and the bond they shared.

Thank you to Aria & Aries, Aria and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read this if...you liked “A Man Called Ove” or “The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett.”

Tom is a typical teenage boy who stays holed up in his room playing video games until a fight with his father leads to a visit to the local library. Here he discovers a love of reading, which connects him to his dead mother. It’s at the library where Tom meets a lot of new people, including Maggie. She is an active, older woman who regularly attends a book club at the library and maintains a small farm outside of town. These two loners from very different generations develop a friendship that helps each one deal with their life’s problems. When the local library is slated to be closed, Tom and Maggie work together to save it.

This book immediately reminded me of the books “A Man Called Ove” and “The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett.” I was drawn to both Tom and Maggie’s characters as they were incredibly lovable. Their relationship was sweet and I enjoyed the humor that the author snuck in where she could. Overall, this was a wonderful story about friendship amidst a library in peril, so of course bibliophiles will enjoy it for that aspect alone. I just wish it had been a little shorter. At almost 400 pages, I felt like I was reading this forever and not making much progress. Maybe I just didn’t read this at the right time, I’m not sure. That is my only complaint though, so if you don’t mind slower-paced fiction, you might want to check this one out.

A big thanks to Netgalley, the author, and Aria & Aries Publishing for a gifted ebook in exchange for my honest review.

My rating: 3.5 rounded up to 4

The Library. One library scheduled to close. As a small group of library lovers come together in an attempt to keep the library open, 2 of those people form an unlikely friendship. One, A purposeful and proud book lover. The other an accidental closet book lover. One bold and outspoken. The other, shy and self described as invisible. One brave and full of confidence. The other, meek and timid. One old(er), one young. And yet, Maggie and Thomas end up as friends. Each needing the other and the library needing both of them. With a common cause as a goal and more in common than they initially realize, Maggie and Thomas form a lasting friendship and make a world of difference. For each other, for the library, and for each of the others family members.
This book has all the feels, it will make you feel warm and fuzzy. Thoughtful, touching, heart warming. I loved this story!

A wonderful read! I haven’t felt so warm and happy from reading a book in while! This was a hot cup of coca with a fireplace!
I loved Maggie and a I loved Tom! Characters that are down to earth and easy to feel for.
Thanks NetGalley!

An absolute feel-good novel. The wholesomeness radiates from its pages and will keep you wanting to read. I read this one in one sitting and could not get enough of the dynamic between Maggie and Tom. I love when characters are real and relatable and Bella delivered that for us in this one. Would absolutely read again.

I love a good story of two unlikely friends. Tom and Maggie's friendship melted my heart in this novel. This would make a sweet movie. It is very difficult to be a teenager, let alone grow up poor without your mother, and your father is an alcoholic. I can only hope that all the Toms out there will find a Maggie.

Thank you so much to @netgalley for this advanced reader's copy for an honest review.

Tom is 16 and invisible. His mum died when he was 8 and he lives with an alcoholic father who drank to console himself. He has a crush on a girl at school who doesn't notice him, and keeps out of the way of the school bully as much as possible.

When Tom finds himself in the local library he meets Maggie, a pensioner, who has been as invisible as him. When Maggie is attacked on her way home, Tom comes to her aid, and Maggie inadvertently ends up punching Tom and giving him a nosebleed. This forms the start of a beautiful and compelling friendship which heals them both, and removes the cloak of invisibility from them both.

When the library is threatened with closure, and the librarian with redundancy, Maggie and Tom step up to try to help save it - and both end up saving each other.

I read most of this in one day. A lovely, heartwarming story. Believable characters and situations, and very well written. I couldn't put it down.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4699596502

First off, this isn’t exactly a light and fluffy read. It dabbles into some hard topics- addiction and the fallout thereof, the feeling of isolation, social anxiety, grief and bullying. That said, there’s also a lot of warmth, levity, charm and sass. I cried for Tom and Maggie (and, once, even Paul- the father); but I laughed far more often. The interactions between the main characters warmed my heart. I especially love Tom for all his teen awkwardness, social anxiety and secret romance novel addiction. I adored watching him grow and become more confident and stronger with Maggie’s friendship.

Maggie, too, was an intensely interesting character. In her seventies and still doing yoga and running a farm (albeit a small one) on her own, there’s still much of the flower child in her; but also a bit of a pit bull. She will fight- she might even start the damn fight. She’s Tom’s polar opposite. In him, though, she gets the human interaction she didn’t want to admit she craved (those weekly book club meetings in town were about the most interaction she had been getting). With Tom she feels more alive; and she can allow herself to care for someone again. In Maggie, Tom finds solace, peace, and the feeling of being needed. Neither is perfect, but they are just so great together.

Going back and forth between narratives with Tom and Maggie, you get a clear picture of both their lives. The story had a good flow to it- never feeling like it was dragging on. While not exactly light, this was a fun, fast read. It left me feeling satisfied, but curious. I am going to miss these characters. I catch myself wondering how Tom will do in Uni, how Maggie will deal with her past and present meeting, if Paul stays on the healing trajectory… if Farrah will ever confess to Tom (heaven knows he won’t make the first move). Honestly, we could give Farrah her own book! I absolutely want more… but isn’t that always the way with great reads? For me, this was a five-star book- if I could give it more I would.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
On the adult content scale, there’s language, substance abuse, and physical abuse. While I do feel like the subject is handled well, it might be a bit much for the very young teens. I would say 16 and up.


I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Aria & Aries Publishing in exchange for an honest review. My thanks!

The book is out now guys! If you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, it’s currently free to read. I ended up buying a copy because I knew I would want to add exerts at the end of my review (which will be down below). It’s a steal at $4.99 for the eBook.

