4.5 stars, rounded up.
What a wonderful look at how a library can be a community for so many.

Set in 1944 London, Clara is a young widowed librarian who starts a library underground in the unfinished Bethnal Green tube station when her library is bombed. Clara, along with assistant and best friend Ruby, transform the space into a hub for the community, a meeting place where there just happens to be books. She welcomes the kids who no longer go to school and struggle to stay entertained; the older adults who all have their own quirks. Three are 5000 people living in the tunnels underground and they all need support.

The story, based loosely on true events from WWII, runs the gamut of emotions, as would be expected in a wartime tale. But it's the spirit of the the people and relationships that they create that leave you with a positive feeling of humanity. Clara struggles to move on after losing her husband in the war and Ruby lives a bit of a fast life that she knows would not happen in peacetime. They are both strong women who are dealing with their own struggles and those of the families around them.

Be sure to read the Author's Notes at the end, it's fascinating to read about what was based on fact and some of the real people who lived through it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I pretty much loved everything about this book. I love learning about historical movements through fiction books. I had no idea such a story happened. And I never would if I never saw the cover. Cheers to the art department! I didn’t read the synopsis but immediately wanted to read about a library with such a fun looking librarian on the cover. 😊

This story kept me so engrossed that I never wanted to stop. I needed to know if everyone had an HEA! I needed them too. And I am so happy that the story turned out the way it did.

I have a few friends who will definitely be getting this book for Christmas. I know they’ll love it just as much as I did.

I love books! Let me say that again, I love books! And of course, libraries have…books! Needless to say, anything about a library I’m all in for! This story about the only underground library in England during the war is absolutely fascinating! The librarian, Clara Button, is the sweetest and kindest of ladies doing her part during the war. She’s not just a librarian, but also a confidant, a social worker, a teacher, a mentor, a counselor, and so many other great titles!

Clara and her best friend and library assistant, Ruby or Ruby Red Lips as she’s referred, are quite the pair at this little underground library. They read to the children every night because the tunnel’s too dark to read and some of them don’t know how to read just yet. They also start a book club reading racy fiction that even a couple men join in on, They lend out books to people of all ages and are compassionate towards all who are surviving.

They experience bombings and children who go missing. They wonder who’s clipping the racing pages out of the newspapers. They witness people having affairs in the reading room. They even visit the bunks of children and adults alike. Clara and Ruby are both extremely caring people, sharing the love that seems to be missing during the war.

There’s so much more than happens in the book. So much that I wouldn’t be able to put it into words how lovely it is. The Little Wartime Library is definitely among my historical fiction favorites, the list is growing! I give this book 5 out of 5 tiaras because of the extremely well thought out storyline and events. It’s more than just the library, there’s a war going on!

Historical fiction and writing in general at its finest! I loved The Little Wartime Library and look forward to more from Kate Thompson.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

I requested this title since the premise sounds like a perfect book for me but sometimes I get it wrong. I love that it's based on a true story but unfortunately the writing left me uninterested. I wasn't hooked on the story or the characters and I'm bummed because I really wanted to love it.

I’m trying so hard to get back into my original love of historical fiction and this book was just absolute perfection to get back into that genre.

This book was a love letter to libraries, librarians, book and kindness. This is the loveliest story. It is the perfect novel for a book lover, it completely celebrates that ‘’camaraderie of story time’ and the magic of being a reader, of being able to escape to ‘for a precious hour or two’
But this gorgeous novel also captured the London home front; the challenges of the stiff upper lip, the trauma of living, the violence and stink..I had no idea there was so much living done in the underground during ww2 in London. Bunk beds, a library, games of catch and kiss, ‘their aching backs and powered egg tea’. I loved everything about it.
A novel that celebrates hope in the time of war, female friendships and the kindness that comes from two women just trying to give people something when everything else was taken away.

Set in 1944 London, Clara Button works in the unfinished shelter in the Bethnal Green tube substation as a librarian and friend to thousands of Londoners sheltering during the German assault on their city. Dealing with huge personal losses and struggling to survive, Clara and her friend Ruby provide many with a sanctuary during these troubled times. Well written historical fiction, recommended.

