My Book Is Missing

Yesterday I took a trip to my local library. As I usually do, I checked the shelves to see if the two books I donated to the library are on the shelf. To my surprise, neither Behind Closed Doors or Red Zone were there. 

My local library is on the small side and I know space is always an issue, so I checked the computer database to make sure they were still in the system. 

Behind Closed Doors was. It was not only checked out, but someone was waiting on it, as well.

I was super excited about this, but where was Red Zone? It wasn't listed on the database at all. Did that mean they pulled it? But why pull Red Zone and not Behind Closed Doors?

After speaking with the two librarians on duty, I found out that no, they had not removed Red Zone from circulation. It was, however, missing.

What does missing mean, you ask?

The librarian told me one of two things most likely happened.

1) Someone took the book off the shelf and walked out without checking it out.

Or, 2) Someone removed the book from its place on the shelf and hid it somewhere in the library.

Yep. This is a thing. And apparently its more common than you would think.

Both the copy of Behind Closed Doors and Red Zone are older covers. Behind Closed Doors has a big front door on the cover. Red Zone has a shirtless football player. The only reason I can think of where Behind Closed Doors would be left alone and Red Zone would be taken is because someone didn't like man chest being on the shelf.

Our town has a fair amount of very conservative people, but it never crossed my mind they would do this. The library has plenty of romance novels, many of them with racier covers. They haven't bothered them.

Why my book was targeted, I don't know, but it's extremely upsetting. Both books are in the adult section, on the other side of the library from the YA and children's books. Children aren't hanging around in the adult section. And even if they were, I'm willing to bet they aren't going to think too much about a man holding a football with no shirt on.

My husband asked me if I was going to replace the missing book and the answer is yes. Sort of. 

Instead of giving the library another copy of Red Zone with another man chest cover. I decided to give them a copy of my Daniels Brothers Omnibus. 

This has all 4 of my Daniels Brothers book and it's a discreet cover, so it hopefully won't offend anyone.

If you'd like to check it out, click HERE.