August 9th, 2026
Home | Log in!
Welcome to FreshFiction

Are you a reader
or an author?

Help us personalize your experience. Choose your role below.
You can always change this later using the switcher button.

or

You can switch anytime using the floating button.

Limited Time Fresh Fiction Access

Exclusive Marketing Opportunities for Authors

Curious about how Fresh Access helps authors gain more visibility and connect with active readers?

Discover premium promotional opportunities, enhanced exposure, and author-focused services designed to help your books stand out.

Read More →
On Top Shelf
📚 New Books This Week 📰 Latest News 🎪 Reader Games

Fresh Fiction for August Is Here

Cowboys, castles, and shiftersβ€”this month has it all.

Slideshow image


slideshow image
Hotter than a Tuscan summer.


slideshow image
Some promises cost you the one you love.


slideshow image
Only she can pull him back from the darkness.


slideshow image
One golden retriever knows this is love.


slideshow image
Trust is the fiercest transformation of all.


slideshow image
From Himalayan stargazing to the London Blitzβ€”one love endures.

SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, March 2018
by Sue Halpern

Harper Perennial
384 pages
ISBN: 0062678965
EAN: 9780062678966
Kindle: B07192GTB4
Paperback / e-Book
Add to Wish List

Purchase

"The importance of small community..."

Fresh Fiction Review

SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY
Sue Halpern

Reviewed by Svetlana Libenson
Posted January 3, 2021

Women's Fiction Contemporary

When fifteen year old Solstice "Sunny" Arkinsky steals a dictionary simply because she is tired of looking up words and of living without modern technology, she is ordered to spend her summer working at a library, where she ends up meeting Katherine "Kit", a forty-four year old woman who keeps a close guard on her secrets and doesn't let anyone into her life. Soon enough, Rusty, a down-on-the-luck former Wall Street executive joins the duo on his own mission: to figure out a possible family secret and help steer his life back to the top. Through friendships, tales and one unforgettable summer, will each of them reach their goals or will their view points change?

The first thing to attract me to SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY by Sue Halpern is the book cover, which is reminiscent of childhood, especially for those who are born prior to 2000s. Second thing to attract me to this book is the fact that it takes place in a library, and for someone who loves reading, its a setting that I don't often see too much of. I also loved how the story was designed with quotes from the famous books and the dates, each chapter lasting a week or so.

SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY by Sue Halpern is definitely focused a lot on community, on how people hold up each other as well as the importance of libraries and of how they act as social places, their importance in society easily overlooked. Within this novel though, the reader feels as if they are part of something bigger and something more meaningful when they join in the mundane with the characters, be it sitting around with tea or just talking or searching for important information. There is also an understated humor in the characters and somehow the characters will end up being part of one's heart as the reader becomes part of the community.

For the reader seeking a warm tale of literature and libraries, well-done characters as well as the true meaning of community, and of how disparate strangers will find their way to one another, SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY by Sue Halpern will dare to satisfy those needs.

Learn more about SUMMER HOURS AT THE ROBBERS LIBRARY

SUMMARY

From journalist and author Sue Halpern comes a wry, observant look at contemporary life and its refugees. Halpern’s novel is an unforgettable tale of family...the kind you come from and the kind you create. People are drawn to libraries for all kinds of reasons. Most come for the books themselves, of course; some come to borrow companionship. For head librarian Kit, the public library in Riverton, New Hampshire, offers what she craves most: peace. Here, no one expects Kit to talk about the calamitous events that catapulted her out of what she thought was a settled, suburban life. She can simply submerge herself in her beloved books and try to forget her problems. But that changes when fifteen-year-old, home-schooled Sunny gets arrested for shoplifting a dictionary. The judge throws the book at Sunnyβ€”literallyβ€”assigning her to do community service at the library for the summer. Bright, curious, and eager to connect with someone other than her off-the-grid hippie parents, Sunny coaxes Kit out of her self-imposed isolation. They’re joined by Rusty, a Wall Street high-flyer suddenly crashed to earth. In this little library that has become the heart of this small town, Kit, Sunny, and Rusty are drawn to each other, and to a cast of other offbeat regulars. As they come to terms with how their lives have unraveled, they also discover how they might knit them together again and finally reclaim their stories.

EXCERPT

No excerpt available.

BOOK SERIES


 

 

 

© 2003-2026 off-the-edge.net  all rights reserved Privacy Policy