Expected Publish Date May 5, 2026 by Atria Books

Paris, 1995: It’s been five years since Lily Jacobsen and her best friend Mary Louise arrived in Paris from their small town of Froid, Montana. Determined to establish themselves as artists—Lily, a novelist, and Mary Louise, a painter—they share a tiny walkup and survive on brie and baguettes.

When Mary Louise abruptly moves out, Lily feels alone in the city of light for the first time and must find a new way to support herself. She lands a job as a programs manager at the American Library in Paris, following in the footsteps of Odile, her beloved French neighbor in Montana who told her stories of heroic World War II librarians when Lily was growing up.

Here in the storied halls of the ALP, she meets an incredible cast of characters—her favorite author, quirky coworkers, broke students, trailing spouses, haughty trustees, and devoted volunteers—each with their own stories… and agendas. Lily often seeks solace in the Afterlife, the library’s attic that’s home to hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, and there, she discovers a box of archives that may be a link to the past: to Odile’s own Parisian chapter.

This moving, propulsive story offers a panoramic view of a real historic institution, and revisits characters from both of Janet Skeslien Charles’s beloved novels. Lily’s story is a love letter to the artist’s life, friendship, and leaving home only to find it again.

My thoughts:

Having read and reviewed “The Paris Library,” I was thrilled to receive a kindle copy of “The Parisian Chapter” from the Publishers. This book is a continuation story about the library and its employees, volunteers, trustees and members. The library has a history and despite the employees and others grumbles, they must work together to save the library.

In the beginning of the chapters, presents a brief story of the characters connected to the library, with Lily Jacobsen being the protagonist. While there are a lot of characters introduced, I was able to keep up with each one of them and their point of views helped developed their views and personalities. My favorite characters were Tolstoy, Meg, David, Marius, and Lorenzo.  Not Lily, you ask? While protagonists are often a favorite, and despite seeing her growth and wiliness to self-reflect and change the errors of her ways, there is something about her that bothered me that I can’t explain. That said, I was cheering for her and I admired her hard work and determination to help with the survival of the library.

There are so many beautiful elements to this story, including healings of relationships and forgiveness. I do hope we will be seeing more stories that centers around the library, and the people from different walks of life it has brought together. A must read!  

Stephanie

Side Bar: This story contains open door romance, which I skipped over. I prefer closed door romance.

Thank you, Atria Books for an ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

Check out my review for The Paris Library HERE.