From the publisher:
A woman receives an unexpected gift from the man she loved and lost—a year of books, one for every month—launching a reading-inspired journey to live, dream, and love again in this glimmering and heart-stopping novel.
https://amzn.to/45wbAtm
Twelve books. Twelve months. One chance to heal her heart…
When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. But mainly because Joe died five months ago….
When she goes to pick up the present, Alfie, the bookshop owner with kind eyes, explains the gift—twelve carefully chosen books with handwritten letters from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.
At first Tilly can’t imagine sinking into a fictional world, but Joe’s tender words convince her to try, and something remarkable happens—Tilly becomes immersed in the pages, and a new chapter begins to unfold in her own life. Monthly trips to the bookstore—and heartfelt conversations with Alfie—give Tilly the comfort she craves and the courage to set out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to share her journey with others, her story—like a book—becomes more than her own.
Sure to make my best books of the year list! I believe in the power of books to change lives, which this book certainly illustrates.
Following her debut Mornings with Rosemary, Page’s second novel is a beautifully crafted tribute to books, booksellers, and the transformative power of reading. This heartfelt story centers on Tilly Nightingale, a young woman whose world shattered when her fiancé Joe received a terminal cancer diagnosis. The couple married quietly and spent nine tender months together before Joe passed away.
Now, Tilly is adrift, clinging to an uninspiring editing job and struggling to navigate her grief. Six months after Joe’s death, Tilly receives an unexpected phone call from Alfie, a local bookseller, about a birthday gift Joe arranged before his passing. When she arrives to collect it, she discovers Joe’s final act of love: twelve carefully chosen books, one for each month of the coming year, with the stipulation that she can only receive them on the first of each month.
For Tilly, a lifelong reader who hasn’t touched a book since Joe’s diagnosis, this posthumous gift becomes exactly what she needs. Month by month, Joe’s selections guide her through the landscape of grief and back to her passion for reading. These books become her companions on a journey of healing, leading her toward new adventures, unexpected friendships, and eventually, the possibility of love again.
VERDICT Readers everywhere will be captivated by this tender exploration of loss, healing, and the enduring connections that books create between us.
©Library Journal, 2026
1/2026 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
THIS BOOK MADE ME THINK OF YOU by Libby Page. Berkley (February 3, 2026). ISBN: 979-8217186990. 416p.
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