Fantasy, YA, Standalone
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads Blurb:
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.
Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.
I actually love this book! A library full of magical, sentient grimoires guarded by sword-wielding librarians. Evil sorcerers making pacts with demons, and an MC who was “raised by booklice”. I love the world, and the magic and the characters, I just had so much fun with this book, and the story is pretty epic.
“There is always more than one way to see the world. Those who claim otherwise would have you dwell forever in the dark.”
I thought the characters were done really well. The main character, Elisabeth, was an orphan raised in the great library of Summershall. Growing up with only magical, and often dangerous, books for company, she is quite naive about the world and people beyond the library’s walls, but she knows the secrets of the libraries. She learns quickly, she is honest and intelligent, and very brave, risking her life to save others: such is the duty of a Warden of the libraries. She is different to ordinary people, and I love that about her.
“She now understood that the world wasn’t kind to young women, especially when they behaved in ways men didn’t like, and spoke truths that men weren’t ready to hear. No one would listen to Mercy, just as no one had listened to her.”
I really enjoyed getting to know Nathaniel Thorn, the sorcerer. Initially he seems cold and intimidating, but he actually has a really good sense of humour, and learning about his family and his past makes him very likeable. Silas, the demon, is just fantastic. The whole magical system involving sorcerers making bargains with demons is just really cool too.
“She knew she shouldn’t be this relieved to see Silas - that he was evil, a murderer, a Warden’s worst enemy. But he didn’t pretend to be anything other than a monster. In that way he was more honourable than most of the people she had met since leaving Summershall.”
The story was fun and complex and I was never bored. It worked really well as a standalone, with everything being wrapped up neatly. The romance is minimal, but sweet, and Elisabeth’s naivete leads to some entertaining dialogue. Of course a big part of the book is all about the grimoires. They all have their own personalities and quirks, which is awesome, and really brings the magic of the world to life. Books that are stubborn and won’t open unless given compliments, books that love attention and sing, books that bite and spit ink. In this world a Librarian’s life is never dull.
“Books too, had hearts, though they were not the same as people’s, and a book’s heart could be broken: she had seen it before. Grimoires that refused to open, their voices gone silent, or whose ink faded and bled across the pages like tears.”
I highly recommend this to all my fellow book lovers, anyone who can spend hours in a bookstore will love the atmosphere created in the magical libraries of this story, anyone who loves historical fantasy, you will not be disappointed!
And how beautiful is that cover!
Happy reading!
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