Review by Veronica

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“I’d read enough stories to know how they worked. You had your faraway settings and swoonworthy characters—extra points for tossing in a manic-pixie dream girl or stubbly faced bad boy. Great books give us spine-tingling plots or twists that reach right into your lungs and snatch your next breath. I knew about those; I knew about stories. Enough to realize I was sitting in the middle of one and already hated the ending.” 

Be prepared to fall in love with The Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namely.

Darcy Jane Wells spends her time living in a world of books. It’s the perfect place to hide from her mother’s hoarding problems and the responsibilities of having to take care of someone with a mental illness. Her life becomes even more complicated when a new complex manager is keen on updating all the apartments in their building. Darcy worries what will happen when he finds out her mother is a hoarder. But Darcy’s life isn’t all bleak, she’s got a wonderful quirky best friend, Marisol, and she works at a fabulous little bookshop. The bookshop is where Darcy keeps on bumping into Asher, a former pilot whose dreams were shattered because of an accident. For the first time, Darcy finds herself wanting to talk about her life and wants to confide in Asher about secrets that she always kept to herself. 

This book is an excellent coming of age story with a lot of heart and engaging characters. Darcy is intelligent, strong, endearing, and did I mention, a bookworm? I love just “being” with her as she navigates the tricky world of teenagers, deals with her mother, and hangs out with her best friend. The relationship that Darcy has with her mother sets this book apart from other YA contemporary books. Laura shows readers what it is like to live with someone with a mental illness, the ups and downs, the pure emotional exhaustion, and the never-ending hope that things will get better. Laura did a great job balancing the seriousness of Darcy’s relationship with her mother by adding some light and fluffy moments throughout the book.

The relationship between Darcy and Asher takes on the “hate to love” relationship style. These two did not have the greatest start, and I was hesitant about whether Asher would be a good fit for Darcy. As Darcy spends more time with Asher and learns more about him (he has a fascinating story), I fell in love with him, just like Darcy. I loved the relationship between these two. It had all the beautiful characteristics of teenage love without being too cheesy. There are many meet-cute moments and some pretty funny meet-fails between these two, and of course, lots of book banter that will satisfy any book worm out there.

Overall, this is an excellent coming of age YA romance book that will tug at your heartstrings and leave you believing happily-ever-afters do come true.

If you are interested in more books that take place in bookshops, check out our list Love Between the Stacks