The first installment of an adventure featuring stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies - think Doctor Who with librarian spies!
Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently...
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creature and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.
Review
I have wanted to read
The Masked City so bad, since it was first released, but I never came across a copy and there were a lot of people ahead of me, on hold to download a copy from the library. So, it would have taken forever.
Then, I came across
The Burning Page on NetGalley. I read the description and was interested, not even realizing that it was the third (and I until just not, what I thought was the final, but keep reading) book in the same series as The Masked City.
I wasn't even aware of this fact until I was approved to receive a review copy of the book, and thus began my wonderful journey through this magnificent series.
Background from Book One, The Invisible Library:
The first book explains all about the secret library that exists across worlds in an alternative reality. The Librarians' purpose is to "obtain" (and sometimes steal) rare books from various worlds in order to preserve them, which helps them maintain order. The first book is the first of such adventures for Irene, a junior Librarian, and her new assistant, Kai.
Throughout the story, all kinds of obstacles prevent them from retrieving the book in a world filled with chaos and magic. They make friends and enemies along the way, and the ending is the perfect set up for the second book,
The Masked City.
No spoilers, but oh boy was a happy that I waited to read The Masked City.
The Masked City was worth the wait, but I am soooo glad that I didn't have to wait to read if after finishing
The Invisible Library. I would have cried.
Instead of crying and wishing that I had a time machine to travel to the point in the future where I could pick up a copy, I was able to start reading the second book immediately after finishing the first.
While I like the cover that is listed on the main GoodReads site for
The Burning Page, I have to show you the cover that was presented on the NetGalley site and was used for some editions of the book.
So, I received my copy of
The Burning Page and realized that I absolutely had to get copies of the first two books so that I could review it. I know, torture, right?!
The Burning Page starts out with an Inter-Library notice of the status of several alternate worlds, letting the Librarians know which worlds are safe, and which are prohibited from travel. Some are at war, some are experiencing power struggles between the fae (who crave chaos) and the dragons (who strive for order), and some have been looking a little too closely into the Library's dealings, making them not safe for travel, as Librarians must never reveal the existence of the Library or their relationship to it.
Apparently some worlds have cloned dinosaurs. I particularly like this quote in one of the notices:
In fact, we wish to remind all Librarians that they are here to collect books, not dinosaurs. Those Librarians who have problems distinguishing between the two should take a refresher course in Library basics.
Again, I am so glad that I did not have to wait read this book! I would have cried if I had to wait to see how the story ends...
At the time I wrote the above statement, I thought that
The Burning Page was the last book in the series. However, just now, as I was pulling the covers for this post, I saw that another book has been added, and I cannot contain by excitement! Here is the cover that is posted for
The Lost Plot, scheduled to be released this December.
The description was finally added for
The Lost Plot yet on GoodReads!
The fourth title in Genevieve Cogman's witty and wonderful The Invisible Library series, The Lost Plot is an action-packed literary adventure.
In a 1930s-esque Chigago, Prohibition is in force, fedoras, flapper dresses and tommy gus are in fashion, and intrigue is afoot. Intrepid Librarians Irene and Kai find themselves caught in the middle of a dragon vs. dragon contest. It seems a young Librarian has become tangled in this conflict, and if they can't extricate him, there could be serious political repercussions for the mysterious Library. And, as the balance of power across mighty factions hangs in the balance, this could even trigger war.
Irene and Kai find themselves trapped in a race against time (and dragons) to procure a rare book. They'll face gansters, blackmail and fiendish security systems. And if this doesn't end well, it could have dire consequences on Irene's job. And, incidentally, for her life...
So, thank you, NetGalley for alleviating my sorrow at having to wait to read
The Burning Page. I will be anxiously waiting for the chance to read
The Lost Plot!
