I was going into this expecting a contemporary romance and instead I got so much more from THE LENDING LIBRARY!

The premise:
Small town library closes so art teacher and bibliophile Dodie opens a lending library in her sunroom. It is a huge hit the town loves it, including a new guy. Dodie has a lot of stress and anxiety around having kids. She wants one now since her family struggles with infertility but without a guy... kinda hard. Her best friend was a great role model who adopted an adorable little one nicknamed Boo on her own. When tragedy strikes Dodie wants to help in the biggest way but needs to make some tough choices.

This book was sad y’all. It had some happier chapters but overall there is so much loss and hardship and some tough truths confronted. It was pretty good though. There was a lot going on from adoption, infertility, relationship struggles, the sunroom library, a student of hers that needs some extra love.. it’s a lot for one plot. It makes the book interesting but it also makes it hard to explain for you guys!

Go read the summary on Goodreads honestly! Then come back for my opinion which is its good, but not the best I’ve ever read. It was like a coming of age story for an adult if that makes sense?

My six word review:
Jam packed plot of growing up

When the Chatsworth library closes indefinitely, Dodie Fairisle, being as resourceful and generous as she is, turns her sunroom into a lending library. The hobby quickly opens up her world, as she begins to forge friendships between her neighbours and attract a new romance. When the chance to adopt an orphaned child brings Dodie’s secret dream of being a mother within reach, everything else seems less important. Finding herself at a crossroad, Dodie must figure out what it means to live a full, happy life.
This book gave me so many “The Bookish Life of Nina Hill” vibes which I loved. I love being able to relate to a character who loves books!
I also loved the bond between Dodie and her sisters and how they were always there for each other.
The only issue I had with this book was the pacing. At times the story felt rushed and at other points it felt a little slow. 
If you love books about books, this is one you should definitely pick up! It was a very strong 4 star read!!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just "meh" for me, unfortunately.  It might be a case of "it's not you, it's me," though!

While this is admittedly not my genre, I like to give stories about libraries and book lovers a chance. However, The  Lending Library did not capture my imagination, and I didn't feel a connection to the characters. Now, I don't have to love or identify with a character to enjoy a book, but this story of a woman who makes a statement in opening her own library when the local one closes sort of devolves into woman who is starved for a child. It simply seemed as though the story was trying to be too many things and not fully embracing any of them.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. Dodie just wasn't a character that I could relate to, nor did I find that I was necessarily engaged in what she did next. I think perhaps the book tried to do a little too much, but in doing so didn't do it that well.

The Lending Library by Alisa Fogelson
3/5

This story follows the closing of the local library for indefinite renovations. Dodie Fairisle decides to create a lending library in her home, which becomes much more popular than anticipated. She builds relationships with those who come in, as well as going through some personal struggles in her life. There is a lot of talk about adoption, children, finding her place in the world.

Overall, this was an entertaining read. However, there were times that seemed that there was a lot going on and happened quite quickly. I would recommend this book to someone who is interested in reading a book about a library, but with additional aspects to it, such as the balancing of relationships, jobs, and one’s own happiness.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the e-book.

I'm sorry but I really couldn't get into this book. I ended up speed reading the last 150 pages just to get it done. I couldn't warm to the characters. I just didn't find the whole set up believable. I really wanted to love this book because as a child i used to live in our local library and I get how it would be devastating if it closed..

This book was surprisingly sad in my opinion.
Do decides to open a bit of a makeshift library in her sunroom when her town’s library closes unexpectedly.
It’s her top priority at first.
But then she has dinner with her sister who has just turned 35. Her sister mentioned that all the women in their family struggle to get pregnant after 35.
Do panics. She’s only got a few years. She isn’t even dating anyone.
Then she meets a handsome man at her lending library and it’s practically love at first sight.
Her relationship with her boyfriend and everyone else is complicated when Do meets a newly orphaned child. I don’t want to spoil the child’s origin story. But Do is instantly in love with him and does everything in her power to adopt the baby.

It’s sad. Because she wants that kid so badly she is jeopardizing everything else in her life and it’s still an absolute long shot that she’d get the baby.

I didn’t love her relationship with her boyfriend either. They aren’t honest with each other and don’t really depend on each other when times get bad.

