C.J. Archer

A very trite story with a narrative that focuses on too many plot points: is it a crime and intrigue saga? Is it a romance or a fantasy with magical abilities? Maybe some social justice in the aftermath of WWI and its impact on societal norms in England? Oh wait, it's an art heist with the murkiest of motives and cardboard characters with no thread of events to connect the dots. And thus the novel is fractured, suspending reader engagement with unresolved vignettes strung together. The final chapter did no favours to bring a satisfactory ending, either.… (mere)

The second book in The Glass Library fantasy series centers around the discovery of a book in code that might unlock some secrets about Sylvia's past. Sylvia came to London after the deaths of her brother and mother to try to find out about her heritage. Her mother kept the three of them moving from place to place all through her life and didn't share any information with her children about her own past. Her brother began to believe that they were the descendants of a silver magician. Sylvia wants to find out if this is true.

As a result of the influence of new friend Gabriel Glass, Sylvia is now working at a job she loves in the Glass Library which is a repository of books about magic. When a new book is discovered in the library's attic, Sylvia and her new friends try to find out the book's history and try to decipher its contents which are written in an unknown code.

This story is set in 1920 and does deal with a lot of the issues returning soldiers had. Shell shock and a sense of hedonism were just some of things soldiers brought home with them. And for women who had entered the workplace while the men were away, there is a sense of displacement as they lose their jobs and purposes when the men return. One of the characters mentions that he hadn't been sober since his demobilization, for example. Add in magic which has recently been rediscovered and which only a small percent of the population has, and this story becomes historical fantasy.

Gabriel is also in the process of ending his three-year engagement to the daughter of a magical family. He knows he made a mistake and isn't the man he was when he became engaged. However, his fiance Ivy isn't going to go quietly. Gabriel, the only son of a noble magical house, is quite a catch even though he believes that he has no magic himself.

When the book is stolen, Gabriel and Sylvia and their friends follow all sorts of clues and explore various parts of London before they manage to recover it. And an assortment of bright friends of Gabriel do manage a translation of what turns out to be medieval/early Renaissance gossip. Translating the book is sort of anticlimax since the key seems to be Sylvia discovering that she does have some sort of magic if not the silver magic her brother thought the family had.

This is the second book of a five-book series. It really doesn't stand alone well and needs to be read along with the other books in the series. I am eager to continue the series to find out what sort of magic Sylvia has and whether her budding relationship with Gabriel grows.… (mere)