When Tabby moves to Dorset, she hopes to leave her old life behind. Her nan encourages her to make new friends, but she’s perfectly fine by herself. At least she has her books.

Blogger Lucy Powrie‘s debut novel is adorable. It contains the best sounding book club ever, I want to join! They have themed meetings, don’t force people to read books they don’t want and are super kind and supportive. Oh yeah, they also go on a fantastic literary road trip.

There are oodles of mentions of books of course, and it’s lovely to see a bunch of UKYA getting name checked. If I’m ever doing one of those “read a book mentioned in another book” prompts, I’m totally grabbing The Paper & Hearts Society.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any book lover in want of a good book will always find one in a library.

It does have a serious side too. Tabby is being bullied by her former best friend, who has made her feel worthless and undeserving of new friends. Despite moving away, she is still being targeted online, triggering panic attacks. She totally captures the way that trauma from bullying can become an obstacle to forming new relationships, even if you want to. And not all bullying is obvious to outsiders or extreme, it’s more insidious.

ATY Rejects: Related to a deck of playing cards

Goodreads | Amazon | Waterstones | Hive | Wordery | Blackwell’s

Book Source: Purchased