Author: Kate Quinn
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication: William Morrow (February 17, 2026)
Publication: William Morrow (February 17, 2026)
Time: 9 hours and 15 minutes
Description: From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
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?
My Thoughts: THE ASTRAL LIBRARY is a book for book lovers. Alex Watson is a former foster child barely hanging on. She's working at three part-time jobs and living off-the-books at a friend's apartment. When her debit card is declined and she can't resolve things, she heads to the reading room at the Boston Public Library to think about her life. She stumbles through a door she hasn't seen before and meets the Librarian who offers to let her move to her favorite book.
Description: From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
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?
My Thoughts: THE ASTRAL LIBRARY is a book for book lovers. Alex Watson is a former foster child barely hanging on. She's working at three part-time jobs and living off-the-books at a friend's apartment. When her debit card is declined and she can't resolve things, she heads to the reading room at the Boston Public Library to think about her life. She stumbles through a door she hasn't seen before and meets the Librarian who offers to let her move to her favorite book.
Books are the things that saved Alix. She could always escape into her favorite fantasy worlds when life got too hard. Her only keepsakes from a youth spent in foster care are her battered copy of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis and a bumper sticker her mother left behind saying "They got the Library of Alexandria--They're not getting mine."
But things don't go smoothly for Alix. She finds herself helping the Librarian when she learns that others who have found homes in books are in trouble. She becomes an assistant - a library page - and finds herself traveling from Sherlock Holmes to The Great Gatsby to the worlds of Jane Austen trying to keep the travelers safe.
When the Librarian is injured, it becomes Alix's responsibility to protect the library from Library Board who is determined to modernize and monetize the library. Alix isn't quite alone in her task. She has a friend whose business is making fashion and who specializes in historically accurate period costumes. But Beau has issues of his own including an up-coming loan payment to his father who helped him start his business and a very detailed gown for a movie premiere that his needs to finish.
This was a wonderful story for all readers because who hasn't fantasized about living inside a favorite book. I enjoyed it very much.
I bought this one July 8 for $2.99 and used an Audible Credit for the audiobook August 30. You can buy your copy here.
I bought this one July 8 for $2.99 and used an Audible Credit for the audiobook August 30. You can buy your copy here.
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