Love in a Little Free Library

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Author(s)

Lucy Flowers

Publisher Name

Applebee Press

Genre(s)

YA Romance

Age Range

16+

Release Date

January 11, 2025

ISBN13

979-8988509172

ISBN10 or ASIN

What would you do if you were on house arrest for a crime you didn’t commit? You couldn’t drive to get a cappuccino or feel the sun on your face or go on a date with the cute new neighbor? In Love in a Little Free Library, Elle’s mother tries to turn their house into a sanctuary so her sentence will be more tolerable. But Elle dreams of being rescued from her tall tower—the third floor bedroom of her purple Victorian house—by the father she never knew, or maybe even a handsome prince. Then, the over sharing, emotional new neighbor, Ozzy, moves in and slips a note in her little free library. What starts as a friendship between two misunderstood souls, quickly transforms into a forbidden first love that will force Elle to choose between what her mother expects from her and what her heart demands.

I’m on house arrest, and although every criminal claims they’re innocent, I actually am. I didn’t commit a crime—though I often think about wringing my mother’s Type A, judgmental, overbearing neck. She has turned my prison sentence into what she thinks is something of a luxury resort. I have tutors and an indoor pool and a library that rivals the Beast’s in Beauty and the Beast.

But as luck would have it, an adorable, over sharing and quite verbose boy moves in across the street. He slips a note in my little free library, and I’m intrigued. We start talking, and before I know it, Ozzy’s got me wondering if the biological father I long to find might be my favorite whodunnit author—the notoriously reclusive Harrison Blackwater. The universe couldn’t be that obvious…could it?

Ozzy wants me to cut off my court-ordered ankle bracelet and fly to New York City to track down Mr. Blackwater because we have the same eyebrows. I know! It’s insane! So, why am I holding a pair of kitchen scissors and asking myself how far I can get before the cops track me down and lock me up for real?

Love in a Little Free Library will make you swoon and cry… and maybe even laugh. It deals with some tough topics but does so with enough heart to have you rooting for Elle and Ozzy to defy the odds and get their happy-ever-after!

Editor review

1 review

Bookish Romance

July 07, 2025 (Updated: June 12, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

LOVE IN A LITTLE FREE LIBRARY by Lucy Flowers is a YA Romance and Coming-Of-Age novel. Elle has a lot of secrets, like what she discovered on her birth certificate, what really happened that led to her house arrest, and most recently, the fact that she’s secretly dating her next-door neighbor. Confessing to any of these, though, would send her perfectionist mom into an even more extreme and controlling spiral, so Elle must keep her lips shut. Instead, while serving her isolating punishment, she communicates to the outside world through her Bookish YouTube channel and covert letters left in her Little Free Library outside her house. Eventually, Ozzy, her neighbor-turned-boyfriend, starts pushing Elle to explore what she’s been hiding, and as she does, what she uncovers is even worse and better than she ever could have imagined. The problem is that to truly embark on this personal journey, Elle may need to leave her mom and Ozzy behind.

Firstly, I love the cover of this book so much! It’s cute, romantic, and whimsical, and does a great job at depicting the beginning of Ozzy and Elle’s relationship. One of my favorite elements of this story is how Ozzy and Elle start communicating with each other, needing to find alternatives to the typical ways people contact each other today. Since they go back to traditional pen and paper love notes, it makes how their feelings develop all the more classic and nostalgic. I also enjoy a lot of the peripheral characters in this book, such as Uncle Theo, and the different coaches and teachers who are hired to work with Elle. Their relationships feel carefree and honest, which is a nice contrast to Elle and her mom.

What would have made this book even better for me would have been if Elle had revealed the story of her ex-boyfriend to her mom, and if her mom had shared a legitimate reason for why she did what she did. As an overall point, there are major moments that happen so quickly. If they had had more breathing room, the emotional beats would have landed even stronger, especially since the story deals with heavy themes of sexual assault, mental illness, abuse, and fraud.

That said, LOVE IN A LITTLE FREE LIBRARY is certainly an adventure that has more to offer than what would initially meet the eye. It reminded me of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS when Hazel and Gus go to Amsterdam, and shares a similar tone. This book would be good for any reader looking for a cathartic journey in which things work out in the end.