For the people who love books and libraries .. you’ll love this one. Don’t mind my rating, I’m in the minority.

I think a lot of reader girlies will love this book.  A library ran by a spicy old lady and a new, young, only-likes-books librarian. A magical library at that. And a brooding artistic man hanging out at the library. (Seriously, the amount of times it was mentioned that he ‘broods’ ..) This gives major YA vibes.

I enjoy the idea of the book, but I struggled with the ‘memory’ aspect. I don’t believe this is giving away any spoilers as it is talked about in the title and you find out right away in the story … but what irked me (and I held onto throughout the rest of the book) was how did she know these were memories in the books? Why did we assume they were memories? It bothered me until the very last page of this book the way she figured out these books were memories, and there was no other reason for them. 

Honestly, that’s really all I have to say about it.

I liked that we were trying to save the library.

I liked the way we are fighting and remembering what we all liked about the library in the past. Helped me remember why I loved libraries and inspired me to visit my local one thanks to this book.

I liked the way the author tried to give a source of the magic, instead of we all just have to accept this is magic.

Yet, how we got there in the story still annoyed me. Which is probably immature to let it affect me so much, but here we are. This is actually a wonderful book that I would recommend.

Stats: 352 pages – Expected publication October 6, 2026

**Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.