When Jess Metcalf lost her job, she had almost nothing left. She had lost her grandmother, who had raised her. The library closed, shutting down her job along with all the other librarians’ jobs. She still had her home, the one she had moved into when she was 4 and her parents had died in a car accident. Now she’s alone. Her best friend Hannah moved to New Zealand to get married and have a baby. Jess has no family in town, no job, and no real reason to stay. So on an impulse, she puts her home up for sale and takes a road trip.
On the day that her house was going to be shown to potential buyers, Jess couldn’t stand to be there, so she decided to drive for a while. She was heading towards the ocean when she came across a traffic jam and took a quick turn to keep from sitting in the road for who-knows-how-long. She found herself in the small village of Middlemass, and that was where her car died.
As Jess looked around, she saw a duck pond, an old red telephone box, and an adorable cottage. She only got a couple of minutes to look at the cottage before getting yelled at by a man who needed to get past her car on the road. He helped her get it going again, not so much from kindness as irritation at her blocking his way, and Jess got back on the road. But she couldn’t get that cottage out of her head, and when she found out that there was a buyer interested in her house, she called and made an offer on the cottage.
It happened quickly and without a lot of forethought, so when Jess got everything packed up and moved, she found out that maybe the cottage wasn’t in the good shape she had originally thought. Mostly, it would just take work. Cleaning and painting inside, weeding and pruning in the garden. But it still has a lot of potential. And it’s hers. But she still has to figure out what to do with that old phone box out front.
It doesn’t take Jess long to meet up once again with the grumpy man who had helped her with her car. He’s named Aidan and he lives next door. He was the one who had sold her the cottage. It was where his grandfather had lived, and as Jess talks to him, she not only feels a attraction to him, she learns that she can’t just tear down the phone box. As part of the deed to the cottage, she is required to keep it and make it useful for the community. He suggests she go to the next council meeting to find out what they are expected her to do with it.
Jess has never been to a council meeting before, but when the four council members all arrive, they suggest Jess move to the table with them instead of sitting in the audience, as no one else comes to the meetings. They talk about possibilities for the phone box, and when the possibility of a library comes up, Jess grabs on to that. She has boxes and boxes of books she wasn’t sure what to do with, so it would be easy for her to stock, and her years as a librarian would help her keep it organized. It’s decided, and Aiden is volunteered to make the shelves.
As the spring and then summer goes by, Jess gets herself settled into the cottage. She unpacks and repaints. She cleans out the gardens and plants vegetables. She prunes back the roses and pulls down the overgrown vines. She scrubs the phone box and sets up the library, watching out her windows as people stop by and borrow books. Sometimes Jess offers a suggestion or offers a listening ear. She start to make friends. She meets Aidan’s 12-year-old daughter Maisie and talks to her about anime. She sees the community start to come back together after many years of their connections eroding. The little library is giving the community a place to gather again.
But as Jess is finding healing and happiness, she also feels like her joy could end at any minute. When her parents died, she went from happy to desolate in the blink of an eye, and she’s never been able to completely recover from that. And when she finds herself needing a job but not finding one close to her new cottage, when her flirtation with Aiden takes an unfortunate turn, when certain members of the community come after the library because of small town politics, Jess worries that her run of happiness is ending. Can Jess finally find a happy ending for her story, or will she be forced to give up her cottage and her phone box library?
Poppy Alexander’s The Littlest Library is a sweet, heart-warming story of finding a place for yourself after grief and loss. Jess’s story is healing as she creates a new life for herself in the small village, and the idea that even a small library can help bring a community together reminded me that hope is powerful and magic is possible.
I loved The Littlest Library. This has not been an easy year for me, on both a personal and a cultural level. I am tired and burned out and needing to read stories of healing and sweetness. This book was perfect for that. It was a breath of fresh air after breathing in smog, a vase of hand-cut roses on the table or a jar of homemade jam made from fresh fruit from a friend’s garden. It was just what I needed when I needed it, and I am grateful for that. If you’re needing a dose of hope and healing, I recommend The Littlest Library and maybe a fresh fruit trifle with a splash of Scotch in it to share with your closest friends.
Egalleys for The Littlest Library were provided by Avon Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
