Published by William Morrow Genres: Fiction, Mystery, thriller
Format: ARC, eBook
I had high hopes for The Burning Library as I have read another book by this author, To Tell You the Truth and enjoyed it. But The Burning Library didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I was intrigued by the synopsis of two groups of cunning and intelligent women going against each other to secure/obtain a valuable artifact. That they are willing to do whatever it takes to reach their goal, including murder, had me wanting to dive right into this book.
Eleanor Bruton’s body was found in Scotland’s Western Hebrides and Detective Clio Spicer will begin an investigation as to what happened to Eleanor. Her family thought she was an ordinary woman, but she had a dark secret! The Order of St Katherine and the Fellowship of the Larks are the two rival groups of women who wanted to get their eyes and hands on the piece of fabric that Eleanor had in possession.
Dr Anya Brown is approached and presented with a prestigious position at St Andrews. Anya is very smart and has an impressive memory. She is hesitant to start but can’t refuse but soon she will begin to wonder why she was handpicked and to what end?????
Welp! This book felt much longer than it was to me. The beginning started out great, and I was instantly intrigued but as the book progressed, I found myself losing interest and turning to other books. I had a hard time staying engaged. There is quite a bit of characters between the two rival groups of women with differing motivations. There were also some slow sections which bogged the book down for me. What did work was Anya’s connection to one of the characters in this book. I also enjoyed the tension and danger that flowed throughout the book. Dark academia books are a hit or miss for me, and this one just became a bit of a struggle for me. I was engaged enough to want to finish, but this book never quite wowed me. As I have enjoyed a previous book by this author, I will be reading more of this author’s books in the future. We can’t love them all and that is the case here!
While this book didn’t quite hit the mark for me, it did dazzle other reviewers so please read their reviews as well.
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
