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. Mainly, because Joe died five months ago…
The gift is simple – twelve carefully chosen books from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.
And so begins a reading-inspired journey that takes Tilly around the world; from bustling sidewalks in New York and the tree-lined avenues of Paris to the tranquil Tuscan countryside and the white sands of Bali. With the help of the bookshop owner, Alfie, Tilly starts to discover who she is now, after Joe.
But can Tilly’s year of books show her how to love again?
I always knew I wanted to be an author…
Ever since I realised that the books I loved to read as a child had been written by a person and that writing books could be a job, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I spent a lot of my childhood shut in my room reading and writing stories and poems.
Then I got a bit older and realised that becoming an author was a bit more complicated than applying for a role and getting the job. I learnt about things like bills and career paths. I decided to channel my love of writing and my interest in style and fashion history into a degree in Fashion Journalism at The London College of Fashion.
Arriving from a small town in North Dorset to the bright lights of London, I felt initially out of place (an experience I later explored in my debut novel The Lido). While studying, I did numerous internships in magazines and newspapers. Quickly seeing how unpaid roles shut out people who couldn’t afford to work for free, I began campaigning for fairer, paid internships, an experience that took me to parliament and saw me protesting at London Fashion Week.
After graduating I worked as a journalist at The Guardian. But writing all day left little time and headspace for creative writing, so I decided to switch careers to marketing for a retailer and later a charity.
In 2015 I started writing my first novel, The Lido, snatching moments in my lunch break and at the weekends. I wanted to write a book that drew on my experiences of struggling to find my feet in the city in my early twenties.
Writing around a full-time job wasn’t easy. But the characters and the story for The Lido had lodged in my mind and wouldn’t leave. I kept going. Once I had a finished manuscript it took me over a year to get a publishing deal. I sent the book out to dozens of agents and received dozens of rejections.
I was just considering giving up and starting on another book when I heard back from my now agent, Robert Caskie. He loved the sound of my book and the first three chapters and wanted to read more. A few months later, Robert and I were working together and I received a life-changing publishing deal that enabled me to quit my job in marketing.
The Lido went on to publish in over twenty territories around the world. It became an instant Sunday Times bestseller when it came out in 2018.
Since then I have written four further novels, including The Lifeline, my follow-up to The Lido. I have appeared on TV and radio speaking about my books and have done countless book events, having the pleasure of meeting booksellers and readers around the UK.
In 2021 I moved from London to Somerset and gave birth to my son (three days after the book launch for my third novel The Island Home!). I have spoken openly about my challenging experience of early motherhood, and wrote about it in The Lifeline in the hope that my story might help others feel less alone.
Because while my books are described as uplifting (a Times review called The Vintage Shop ‘hot buttered-toast-and-tea feelgood fiction’) I don’t shy away from tough subjects in my writing.
My books deal with love, friendship and community but also grief, loneliness and mental health struggles. Because I know how cathartic it can be to see life’s tough moments reflected on the page. And because I love reading books that balance laughter and romance with tear-jerkingly poignant moments that make you reflect on what it means to be human.
What I will always give readers in my books is a sense of hope.
As well as being an author, I am an avid reader. I read widely, enjoying romance, women’s fiction, literary fiction, thought-provoking non-fiction and the odd children’s book that transports me to my childhood love of reading. A few years ago I started keeping a reading journal, something I would recommend to any bookworm (I wrote a Substack article on how to start a reading journal).
My latest book, This Book Made Me Think of You, draws on my passion for books and my experience of the healing power of reading. I truly believe that books can be life-changing. They have certainly changed mine.
As well as writing my own books, I work as a writing coach for the online creative writing school The Novelry. I mentor writers from idea stage all the way through the process of writing and editing their novels. As a coach I aim to support and inspire the writers I work with, offering insights into my experience of writing six novels and juggling writing alongside motherhood and life.
So much of writing a novel is about confidence. Having the courage to admit to an often secretly-harboured dream to write. Being bold enough to carve out the time to get to the page. Sticking with it when it feels hard.
As a writing coach, I get to be the person encouraging a writer. Telling them they can.
Because although I have always dreamed of being an author, I didn’t always believe it was possible.
I wish I could go back and tell the little-me who dreamt of calling herself an author that one day it would happen. That I’d get to be that magical of things – someone who writes books.
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This Book Made me Think of You
Written By Libby Page
Review By Heidi Lynn’s Book Reviews
Ohh This Book Made me Think of You by Libby Page just made my top 5 must read favorite books of 2026. I have read 20 books and so far this book is the third on the list!! Libby’s book is such a creative out of the box storyline that is so different from anything else out there!! It is a very refreshing beautifully written story that will tug on your heart strings, make you smile, at times make you tear up, makes you appreciate what you have and what you could have in life. I loved this book and would read more from this author!!
I absolutely adored George Towne’s book design! It was very eye-catching and perfect for this book!! Just by seeing the cover and reading the title you just need to know what this book is about!
With each chapter there were some cute bookish graphics done by Hand-drawn book and Shutterstock. With each of these graphics were some really great book recommendations. I even wrote down a few to check out later.
Joe has to be the sweetest man ever and Tilly was so incredibly blessed to have had the chance to have known him!! My heart broke for her that he was no longer with her in this physical world but so thankful for the gifts that he did give her. With my Dad passing in Dec. of 2024 I know all too well the pain she was going through. I can't imagine the shock she got when she got the phone call on her birthday that there was a gift there from him. But those gifts were genuinely from his heart to help her in one way or another.
The letters Joe wrote to Tilly were beautiful! They made me smile and at times made me tear up. As Tilly looked forward to the next book each month I looked forward to Joe’s letter and what he had to say. Funny that my new book crush was a dead one…but still he had a lot of great qualities.
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