This was a first book by this author and I Loved it! Amazing storyline with great characters! Highly recommend

Based on actual events, this story celebrates libraries and librarians and their importance in communities. After the bombing of the Bethnal Green library during the Blitz,a temporary library is set up in the tube station where a huge shelter is built for local residents. As the people navigate life during the war in challenging circumstances, the library places a central role in building friendships, support, new families and hope during bleak times. Don’t miss the author’s note at the end with the facts of the Bethnal Green library then and now.

This homefront WWII novel is based on a true story of a library in an underground tube shelter. It never ceases to amaze me the strength Londoners had to survive the Blitz and all its horrors, and this book explains that well. It was well researched and had lots of action, emotion, and heroes and villains. This was a loving tribute to London's East End and the noble profession of librarianship.

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

This book was amazing. Uplifting and beautiful, during a very dark time. Another amazing story about strong females during a time when women were not considered strong. The story and historical portions were incredibly well written. The characters and their struggles were realistic and heartbreaking. I became invested in their lives and the outcome of what happened to all the characters - big and small. Just a really well done book.

Clara is a librarian in an underground library in London during WWII. There is a thriving secret community, with beds, a nursery, cafe and theater - a place of escape as bombs fall above them. Clara works with her best friend Ruby to make sure that there is life and purpose to those living underground. However, like with everyone else living during that time, their strength and safety are tested.

Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Hello again beautiful bibliophiles! Coming atcha tonight with a fantastic WWII Historical Fiction novel.

Many thanks to partner, @readforeverpub & @netgalley for this magnificent #gifted review copy.

Set in 1944, this novel offers a fascinating look at a thriving "town" created in an unfinished portion of the Bethnal Green tube station during WWII. This safe haven was home to over 5,000 Londoners and housed everything from a vital library, to a café, a theater, and a hair salon, among other necessities.

We meet sweet Clara Button, a librarian, and her spirited assistant, Ruby Munroe, who manage to keep this essential public service operational during the ceaseless bombing inflicted upon England during that time. These two friends become so much more than librarians; they were confidantes, counselors, and friends to a multitude of unique characters. @katethompsonauthor writes with compassion, about a time of uncertainty and suffering, where this crucial public library kept the community afloat.

I so appreciated learning about this little-known thriving community in history, and the real-life tragedy that occurred within its walls. The story that Ms. Thompson weaved together was absolutely riveting and offered a glimpse into the hope provided by books at such a difficult time in history. With a nod to several classics, the author gives readers a heartfelt look at what a difference libraries have made in society, especially during the most difficult times.

I highly recommend this novel for historical, romance, and literary fiction fans alike!

Clara is head librarian at London’s only underground library in the midst of World War II. After he husband dies the library is all the young widower has left. With the help of her best friend and assistant librarian Ruby, the library has become a refuge for many in the underground community. Even with so much support Clara is constantly having to fight sexism, gender norms, unhappy husbands and unexpected attacks. If you are needing a book with the message to keep going and not give up hope, this is the book for you. This book deals with issues of mental and physical abuse, rape, and alcoholism so it does not shy away from the reality of war. But it also has many bright and happy moments, balancing the sad and frustrating moments with happiness and joy. This is a must read for any historical fiction fan!

3.75 stars

A great historical novel highlighting London during the WWII bombings, when people were actually living in small communities in the unused underground stations and a small library sprang up -- true stories.

These were hard times, and just about every character is incredibly steadfast and courageous under unbelievable circumstances. Deaths, nightly bombing raids, casualties, relatives and loved ones on the battlefield, children separated from their parents -- the book is full of people trying to make do while their lives were anything but normal.

The main characters are head librarian Clara, whose husband died during the war, and her assistant and best friend Ruby, who lives with her mother and abusive stepfather. Clara and Ruby forge bonds in the community offering hope and distraction to displaced children and empathy to women in bad situations at home. Their supervisor is a supercilious and superior Brit who looks down on any popular literature and on almost all the patrons of the library. Clara continues to battle with him because she sees the comfort they provide.

