The Lonely Hearts Book Club is a love letter to readers

There is something deliciously meta about a book talking about books. That’s exactly why I was so excited to pick up The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore.

While I’m a huge romance reader, I do venture out of my comfort zone sometimes. It’s not very often, but books about books always get me excited. With comp titles such as A Man Called Ove, I was a bit nervous.

Even though I haven’t read A Man Called Ove, I knew the main character was rude and mean yet I feel like The Lonely Hearts Book Club did an excellent job of not falling into the trap. Yes, characters can be rude but there’s something to be said about characters who are rude for the sake of rudeness and those who have a reason.

I’m getting ahead of myself though so I’d like to thank Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with an ARC so let’s get into my thoughts on it.

The Lonely Hearts Book Club is a love letter to books, friends, and life.

The Lonely Hearts Book Club follows Sloane Parker, a librarian who is happy yet also somewhat unhappy about her life. It all comes to a head when she ends up talking to a patron named Arthur McLachlan. While most of their conversations start off with insults from him, the two end up striking up an unlikely friendship.

Once her friend ends up not coming back to the library and Sloane loses out on a promotion, the two end up becoming a lot closer and eventually, starting a book club. From there, they’re joined by Maisey one of Arthur’s neighbors, Mateo, Sloane’s former co-worker, Greg who is Arthur’s grandson and eventually, a special guest but I won’t spoil the connection for that.

While there was no romance within the pages of this story, The Lonely Hearts Book Club really came alive via the friendships of the characters. Arthur was dealing with a lot and frankly incredibly angry at life, but everyone around him never blamed him for anything. They had their moments, but in the end, the book club was a family.

With a family though, there were plenty of disagreements, hurtful insults hurled at each other, and also lots of love. I especially enjoyed seeing the books they picked to read and how towards the end of the story, there was a grand gesture. I know it’s usually reserved for romance books, but The Lonely Hearts Book Club did it so well.

Aside from the lack of romance, there wasn’t much I didn’t enjoy about the story. I will say that the only thing I didn’t love was how Sloane’s fiance was portrayed. He was basically set to be the villain from the beginning and it made sense yet I didn’t want to see Sloane have to deal with his dumb face.

All in all, there were so many references to books and authors. It was such a beautiful bookish story yet it did focus on some heavier topics. If you’re sensitive to grief, the loss of a family member, strained parental relationships, or don’t like rude characters, then I’d steer clear of this one unless you’re in a better place.

If you’re up for it though, The Lonely Hearts Book Club is a great one to pick up this spring especially if you’re a book lover.

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore is out now wherever books are sold. 

Will you be picking up The Lonely Hearts Book Club? Share with us in the comments!