The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman *****

The Masked City by Genevieve is the second is a seven-book series about Irene, a librarian spy, and Kai, her student assistant dragon. In this book, Kai, a royal dragon representing order, is kidnapped by Lord and Lady Guantes, a fae couple representing chaos. Kai is taken to the extremely chaotic city of Venice during Carnival. Venice is so chaotic, Kai’s powerful family can’t rescue him, so that job is left to Irene. A thrilling fantasy adventure.

The Library interconnects alternate universes and the Librarians monitor and maintain balance. Irene is a lower-level Librarian who travels to alternate universes on Library missions—which have unexpected difficulties and murders.

The world of The Invisible Library has two opposing forces. The fae, forces of chaos, imagination, and fiction. The dragons, forces of order and reality. The Library attempts to balance these two forces, either of which can bring the end to civilization. Many other races are part of this universe of universes: vampires, werewolves, mutations, superheroes, and impossible devices.

The Librarians travel between alternate universes collecting and moving books to keep everything in balance. They all have the superpower of Language. They can tell things how to behave: unlock doors, tie shoelaces, animate stuffed museum specimens, with the limitation: “When I use the Language to tell something to do something which is against its nature, the universe resists.”

The forces of good are Irene, protagonist and Librarian, with the cover name of Miss Winters; Kai, assistant and a dragon, with the cover name of Mr. Strongrock; and Peregrine Vale, 15^th Earl of Leeds in an alternate universe and a renowned detective.

If you enjoy this series, you will also enjoy the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde which also features a female literary detective and time travel. Highly recommended: https://amzn.to/3mvJJT5

A fantasy of magical spells, where no one is in real jeopardy.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.