Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books.
The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?
I enjoyed the use of historical writers as well as the current popular ones. I also enjoyed Kate Quinn’s use of making fun of herself. However, I had to take a point off because of Alix, more specifically Alix’s issues.
Fantasy heroes can sometimes be difficult to relate to because their journeys are typically more dire or dramatic than what some individuals go through in real life. Sometimes, the trouble is more mental than external. I would have liked to have seen more exploration of the mental needs of escape outside of Alix’s inner monologue. I also wish that there had been an exploration of feeling ignored or forgotten. Again, Alix is the focus, but the point of the library is an escape for EVERYONE!
Which brings to the most important theme of the novel; SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY! Let them continue to be a safe haven for all, and not the select few. A library is not meant to be a bureaucracy. It is a sanctuary.
Overall, I rate this novel 4 out of 5 stars.
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