The Librarians of Lisbon is a historical fiction novel set in Lisbon, Portugal during World War II. The main characters are Boston librarians who are trained by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (precursor to CIA) and assigned to work in Lisbon. The librarians have day jobs, but are also assigned missions for which they are sworn to secrecy—unable to reveal even to each other. Nobody in Lisbon is who they seem to be. Will the women find fulfillment in their work and in romance?

I expected to LOVE this book as I enjoy the genre, setting, and subject. I enjoyed the development of the strong female characters as they accepted challenges, took risks, and experienced personal transformation and growth. However, I rated it four stars instead of five because I was about 70% through the book before it became “un-put-downable”. There were a few scenes of physical intimacy that while not gratuitous, didn’t particularly add to the story. They were detailed enough that some readers might want to be forewarned or prefer to skim through those parts. I REALLY enjoyed the historical information provided in the epilogue.

I appreciated the opportunity to read this ARC thanks to NetGalley.

This is the first time I have read a book by this author. I will admit that I enjoyed it very much, and I look forward to more in the future. I love historical based novels, so this was my cup of tea. The story line revolved around a lesser known aspects of WWII. The characters were interesting and well written. The plot was well thought out. The only down side was the use of foreign language, but it did make it a more authentic story. I would recommend this book to other for reading. Thank you Net Galley ARC!

A well written account of a lesser known WWII story. Could have taken more care with the use of portuguese expressions. Calling someone "Dono" was never a proper greeting and sounds really creepy. The correct form is Dom if he belongs to an aristocratic family and Senhor if not. Senhorinha is only used in Brazil, in Portugal it is simply Senhorita.
Despite these annoying issues that would only concern Portuguese readers, I did enjoy the book and the plot. The characters are interesting and mostly likable. I especially enjoyed the chapters in Casablanca.

I really enjoyed the World War 2 elements to this book and how it worked in the story being told. It had that historical fiction element that I really enjoyed a lot. I enjoyed the idea of two librarians and that it was suspenseful and still have its romance going on. I thought Suzanne Nelson’s writing was perfect for the story and glad I got to read this.