A lovely story, really enjoyed the relationship between Tom and Maggie and this touched on so many themes: loneliness, alcoholism and grief to name but a few.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review

This was such an unexpected delight. So fun watching the main characters become friends and help heal each other. Saving a library isn't an altogether novelty plot, but I enjoyed this take on it as the young man grows in confidence and the older woman finds herself with purpose.

Tom, a shy high school student, and Maggie, a seventy-two-year-old lonely widow, tugged at my heartstrings and I had to let them in. The levels of their unlikely friendship are multi-layered and meaningful. Osborne's beautiful story centers around these two souls who met through circumstances related to the Compton Mallow Village Library, built in 1837.
Maggie and Tom both have connections to books. Tom's parents met at a Book Shop, and Maggie likes to escape through reading and visit the library for Book Club socialization.
Their journey of friendship deepens as they find solace in each other's company through the library and at Maggie's farm. Each has qualities that don't appear on the surface, such as Maggie's love for yoga and farm life and Tom's enjoyment of romance novels and underlying resilience. The two share many talks over Lemon Drizzle Cake. As the friendship progresses, they grow and face personal trials as well as one surrounding their beloved library.
This novel touched me in a profound way because of Osborne's rich character development of Maggie and Tom, allowing me to see within their souls and feel their bond. The lovely association of the library, literacy, books, and book club in the plot was a joy.
Thank you to Net Galley and Aria & Aries, Aria for the advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to provide my unbiased review.
#TheLibrary #NetGalley

I loved this book. It had such great characters and who doesn’t love a book about books and reading. I was surprised how much I loved this book. It was such a beautiful story of love, loss and friendship

This is one of the rare books that can be real without being harsh, heartwarming without being saccharine, The characters are beautifully nuanced, and you will find yourself pulling for all of them to succeed.

Tom is a teenager who is adrift - his mother has died, and his father is an alcoholic. Through a chance encounter at the community library he meets an elderly woman who has suffered her own losses. The story focuses on the unlikely friendship that the two build, as well as some solid secondary characters. Additionally, the library is facing a looming closure date, and readers of this book will find it to be an ode both to community libraries and to the books they contain. A lovely book.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley .
#TheLibrary

Bella Osborne’s The Library is a charming intergenerational story.

Teenage Tom feels invisible. His only social life is sitting in his bedroom competing on Xbox with his few friends also sitting in their own rooms. Then one day Tom’s alcoholic dad smashes his Xbox.
Tom dreams of having a girlfriend, especially of his beautiful black-haired classmate, Farah Shah. However, Tom cannot talk to girls; in fact, he finds talking to anyone difficult. With nothing else to do after his Xbox is gone, he decides to visit the village library which he has happy memories of visiting with his mother, who died when he was eight.

Maybe, just maybe, Farah Shah will be at the library. However, the only people there are the librarian Christine and a book group consisting of elderly female members. Feeling awkward, Tom pretends to have come to pick up books for his mother, and Christine happily loads him down with romances.

As the library closes, a chance encounter brings Tom and Maggie, one of the elderly book group members, together briefly. Accosted by another teen, Maggie has fallen, and Tom ends up walking her to the bus stop to see that she gets there safely. The library is Maggie’s only place for social contact, and she wonders if Tom will return the next day. With nothing to do back home, Tom begins to read the stack of romance novels, knowing his dad and his classmates can never know.

This charming book is Tom and Maggie’s story with chapters alternating between the two. Although written for adults, The Library should also appeal to teen readers. I hope they discover it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Aria for an advance reader copy.

well written, good plot, i enjoyed it would read again i really like the author

Tom and Maggie make unlikely but impressive allies in this lovely novel that's about more than saving a library. Tom is 16, living with an alcoholic father, and the library is his place of solace. Maggie is 72 and struggling a bit with her farm and live. Their bond is forged slowly but with heart and humor. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's the sort of read that makes you smile.

The Library is a kind of coming of age story of a teenage boy who befriends an older woman. Due to a tense relationship with his father, the teenage boy ends up living with the older woman and helping her on the sheep farm. How did the two meet? Through the library, of course. I loved seeing how the library is such an important part of people young and old in a rather small community. I like the whole idea of a community coming together to save a public space, be it the pool, the library or anything else.
This novel is basically about a small town, sheep, unlikely friendships, a library that needs saving, and becoming better because we live in community. I enjoyed it a lot!

I wanted to crawl inside this book and live in it. The setting is a small English village where a lonely teenage boy accidentally finds himself in a library where he meets a 74 year old woman who changes his life forever. The central plot is how these charming characters come together to save the local library from closing, but it is so much more than that. It is unexpectedly clever and funny and hits just right. I absolutely loved it and would easily recommend it.

“We often think of the oddest, most irrelevant things, at difficult times. We seek out the little things we can cope with while we process the things we can’t.”

Who would’ve thought that a 16-year-old boy and a 72-year-old grandma could build a friendship that’s gonna warm everybody’s hearts?

This book is such a joy to read! I had a great time reading about Tom and Maggie’s unexpected friendship and fun farm adventures! It is beautifully written with admirable characters and just the right amount of humor.

The Library reminded me how important it is to surround yourself with supportive people—people who believe in you and know that you could do great things. This book managed to show how support could benefit an individual as well as the entire community. It may be a simple gesture but being surrounded by it could change your entire perspective in life.

I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it to everyone especially to those who adore cool grandmas! ♡

A heartwarming story about the unlikely friendship between a teenager and a pensioner. Maggie and Tom are brought together by their local library, and fight to stop it being closed. Both of them are lonely and dealing with the harsh realities of the world around them. Tom is being raised by his single alcoholic father and Maggie has kept the world at arm's length for too long and is now struggling to cope as she gets older.
Some great characters and a rallying cry for local libraries, they are so important in so many ways, especially in smaller communities.