Romance | Adult
First, the book is set just an hour’s drive south of my town – cool beans! Second, it’s a romantic book mystery involving classic literature and marginalia – be still, my geeky heart. When Chloe Sampson finds a dusty copy of Tropic of Cancer in the discarded books stored in the basement of the Colville library where she works, she decides to sell the book in hopes of improving her disastrous financial position. At 24, she is the guardian for her three adorably troublesome siblings, after their mother abandoned them several years ago, forcing her to give up her college studies in Spokane. But leafing through the book, Chloe spots writing in the margins, and realizes the book’s value has just plummeted. She reads the marginalia and realizes it’s a flirty conversation between two people, J and C. When her cantankerous neighbour Jasper Holmes spots the book in her hands, he offers her an unsigned cheque in exchange. Chloe quickly realizes Jasper must be the J – who is the C? What happened to the sweet-sounding lover in the margins to turn him into the grumpy, lonely neighbour who terrifies her siblings? What happened to C? Jasper refuses to speak about it, of course, launching Chloe and her colleague Pepper on a literary scavenger hunt to find out. This dual timeline romance spans 60 years, as Gilmore, author of puppy-based romances and the book-themed The Lonely Hearts Book Club, slowly spools out the story from multiple points of view. The changing POV was distracting for me; I would have preferred a single omniscient narrator for both timelines. Additionally, I was disappointed in the too-convenient plot twists. I did like the pacing, however, and loved the way Gilmore wove in so many classics (she appends a list of them – more than 35!) from Lady Chatterley’s Lover to The Secret Garden. The library references are endearing for anyone who has toiled in the stacks, and I particularly appreciated the realistic approach Gilmore uses to describe struggling families and difficult personal decisions across the decades. Overall, a shade under 4 stars rounded up. My thanks to Sourcebooks for providing a digital reading copy through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/179947229
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Shelf Life with Michelle 