Loss has a way of shrinking our world. For Matilda “Tilly” Nightingale, grief transformed her from an avid reader into someone who couldn’t make it past a few sentences without the words blurring into meaninglessness. Six months after losing her fiancé Joe to illness, she receives an unexpected phone call from Book Lane, her local bookshop. Joe has left her a birthday gift: twelve carefully chosen books, one for each month of her first year without him. This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page is a tender exploration of how we rebuild ourselves after shattering loss, and how the right book at the right moment can genuinely change a life.
Libby Page, the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lido, The 24-Hour Café, and The Island Home, returns with her sixth novel—a story that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. This isn’t just another romance or grief narrative; it’s a celebration of bookish communities, the transformative power of literature, and the courage it takes to turn the page when you’re not sure what the next chapter holds.
When Books Become Medicine
The premise of This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page is deceptively simple but devastatingly effective. Each monthly book Joe selected serves a specific purpose in Tilly’s healing journey: Matilda by Roald Dahl to reconnect her with why she fell in love with reading, a Delia Smith cookbook because he worried about her eating properly, Beach Read by Emily Henry to remind her that happy endings exist. These aren’t random choices—they’re love made tangible, extending beyond death’s boundary.
Page excels at showing rather than telling how books influence Tilly’s transformation. The novels don’t just sit on her nightstand; they propel her into action:
- Wild camping on a remote Scottish island (despite the deer stalking season)
- Learning to make fresh pasta in Tuscany
- Training for and completing a half-marathon
- Spending three weeks in Paris improving her French
- Roller-skating through London parks
Each adventure feels earned rather than forced, growing organically from the reading experience. Page understands something fundamental: books aren’t meant to replace life but to enhance it, to provide the gentle push we sometimes need to step outside our comfort zones.
The Heart of Book Lane
While Tilly’s journey forms the emotional core, the secondary characters provide texture and warmth. Alfie Lane, the bookshop owner who facilitated Joe’s gift, emerges as a beautifully drawn character—a man who inherited his father’s shop and feels the weight of that legacy pressing down on him. Tall, bearded, perpetually rumpled, and slightly socially awkward, Alfie is the antithesis of romantic heroes who sweep in with grand gestures. Instead, he offers quiet steadiness: a chair where Tilly can read undisturbed, recommendations given with genuine enthusiasm, and the kind of patience that feels like a gift in itself.
The supporting cast enriches the narrative considerably. Blue and Prudence, Alfie’s bookshop employees, bring levity and wisdom. Harper, Tilly’s adventure-seeking sister, represents the complicated dance of loving someone through grief—wanting desperately to help but sometimes getting it spectacularly wrong. The “Paris Grief Gang”—a support group Tilly joins during her time in France—offers perspective on different ways people navigate loss.
Where the Pages Turn Slowly
Despite its considerable charms, This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own ambitions. The novel spans a full year, and some months feel more developed than others. Certain adventures—particularly the wild camping trip and the Bali excursion—receive thorough treatment, while others pass in a handful of pages. This unevenness creates a slightly disjointed reading experience.
The romance between Tilly and Alfie, while sweet and ultimately satisfying, follows a fairly predictable trajectory. Readers familiar with the romance genre will spot the beats from miles away: the slow-burn attraction, the moment of misunderstanding, the grand gesture revelation. Page writes these scenes with genuine warmth, but they lack the surprise that might elevate them from charming to truly memorable.
Additionally, the bookshop-in-peril subplot feels somewhat manufactured. The resolution arrives tidily—perhaps too tidily—through the intervention of a secondary character. While heartwarming, it lacks the narrative tension that might have made the stakes feel genuinely urgent.
Some readers might find Tilly’s transformation a touch too complete, her year of healing almost impossibly productive. Real grief rarely follows such a clear upward trajectory, with setbacks and circular patterns being far more common. Page gestures toward this messiness but doesn’t always sit with the discomfort long enough to feel entirely authentic.
The Warm Embrace of Familiarity
Yet these criticisms pale against what This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page does extraordinarily well. Page writes with a gentle, accessible prose that never condescends to readers or oversimplifies complex emotions. She captures the particular quality of grief that feels simultaneously overwhelming and tedious—the way it colors everything without necessarily being dramatic.
The book-within-a-book structure allows Page to showcase her literary knowledge while making the novel a treasure trove for readers seeking recommendations. From contemporary romances to classic children’s literature, cookbooks to poetry collections, each selection feels purposeful. Readers will likely finish with a substantial to-read list.
Page’s London setting—particularly the Primrose Hill neighborhood—comes alive through sensory details:
- The smell of coffee beans and old paper in Book Lane
- Seasonal window displays changing throughout the year
- The quirky independent shops lining the high street
- Georgette the bookshop cat sleeping in strategic sunbeams
These details create a cozy, immersive atmosphere that makes you want to book a flight to London immediately.
A Celebration of Literary Community
What distinguishes this novel is its genuine love for bookish spaces and the communities they foster. Page understands that bookshops aren’t merely retail establishments—they’re gathering places for like-minded souls, sanctuaries from the world’s chaos, and repositories of countless possible futures lined up on shelves. Book Lane functions almost as a character itself, with its leather-bound customer recommendation book, its careful curation, and its role as Tilly’s “safe harbour.”
The novel argues persuasively that we need these physical spaces, that algorithms and online ordering can’t replicate the serendipity of browsing or the expertise of a bookseller who truly knows both books and people. In an era of chain closures and digital dominance, This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page offers a compelling defense of independent bookshops.
The Verdict: Comfort Reading at Its Finest
This is unabashedly feel-good fiction, but it’s feel-good fiction that earns its optimism. Page doesn’t pretend grief disappears or that new love erases old love. Instead, she offers a gentle vision of how we might carry our losses while still moving forward, how endings and beginnings can coexist.
This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page will particularly resonate with readers who:
- Find solace in bookshops and literary communities
- Appreciate slow-burn romances grounded in friendship
- Seek hopeful grief narratives without toxic positivity
- Love armchair travel through Europe
- Collect reading recommendations like treasures
The novel won’t revolutionize the genre or surprise seasoned romance readers with unexpected twists. But sometimes we don’t need revolution—we need the literary equivalent of a warm hug and a perfect cup of tea. Page delivers exactly that, with prose that goes down as smoothly as the comfort reads her characters cherish.
Similar Reads for Bookish Souls
If you enjoyed this journey through grief and books, consider these titles:
- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin – Another bookshop love story about finding family in unexpected places
- Beach Read by Emily Henry – Featured in Tilly’s year, this romance about two writers is both funny and touching
- The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George – A bookseller dispenses literary prescriptions while navigating his own heartbreak
- Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano – A more literary exploration of rebuilding after devastating loss
- The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams – Books connecting generations and healing wounds across a British community
This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page reminds us that healing isn’t linear, that joy and sorrow can coexist, and that the right story at the right moment might just change everything. It’s a love letter to books, bookshops, and the courage it takes to keep turning pages when you’re not sure how the story ends.