45. The Dewey Decimal System of Love by Josephine Carr

Librarian Ally Sheffield is a 40 year old librarian who has been celibate for 15 years. A self-described happy loner, she soon finds herself falling in love with a world famous orchestra conductor new to Philadelphia, Aleksi Kullio. The only problem is that he is very married, and things begin to get strange when his wife starts frequenting Ally’s library doing research on poisons for a supposed mystery novel. Should Ally tell Aleksi about his wife? Meanwhile, when Ally takes a position volunteering at the Philharmonic doing archival work for them and discovers some rare Stravinsky material, she is forced to decide if Aleksi is interested in her or her musical finds.

Part romance, part mystery, this is an odd little book. It was recommended to me a few years ago by a fellow librarian and I only recently read it. While Ally is supposedly a modern librarian who is full of quirky, cute little habits, I found her to be a stereotypical librarian character, especially since her 15 years of celibacy is mentioned repeatedly in the book. She also exhibits pretty unprofessional behavior behind the reference desk not only with patrons, but especially her conveniently hunky boss, Gordon Albright. This novel got pretty good reviews from various journals, but I was disappointed with it.