Book Review: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library
Author: Genevieve Cogman
Series: Invisible Library (Book 1)
Publication: Ace (June 14, 2016)

Description: Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure from a spectacular debut author.

One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen.

London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.

Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself...

My Thoughts: This was a fun, engaging fantasy that hit my heart because its main character is a librarian. Her career path is much more exciting than mine though. I've never been sent to an alternate Earth with a dragon as my assistant in order to retrieve a particular book. Irene is up for the challenge. Only, when she and Kai arrive, they find that the book has already been stolen and many, many people are looking for it.

Between trying to find the book, dodging the evil librarian who wants to pervert the purpose of the library, dealing with a jealous rival, working with this alternate world's great detective and dealing with steampunk gadgets loosed by another set of villains, Irene is kept busy and we readers are kept entertained.

Luckily, this book is the first of a series because I am eager to follow Irene on further adventures.

Favorite Quote:

Irene sighed. "So we have an incredibly glamorous female cat burglar who slinks around in a black leather cat suit, who kills vampires in her spare time?"

"I'll tackle her," Kai said enthusiastically.

Irene raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that I don't want to tackle her?"

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.