And dear Silas reminded me so much of Jem Carstairs, but part of me was always on edge as if I couldn’t necessarily trust him since as a demon, he’s indentured to Nathaniel in exchange for his life force.Įlisabeth and Nathaniel’s banter was extremely fun to read, and I loved seeing the progression in their relationship. Meanwhile, Nathaniel is the brooding, yet funny love interest with a tragic past…my heart honestly was breaking for him throughout the novel. Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas are my children, and ASDFGHJKL I love them all so much(!!) 😭❤️ Elisabeth inspires my inner book nerd, yet she’s remarkably strong-willed and brave. The characters within this story were so easy to love. It is a more powerful weapon than any sword or spell.” “Knowledge always has the potential to be dangerous. I think Caitlin’s review describes this story best as Howl’s Moving Castle meets The Infernal Devices. Luckily, Maragaret Rogerson did a fantastic job of bringing her story to life-there weren’t any unnecessary details, and it was clear to see how the relationship between demons and sorcerers intertwined to spur a moral dilemma.

I was initially a little hesitant to dive into this standalone novel because I typically find it difficult for authors to synthesize their entire fantasy world into only one book. Trigger/Content Warnings: murder, grief, loss of loved one, anxiety, For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.Īs her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught-about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.

Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery-magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything.

The sorcery of thorns