The only thing better than a book, is a book about reading and saving books, to save the world. The rich detailed lore of the world building and the clever witty and thrilling writing makes for an unforgettable adventure into Irene Winters, a intelligent highly trained bookworm and spy for the invisible library.
The library is a place between space and time, and in between alternate realities. Irene is a spy but foremost a Junior librarian who is sent to other realities to steal important books, These books help strengthen the connections between these alternate realities. Realities are found anywhere on a spectrum of extreme order (favoured by Dragons who can take human forms) to extreme chaos (favoured by the Fae).
One day, Irene is sent by her superior and mentor, Senior Librarian Cordelia to an alternate Victorian London. It is filled with Victorian inventions, some modern tech in a steampunk era. Even other species such as Vampires and even Fae. This one is the image of a neutral reality between order and chaos.
There’s a catch. Irene is ordered to work with and mentor her trainee assistant Kai (a dragon prince who can take human form), both with problems of their own. When they reach Irene’s assigned reality, the book they’re searching for has been stolen. It appears people are willing to fight to the death for this book; her book.
Irene and Kai, along with a new ally, Detective Vale and a notorious Fae called Silver must work together if they want to get the book before it falls into the wrong hands, and Irene may be forced to confront her own fears and secrets as her blurry past and destiny catch up to her, revealing things even she didn’t know.
For Irene, she represents a female protagonist who is capable of taking care of herself and takes no nonsense from anyone in getting the job done. It’s been a while since she let anyone truly in and Kai and Vale start to break down those walls. Readers see her personal growth as she thinks about what she wants and not just what the library wants her to do, allowing her to change in the way she wants whilst staying committed to the fate of the world. And books.
This was a book I found by chance, on a shelf in my local library. I decided to read it; finding a book about books is like finding the Holy Grail for bookworms like me.
It keeps you hooked until the very end, the fine lines between order, chaos, and species along with scientific tech, magic and the myth of the plain old librarian are completely thrown out the window. Every twist and turn brings something new, that the yearly wait between new books unbearable.
the girl and the city of books 
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