When I saw the word Library in the title, I was immediately excited. Being a reader, I often connect with books about readers / books and libraries and I saw this as one too. However, I was very disappointed. Way too much.

I don't even know how to tell about this book without letting it turn into a rant but I guess we'll try. Truth was, I was utterly bored and couldn't bother to read every single line and chapter, and hence I don't even remember the main character's name. While we talk about names, one that struck me the most was the little kid's name. Terabithia. Effing TERABITHIA??!! Who in their sane mind would ever name their kid that? I understand you're a reader and love and breath books but that doesn't simply mean you name your kid after your favorite fictional place. Now, I won't go ahead and name my future kid Ketterdam or Ravka you know, no matter how much I love those places?!! Do you get me? Gosh, I was so mad.

But let's leave that aside now. Let's delve into the plot. I must warn beforehand that I couldn't really bother to stay through the chapters and hence ended up skipping a lot and made up for the holes through the spoilery reviews here. Even then, I was so bored and so annoyed at everyone. Especially the MC. She is one of the stupidest and hypocritical MC I've read about. Her obsession with having a baby was annoying, irritating and all the similar synonyms. It also seemed like she gaslighted her potential husband into feeling bad that he wasn't ready for a baby. For god's sake, don't traumatise the dude. If he isn't ready for a baby, he isn't. Why would you force him to want to have a baby and feel bad because he didn't?? That is so absurd and upsetting. I just couldn't understand her obsession at all and it just annoyed the shit out of me. In conclusion, I hated her.

I don't even know what to say about the plot because it was a hot mess. The title indicates about a lending library as a prime theme in the story but it just gets pushed back into the background and the only focus is on how the MC wants to adopt her friend's adopted baby after she dies (someone kill me already). And don't even get me started on the insta love. I understand it's not impossible to happen but here it was plain exaggerated and way too fantastical. I'm surprised the dude came back; he shouldn't have.

There were no emotions, no heartfelt moments, no nothing that could pull me into the story. There was no substance, no plot except desparate for a baby. Like, gosh, ugh.

When I picked this book, I was looking for a light and fluffy read but this book just made me mad. It should've been titled 'The baby craze' instead of The lending library, is all I can say.

This was such a fun read. I throughly enjoyed it. I love a nice easy read and I found this heart warming

I really enjoyed this one! Sometimes I was a little confused by the timeline or how time was moving, but overall a really good read.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley, and the author for the gifted ebook copy. All opinions in this review are my own.

I liked The Lending Library in the beginning when it was more focused on Dodie setting up the library and recommending books to her patrons. Once the focus of the story shifts to Dodie obsessing about having a baby, I lost interest. Because she feels pressure to find a man, marry him, and have a baby in two years, it cheapened the romance that Dodie is eventually able to find. It made it hard to tell if she had true feelings or just felt pressured by her own timeline.

Interested to read one day but book was archived before I had the chance to download - unlikely to buy and not available to download from my library

My thanks to Netgalley and Publishers for a. Copy of “ The Lending Library “ for an honest review.

I was interested by the synopsis of this book but unfortunately it just didn’t seem to hold my attention and I struggled to finish it.i didn’t really warm to the characters so I can’t really recommend this book.

The Lending Library is a wonderful book about Dodie's quest to bring books to the people of Chatsworth whilst navigating the frightening prospect of infertility. The characters, description and story are rich but I feel it would've benefited from a little fleshing out. It needed a little in between to prevent it from the jarring feeling I felt in places. It's not the most gripping read for me this year but because the characters are well-developed and have many varied interests, you fall for them and that draws you back in. I especially love the number of books, authors and artists referenced. I would be interested to see what Aliza writes next.

Found the main character to be a bit insipid and self-centered, and the whole baby-obsessed angle turned me off, unfortunately. Did not connect with this book

The library in town closes for renovations and Dodie, our main character, realizes that there are a lot of people missing the use of the library. So she sets up a temporary library room in her sunroom. Small towns are different and are more tight knit and people are closer. 
There are a lot of life events happening that change her life dramatically in such a short period of time. This was a quick cute read. 
Rating: 3.5Thank you Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC copy for my voluntary review.

I can't read this. I thought it would be fun based on the summary, but it's just a snobby white woman unaware of her privilege. The main character is insufferable. I tried to keep going because maybe she'd learn and get better, but I knew I'd hate her from the moment her friend said she doesn't want kids and she said "You just haven't met the right person yet."

Thank you to Negalley and Lake Union Publishing for e-ARC copy, in exchange for an honest review. The Lending Library is a story for the bookish lovers of the world, following our main character Dodie, who escaped from big city life to settle down for a slower paced life. Dodie is an avid reader, and lover of books, and is a frequent visitor to her local library. When her library shuts down for renovations, Dodie decides to band together with her community to create a "Lending Library" hosted out of her own home. The Lending Library gives her passion, purpose, and of course TROUBLE.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

This story is a solid 3 stars for me, as I love the premise, and am always a fan of a main character who loves books as much as I do. As much as I enjoyed the key storyline, there was a lot of slow and then fast paced plot, and too many different struggles. Not only is there a love story that progresses extremely fast, there is parenting drama, death, adoption decisions, friend trouble, family strife, and that's not at all. I had found myself wishing there was a bit less of a struggle with every character introduced, and more time spent on the actual romance of the novel.

Overall it's a cute, and fairly fast paced read! 10/10 for cover art, which is what initially drew me in.

I wanted to like this book, and I wanted to like the characters. But I didn’t. Maybe it was the wrong time for the story for me but the loss hit me harder then I would have thought, which meant I didn’t enjoy the read. I didn’t like Dodie and I don’t like Shep and I really didn’t like Sullivan‘s parents. This was just a miss for me..

With thanks to Netgalley and Lake union publishing.

The Lending library by Aliza Fogelson is a light and fun book that I enjoyed reading and took my mind off the things that are going on in the world right now.

I'm sure many others will enjoy the book as much as I did.

An easy to read book, that helped me completely escape all thoughts of the 2nd lockdown!
I found all the characters likeable, and I enjoyed getting to know them all.
When I was younger I could spend hours in a library too, so I think most bookaddicts can see a bit of themselves in Dodie.
I really enjoyed this .... Would definitely recommend it.

Omg! As someone who thrived on libraries as a child...who found libraries to be a sanctuary and a place of wonder...OMG is all that I can say about this book! The range of emotions are all here...happiness, wonder, anticipation, grief, hope...each page a testament to all that is good in a beautiful novel. I hope to see a sequel someday, or at least a movie adaptation (although no faithful adaptation could even begin to do it justice!).

Light and fun this story was an easy read, if not a memorable one. Good characters but a bit messy overall. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

Good book. I love the story and the writing was great. Can't wait to read more by the author. Thank you for letting me read this.

Let me start by saying I really wanted to love this book. A story about a lending library and the love of books? Sign me up! Unfortunately though, this one didn’t end up being what I had expected.

At first the storyline and characters really had me wrapped around their fingers. It has that cozy, small town feel and just felt good to be reading! But then things took a turn and fizzled out for me by about the halfway mark, as the story becomes more slow moving and even a bit heavier in feel. It almost felt as if I had read two different stories. The main character, Dodie, really became rather unlikeable to me and without giving anything away, a lot of relationship and baby drama kicked in which really distracted me from the overall charm I felt was leading the story. Something that I really did appreciate though were the topics of infertility and adoption that this story touched on. It’s not something you always see in books, and while it could be triggering for some, I do believe it’s important to see these very real struggles navigated on the pages of a book.

Overall this one held a lot of promise, but due to what I feel we’re some major execution issues, it sadly fell flat.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for the gifted copy.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read this early. I enjoyed this story so much & look forward to seeing what the author has in store for upcoming books! :) Check this one out asap!

Was intrigued by the concept and it does have some really good parts. Possibly aimed at more of a female audience than other 'womans fiction'. I did enjoy it, but wasn't possibly a 'page turner'