I loved the library, Do’s sister Coco and her friends.

I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley, thanks!

Great concept but poorly executed. The cover hooked me and the concept hooked me but I was very let down. It didn’t take too far into the book to realize that the monotonous dialogue wasn’t going to hold me.

The cover of The Lending Library attracted my wanting to read this book, and Netgalley giving me the opportunity to do so.
The author ,Aliza Folgeson  shows her passion for books as a young child, and her story here revolves around a little library being run from her sunroom in her new home.
Dodie Fairisle , a young art teacher in the local school and  a single woman is crushed when the local Chatsworth library is closing indefinately.
Her love for books as well as the townspeople depend on the library. Especially one of her fourth grader student,Elmira.
This young girl's mother doesnt realize the importance of reading and so, the Lending Library that Dodie offers is a big deal to Elmira too. She can walk there without her mother needing to drive her to the bigger library.
I thought ELmira would be the main plot of why the little library exists...instead, other characters,like a need to become pregnant before Dodie's clock expires,and a deadbeat dad who walks out of her and her two sisters lives at a young age stays hanging over her head, and adoptions occurring within her sisters livers too .
There is also the boyfreind Shep, seemed alittle selfish to me and then desperate to win her love back.

Terebithia,the adopted 2 yr old boy to  her single mom freind Sullivan.... who becomes the main plot halfways.
I started predicting something else and disappointed in the outcome. 
She was very determined in her wish and suddenly,the attitude changes differently .   This is what held me on reading but needed to finish the book,wanting something different  to happen.I cant decide if it did or not.
Still, it was a good read and appreciation for love of reading and a library because I too love my books and always willing to give most stories a chance. Thank you Netgalley for giving em the chance to read this one. This is Aliza Folgeson's first novel and I do expect to be seeing more library type stories from her and will give those books a chance too.

The content was good. However it doesn’t translate well to audio. My daughter’s attention isn’t held either by the story unfortunately or the monotonous readers.

A very sweet story about motherhood. Enjoyed this one.. Loved this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

DNF-ed.

I was initially intrigued by how everything about this books seems awfully real & close to heart, and I did adore our heroine too. The concept of Lending Library itsef was pretty interesting, and I enjoyed bits that talked about that. But above all of that, even when I'm nearly on 30% progress of finishing the book, I still had no idea and further catch myself asking just what kind of story does The Lending Library wants to be?It confuses me as hell to find this mainly pressed over Dodie's constant monologue about her wants of a baby, instead of being a heartwarming little story of how impactful the lending library could be to the community. 

Does that mean the very title of this book is deceiving to the first place?Well, maybe it is. Maybe not. I think I went this far because I cared for the heroine more than I'd love to, but the writing style didn't exactly come off as charming enough to let me stay, and I had problems with how the plot execution went for this book. I'm happy to be given a chance of reading this, though. And I'd surely wait for Fogelson's next work to see whether it'd (hopefully) improve on parts I've mentioned above! :)

Error downloading and wouldn’t work properly my fault not checking before archived, so not laving a bad review, apologies

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinions. 

This book was set to be 5 stars, and in my grading system that is high praise as not many break past the 4 star mark. I was loving the first half of this book but then it started to unravel. 

It started off with such a lovely and light small town feel with a great plot line and side characters that you wanted to know more about and follow. Then Dodie wanted a child and the book took a sharp turn and got serious, the lightness vanished and the romance took a backseat. I appreciate what the author was trying to do here and I get it but to have the majority of the book be light, lovely and romantic and the last portion heavy was a bit of a let down for me. It was like two completely different books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for my electronic ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book was published July 1, 2020. 

Cute story about a woman who creates a Lending Library in her home while the city library is being renovated.  Her passion for matching books with readers was delightful. 

The book started off a bit slow, then was a bit predictable but I still enjoyed it.  Good summer read for lovers of libraries and chick-lit.

Original review posted on GoodReads.

I wanted to love this book but there was just too much going on. 

The main character Dodie, was an art teacher at a local school and a certified bibliophile who spent all her spare time at the local library. when the library closes for refurbishment she decides to set up a lending library from her home to bridge the gap as the nearest library was a long drive away. 