In the tradition of wartime fiction, there is grieving, romance, desperation, death and peril but also hope. Not everyone gets a happily ever after. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Little Wartime Library {A Book Review}

Review does not always constitute endorsement. The publisher provided me with a galley copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My goal is to share my thoughts in a true, kind, and helpful way. I hope to provide enough information for you to know whether this is the right book at the right time for you and to enrich your life in some way through the review itself, even for those who do not go on to read the book. Thank you for your time here.

The Little Wartime Library, Kate Thompson’s new novel of World War II, brings to life the fictional community that grew up around a very real underground library in London’s East End from the Blitz to the end of the war. Fans of Call the Midwife can readily picture this part of London and the working poor living there a decade later. The socioeconomic situation seems much the same during the wartime years presented here. Thompson’s novel depicts the unique extended family which shared reading melded together in those dark years of fear and bombing; the healing power of love and books and the pain of grief complicated by guilt and shame also thread throughout the novel.

The Bethnal Green Public Library, community and educational center for the borough, was bombed on the very first night of the Blitz. Its roof and most of the books were destroyed. Underground in Bethnal Green, the unfinished Tube station became the ad hoc air raid shelter for thousands of people without other options. Miles of triple-bunked beds lined the platforms. Services including a café, a medical office, a theatre, and a hairdresser’s provided for the community’s practical needs, since many of the Bethnal Green residents lived in the Tube shelter from dusk to daylight for 5 or 6 years. The real-life librarians of Bethnal Green decided the shelter needed a library too. What better way, they thought, to escape from the terror and find a way to grow through the war than to read? This was a free public lending library, with a variety of books on loan with a shelter ticket the only prerequisite.

This novel invents a widowed children’s librarian, Clara Button, to run that real underground library. As a children’s librarian, she naturally reaches out to the “Tube Rats,” as the children of the shelter are known, and starts regular times of reading aloud. Her interactions with these children, especially Sparrow and Beatty, were some of my favorite parts of the book.

Clara’s assistant and best friend, Ruby, is broken from a different kind of bereavement, based on another true story from the Bethnal Green Tube station during World War II. While Clara turns her grief into nurture and outreach to the children, Ruby turns her grief into self-destructive habits of drink and promiscuity.

In addition to the children’s story hours, Clara and Ruby launch a book club for the factory women. Their tastes run to more salacious fare than I am comfortable with, and much is made of an American romance novel which was risqué enough to provoke the censors on both sides of the Atlantic.

To be honest, Clara isn’t sure whether she likes that novel either, but her aim is to serve the shelter residents with literary escape from the very difficult circumstances of their daily life, as well as to inform and educate. This is a democratic view of library holdings, and the book pushes back against the idea of censorship and book bans.

Additional tragedy strikes Clara and the community in the second half of the book, and the suspense and resolution moved me to tears. I liked so many of the characters in this book, and Clara seems to be a lovely person with whom to share a cuppa and talk books. She and Billy the ambulance man are a pair I can’t help but root for, and their hearts to serve others are as big as this underground library is small.

Readers of my blog know how much I love books and reading, and their superpower to transport to other times and places and even eyes and feet is one of God’s gifts. Reading for escape truly is a useful coping mechanism in hard times and keeps us sane in the better times too. It enlarges our horizons and grows our empathy. Sometimes, it sneaks past our defenses and takes us by the hand to grieve our ungrieved grief and cry stored-up tears as we walk with the characters through their trials. This book did that for me.

What I value in reading even more than escape, though, is hope. Real, sure, lasting hope because of a Rescuer far more powerful and committed than Billy the war medic. Hope that illuminates even the most desperate circumstances. Hope that is imperishable and unfading and sustains us through life and death. This hope is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose resurrection bought our pardon and whose presence has sustained me through many dangers, toils, and snares. I wished, in reading this novel, for the presence of the church in the underground shelter. Perhaps it was absent in real life, but I longed for that anchor in the world of the novel. Jewish cultural and ethnic community was represented, but vital, dynamic faith was not. I missed the anchoring presence which Nonnatus House provides to Call the Midwife. For me, despite my fondness for libraries and books, The Little Wartime Library was not as sure and steady an anchor as the Anglican nuns and their faith.

