The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore [arc review]

This book was an utter delight from beginning to end. Easily my favorite read this year!

The Lonely Hearts Book Club can only be described as a love letter to book lovers. To the readers that feel they are alone until one day they stumble upon a book that takes them to another world or a fellow reader who understands the magic of reading!

And it is a love letter to anyone that has ever felt true loneliness and how one book, one chapter, or even one sentence, can make you feel less alone. How one act of kindness seemingly unrelated, can change everything. 

This is the story of a lonely librarian that does not realize how truly lonely she is until the cranky old man she verbally spars with over books daily stops coming to the library.

It is the story of a grandson who made promises he is not sure he can keep. Who found in a group of strange people with little in common with each other a place where he can be himself, and less alone.

It is the story of a lonely mother who finds solace on books and cooking and slowly but surely cannot see her life without this group that has gathered around the crankiest man she knows.

It is about a nurse/librarian/singer/writer afraid to pick a path.

And it is about a cranky old man who has nothing but books to make him company until the day a lonely librarian comes to check on him and starts a book club as an excuse to stay around. 

The book is told in sections, each from the perspective of one of the characters mentioned above. The transition from one to the other is done smoothly and adds to the story. Each character has his own story to tell, and that story adds to the whole. 

There are also very well researched and selected book references and quotes throughout, enchanting the book lover and adding charm to the story. 

Lucy Gilmore has the amazing ability of bringing the emotions off the page. I don't often tear up while reading, but it can be said I almost always tear up while reading a Lucy Gilmore title. That be romance or else, this author has an uncanny ability to make you feel alive and strongly connected to the characters on the page. I cannot recommend this beauty enough!

Go Read! 

This book releases April 2023.

Order here: Inklings Bookshop - Bookshop.org