Couple this with the handsome local builder and there is a great foundation for a romantic, book-based chick-lit = perfect. 

However, starting the library and finding a man was only the start. 
1) Due to low fertility levels in her family Dodie wanted a baby within 2 years of the start of the book
2) She can't commit to a relationship because of her dad abandoning her family
3) She wants to adopt her dead friend's child due to her close attachment to him

Each of these sub story lines could have made a decent chick-lit book within itself but there was so much she wanted to achieve it gave the appearance that she was fickle - jumping from the library, to the man, to the adoption and back again. 

I think the library was meant to be the main plot but it was muddied by the other, more complex sub-plots.

This book was not for me. It was way too light and fluffy and had almost every stereotype of a small-town character. Even the parts that were supposed to make the reader emotional felt flat. Not every book is for every reader and I am going to chalk this one up as just not my kind of book.

How silly of me to think that the Lending Library would be the focus of this book. Disappointed to know that the story focused instead on the main character's personal life, her love life, her biological clock etc.
Even giving her an abbreviated nickname for Dodie (Do) did little to endear her to me. She proved to be a young, mixed up, still searching for meaning woman with a lending library as a backdrop.
The premise of coming to the aid of her town without a real library was wonderful, the set-up in her own home admirable, the little bookmarks heart-warming but the mix of characters just did not do it for me.

SO, in this #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo moment, why on *EARTH* pick up a privileged white lady's story of how Becoming A Mother and fulfilling the needs of her wacky New England neighbors for light reading and doing it all by herself dammit!!?

Because it was deeply silly and mostly fun and, while *extremely* not in step with the moment, I needed it right now. No, I don't have a lot of patience for Motherhood Completed Me stories. <spoiler>And she named her victim, I mean adoptee, <i>TERABITHIA</I> for fucksake, which is as cruel a piece of child abuse as anything I've ever heard!</spoiler> But Dodie's the kind of silly little child in a woman's body that would, in fact, feel that way.

That said, Dodie's actually kind of a cipher, not a fully-rounded character, simply moving the pieces of the plot from A to B then D after that L and screw all those other letters, they're probably Not Our Kind. It's set in 2008, which made Dodie the biblioholic's ignorance of ebooks puzzling. I think, though, that it was more ignoring not ignorance, so I got as far past that as I could. And her nesting instinct, her deep and ongoing self-criticism that she can not manage a busy life, wifehood, motherhood, the library, etc etc as effortlessly as she thinks she should be able to? Well, she's never a wife and no one made you a mother and let's face it, Muffin, no gold stars for Doing Your Best in this our life. Still, she feels these negative things about herself for no very good reason (abandonment issues can be overcome, Do, and it's not like someone in your place can't access the resources.)

Dodie's past as an "artist" in New York City was risible. As described, her art (based on her supposed friends' responses to it) wouldn't get her a Brookly caf&eacute;'s wall-space, still less a reviewed show in a gallery. I don't think giving Dodie's sister a Black husband was all that relevant to the story; like giving Dodie herself a lesbian BFF, a soul-sibling whose death in the first part of the book leaves little apparent mark on her life. Just more window dressing, more piece of plot to make into plotsicles.

Oh, desserts! Yes, let's not forget one of today's most popular light-fiction tropes: Lots and lots and lots of sugary stuff described in lingering, sensual detail. This was, I admit without shame or blushes (he blushed shamefacedly), a big reason I kept going with the read. <spoiler>Well, that and the fact that I wanted Shep-the-love-interest's big secret to be he was a big ol' 'mo like all Dodie's buds back in Brooklyn were.</spoiler> The sort-of-stupid references to the male gaze that Dodie craves and invites in terms of desserts is less charming, though...and I am guilty of telling my Young Gentleman Caller that he's sweeter than condensed milk. (In his defense he mimes vomiting every time I do.)

Why would I recommend you read it? I would honestly say that it's an undemanding read that will, without meaning to or even wanting to, cause the least reflective  among us to question our assumptions and the more Woke to examine our privilege, looking at how very, very deep it is from the outsider's vantage of an unchallenging-for-privileged-white-folks, like me, of an afternoon's read.