Summary: Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently...
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.
Thoughts: Spies, books, a library between worlds, steampunk, mystery, dragons, fey.... before I even picked it up I knew there was a lot to look forward to in this book and boy! It didn't let me down! I actually read the entire thing in two days. It has some of the best pacing I've ever seen. Down moments to regroup/heal/catch-your-breath quickly flow into chases through the street, brutal attacks, and magical battles without ever jumping, moving to fast, or throwing the reader into confusion.
The world here is built well with so many intricate details it pulses with a life of it's own that adds to plot that is thick with intrigue and hidden by the smogs of an alternate London.
The characters were interesting and quirky in their own ways. Irene was my favorite; outwardly cool, collected, and experienced, inwardly screaming and crying and wanting someone else to do something. She was a great mix of competent and floundering. Kai was a pretty different character too, keeping up a definite air of mystery even after many of his secrets are revealed. There are plenty of others, villains that are actually frightening, grand detectives and shifty coworkers; each one is a fantastic example of really great characterization!
Content: D*** and H*** were the worst the language ever got. There is magic and some fantasy violence. There's also some rather creepy deaths, nothing is shown per-say (pieces discovered after the fact) but they're still creepy. There were some mentions of gay or lesbian couples but in past tense. A man tries to coax a woman into 'sleeping' with him and they proceed to argue about who would be better in bed, the language for this scene was kept surprisingly clean for the topic and passed quickly but was still inappropriate (the woman declines and nothing happens).
All in all not clean enough to merit a young audience but a really good read for young adults and older readers looking for an out-of-this world adventure that is unique and exciting!
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