While I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Bethnal Green Tube shelter life in the novel itself, I enjoyed the historical material at the back of the book even more. The photos were a priceless addition. Kate Thompson’s research was clearly thorough and a labor of love.

That said, I feel compelled to offer some content warnings. If this book were a movie, it would probably be PG-13 or TV-14 for language, alcohol use, sexuality, wartime violence (bombings), and some intense depictions of domestic violence. Suicide, PTSD, panic attacks, and depression also appear.

As such I cannot give an unqualified recommendation to my blog readers of this book. I do recommend an Internet search into Bethnal Green Tube shelter life, and if you decide to read this novel you might start by thumbing through the photos in the historical section. For my fellow fans of World War II fiction, I can heartily endorse Madeline Miller’s The Last Bookshop in London and Kristy Cambron’s The Paris Dressmaker. My tastes run more G-PG in content, so those gave me purer enjoyment with fewer mixed feelings. Not everyone shares my preferences there, but I hope in reading my thoughts you have a clearer idea whether this book will suit your taste and sensitivities of conscience.

The Little Wartime Library is a powerful story about the importance of books, libraries and librarian, even in the darkest of times. It is also a tale about friendship.
I really like the characters, and even when there were many, each of them brought something to the story. I liked the alternating POV’s from Clara and Ruby. And I hated Mr. Pinkerton-Smythe, Victor and Clara’s mom and mother-in-law.
I didn’t know about the events that inspired this story and it was interesting to know more about it. It also made me realize of all the other issues that people had to face besides the war (or even due to the war). How unfair things were for women in that time and how people made it and survived the worst, with the help from their friends and community.
This book made me suffer big time, so many things happened all at once. But then it made my heart whole again. I felt sad, angry and also hopeful and happy for the characters.
What I didn’t like that much was the pace. It felt very slow at times, and then it picked up and then it was slow again, and then a lot of things happened. I wish it were a bit more fast-paced in some chapters. I also struggled with the language and jargon. I am not a native English speaker and this proved to be a challenge for me. But overall, it was a nice and enjoyable read and I loved it is based on real facts.

The Little Wartime Library is a fascinating and emotional book that shows readers the importance of libraries in our communities.

The Little Wartime Library is absolutely stunning and so beautifully written. I became so absorbed in the story that I was halfway through the book before I knew it. Kate takes her readers on such an emotional roller coaster ride. Y’all know how much I love a historical fiction that brings out those big emotions in me, and this book does that. There are themes of loss, destruction, hope, friendship, and resilience. They are masterfully woven into this story about two friends, Clara and Ruby, who run this underground library during World War II. I was so fascinated by this whole underground world in London during WWII. Kate includes many historical details and touches upon these larger events in London, such as the Bethnal Green Tube and Hughes Mansions Tragedy. If you are a library fan, then you will love this story. There is this constant message of the importance of libraries and books in communities. It’s also incredibly fascinating exploring this underground library and seeing how it functions and meets the ever-changing community needs during the Blitz.


The Little Wartime Library is told from Clara and Ruby’s POV. Both of these women suffered great losses because of the war. Clara is the librarian of this underground library, and Ruby is her assistant. I adored the friendship that existed between these two remarkable women. The support they gave each other was truly heartwarming. I was utterly amazed at the lengths Clara and Ruby went to get books into the hands of everyday people. It was easy to connect with Clara and Ruby. I cried with them, laughed with them, and cheered them on.

This is the book I was hoping for when I read The Personal Librarian. The Personal Librarian is a very good book - but not one I fell in love with. I am glad I read it and recommend it often, Belle's story is one that students should experience. The Little Wartime Library's Claire just impacted me in a different way. I loved the fact that a library was the beacon of hope for the citizens during a difficult time. (The same exact role during the COVID shutdowns when libraries found a way to still offer their services to patrons.) This is a book I will recommend highly to my students!

I love historical fiction and when you throw books and /or librarians in the mix it makes for one of my favorite reads. This book by Kate Thompson was no exception. The writing and storyline were excellent. The character building awesome. While I read this book a little bit ago, since today is actual release day, I think another read is in order.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley