I was tempted to just take a pass on writing this book review. But I decided that since we have reviewed other Madeline Martin historical fiction novels, I should probably at least acknowledge that I read this one.
If you are looking for a great historical novel, you can skip this one. If you are looking for brain candy, and don’t mind a hefty dose of “single mom” struggles, then this would be fine.
While I did find this book mildly interesting, I mostly found myself wanting to just get through it. Throughout the story, I felt as if the author was borrowing heavily from other, better, books and trying to pull them together into a patchwork quilt of her own. The story felt tired and overdone.
Emma Taylor and her widowed father own a bookshop in Nottingham, England just before WWII. When a fire destroys the store, Emma’s father dies of smoke inhalation and Emma is left with no family and no future. She quickly marries a kind man who helps her to settle her meager estate. When he dies a few years later, she is left with a tiny widow’s pension and a young daughter to care for.
The law in England at this time forbade married women from seeking employment in stores or offices. In order to provide a marginally better existence for her daughter and herself, Emma desperately tries to find part-time employment in a shop while her daughter is in school.
Ultimately, Emma convinces the manageress in Boots Department Store to hire her in the Booklover’s Library. Emma must hide her married status from the other staff and the Booklover’s Library borrowers.
As the war kicks into gear, everything becomes complicated. Ultimately, the people in the library and the people in her apartment building become a resilient and loving community. And, of course, there is an attractive and intelligent young gentleman who falls in love with Emma.
In the afterward, Martin writes about her own struggles as a single mom and admits that much of Emma’s story is her own.
I do not object to the storyline, I just didn’t think it was delivered well. I found myself longing to put the book down and to pick up Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis instead. In fact, my reward for finishing The Book Lover’s Library was exactly that. I am currently re-reading this far superior WWII historical fiction.