Review: Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

When I moved my blog to WordPress, this review didn’t move with it even though I was quite sure I moved all of my posts. That’s why I’m re-uploading it now.

Title: Paper and Fire
Series: The Great Library #2
Author: Rachel Caine
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Goodreads

Let the world burn.

With an iron fist, the Great Library controls the knowledge of the world, ruthlessly stamping out all rebellion and, in the name of the greater good, forbidding the personal ownership of books.

Jess Brightwell has survived his introduction to the sinister, seductive world of the Library, but serving in its army is nothing like he envisioned. His life and the lives of those he cares for have been altered forever. His best friend is lost, and Morgan, the girl he loves, is locked away in the Iron Tower, doomed to a life apart from everything she knows.

After embarking on a mission to save one of their own, Jess and his band of allies make one wrong move and suddenly find themselves hunted by the Library’s deadly automata and forced to flee Alexandria, all the way to London.

But Jess’s home isn’t safe anymore. The Welsh army is coming, London is burning, and soon, Jess must choose between his friends, his family, and the Library, which is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone in the search for ultimate control…

I am so so happy that I got a chance to read the e-arc of Paper and Fire via Netgalley, because I don’t know if I could have waited any longer to read this. Ink and Bone is my favourite read of 2016 so far, so Paper and Fire had a lot to live up to, and boy, it succeeded. This book was amazing. A-MA-ZING. I loved every single second I spend reading this book, and every single sentence made me fall in love with this series even more.

Much like the first book, Paper and Fire was action-packed, very fast paced and highly addictive. In this novel, we follow Jess and his friends after they’ve survived their introduction to the Library, and now all have their very own position in it’s ‘society’. When they find out that one of their own is in great danger, they embark on a journey to save them, and they find themselves becoming enemies of the Library. While being hunted by the Library, including some very badass lion automatons, more and more of the Libary’s secrets begin to unravel.

While I did prefer the first book, Paper and Fire was very enjoyable (to say the least). The characters are still my favourite thing about this book. That, and the world building. Both are done very well, and all of the characters have such a distinct voice that, even if the book wouldn’t have said which character spoke a certain sentence, you still would’ve known. Sadly, there is one character who I don’t really care for, which is our main character Jess. It’s not that I don’t like him, I just don’t really care for him. Same goes for the romantic relationships in this book; they never really gave me butterflies, or any feelings at all. Except for Wolfe and Santi’s romance, but I think that’s mainly because of this short story.

Even though there were a few aspects of this book that I didn’t love, I still very much enjoyed this book. Well, ‘very much enjoyed’ doesn’t really capture it. I couldn’t put this book down and it kept me up for many hours,and it got me out of a mini reading-slump, so that’s a lot more than ‘very much enjoyed’; I loved it.

So, if you haven’t started reading this series yet; what are you waiting for?

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