The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
Series: The Invisible Library #1
Penguin Publishing Group – Roc
Publication Date: June 14, 2016
Date Read: June 14, 2016
Source: First to Read
★★★★☆
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…
I loved this book! I have been having a really hard time deciding if this is a a four star book or a five star book for me. I would probably actually somewhere in the middle but I hate leaving half stars so I am going with four. Either way, it is a very good book and I have to tell you that I am incredibly excited about where this series will end up going. Seriously, the possibilities are endless. I think I may have accidentally stumbled upon a real gem of a story.
I was first attracted to this book simply because of the title. I mean it has the word library in the title so I was curious. It is a really good thing that it had the awesome title that it does or I would have passed right over it simply because of the rather boring cover. Ignore the cover because the beauty of this book is found within the pages.
This book really has so much going for it. The story is about a librarian on a quest to acquire a rare book. These librarians will go to different worlds in order to preserve the world’s most precious books. I am so excited about this idea because each book can theoretically be set in a different world with the same awesome cast of characters. How exciting!
This book really was quite unique. I loved the world building that was done in this book and enjoyed the steampunk feel to the story. I loved that Irene is the kind of person willing to put rules aside in order to do what she feels is right. Kai was somewhat mysterious and really kept me guessing. The whereabouts of the book that they were after was quite the mystery for me and I never really guessed what was going on until it was revealed in the story.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of light fantasy. This is a book that I think I will finding myself re-reading at some point in the future. Can I just have the next book now? I really NEED to read book tow as soon as possible. This is the first book by Genevieve Cogman that I have read but I can guarantee that it will not be my last.
I received an advance reader edition of this book from Penguin Publishing Group – Roc via First to Read for the purpose of providing an honest review.
About the AuthorGenevieve Cogman is a freelance author, who has written for several role-playing game companies. She currently works for the NHS in England as a clinical classifications specialist.
aahhh, it sounds like an interesting read. I'm not a big fantasy reader but just the premise of this book makes me want to pick it up already! and there's a mystery! adding this to my tbr! Great review, Carole! 🙂
czai @ the Blacksheep Project
This one has been high up on my TBR just because of the cover and everything you've mentioned makes it sound even better! I've been reading more fantasy lately though I'm still on the lighter side and I love that there's that and mystery and it's a series. I'm really excited to read this one!
I've read great things about this one. Can't wait to read it!
I am so glad you loved this one. I am looking forward to reading it too.
Ohhh awesome review this is actually the first time I heard about this book and now I am really intrigued and curious about it after reading your review. Thank you for your great post.