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The Bookish Owl – The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman

The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman

Cower, mortals, before The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman!

(I’m running out of ideas for intros…)

I was getting a little tired of this series by the time I reached this book, but it exceeded my expectations and I enjoyed it. This could be because the overall plot was similar to Broken Melody (which I was still writing at the time) and there’s nothing I like better than relaxing with a book and calling it research.

In ‘The Mortal Word’, we got an insidious plot in the middle of a peace treaty negotiation between dragons and Fae, multiple suspects, and everyone having their own agenda. I assure you it will fill your quota for secrets and drama. There could also be werewolves, but it’s possible I’m confusing the books…


The Mortal Word
by Genevieve Cogman

When Irene returns to London after a relatively straightforward book theft in Germany, Bradamant informs her that there is a top secret dragon-Fae peace conference in progress that the Library is mediating, and that the second-in-command dragon has been stabbed to death. Tasked with solving the case, Vale and Irene immediately go to 1890s Paris to start their investigation.

Once they arrive, they find evidence suggesting that the murder victim might have uncovered proof of treachery by one or more Librarians. But to ensure the peace of the conference, some Librarians are being held as hostages in the dragon and Fae courts. To save the captives, including her parents, Irene must get to the bottom of this murder–but was it a dragon, a Fae, or even a Librarian who committed the crime?


The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman

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The Bookish Owl – The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman

The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman

I know I’m so bad about posting these, but here’s The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman.

The book is the fourth in the Invisible Library series. It has gangsters, dragons and time-traveling librarians. There’s really no way to disapprove of this combo.

Enjoy Artemis’s gangster face. Or maybe it’s his dragon face…?


The Lost Plot
by Genevieve Cogman

In a 1920s-esque New York, Prohibition is in force; fedoras, flapper dresses, and tommy guns are in fashion: and intrigue is afoot. Intrepid Librarians Irene and Kai find themselves caught in the middle of a dragon political contest. It seems a young Librarian has become tangled in this conflict, and if they can’t extricate him, there could be serious repercussions for the mysterious Library. And, as the balance of power across mighty factions hangs in the balance, this could even trigger war.

Irene and Kai are locked in a race against time (and dragons) to procure a rare book. They’ll face gangsters, blackmail, and the Library’s own Internal Affairs department. And if it doesn’t end well, it could have dire consequences on Irene’s job. And, incidentally, on her life…


The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman

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The Bookish Owl – The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman

The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman

I’m behind on these posts, but here you have The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman!

I’ve already finished this book, but I have been too sick to do the owl-wrangling required for pictures, so you’re getting the post retroactively.

Hopefully ‘retroactively’ is a proper word and not just my tired brain messing with me…

“The Burning Page” is book three in the Invisible Library series. It was not quite as good as the first book, but better than the second, and I really enjoyed the parts with Alberich. He’s a great villain, so I hope he has something more up his sleeve for the next books. We could do with some more Vale scenes, however.


The Burning Page
by Genevieve Cogman

Never judge a book by its cover…

Due to her involvement in an unfortunate set of mishaps between the dragons and the Fae, Librarian spy Irene is stuck on probation, doing what should be simple fetch-and-retrieve projects for the mysterious Library. But trouble has a tendency to find both Irene and her apprentice, Kai—a dragon prince—and, before they know it, they are entangled in more danger than they can handle…

Irene’s longtime nemesis, Alberich, has once again been making waves across multiple worlds, and, this time, his goals are much larger than obtaining a single book or wreaking vengeance upon a single Librarian. He aims to destroy the entire Library—and make sure Irene goes down with it.

With so much at stake, Irene will need every tool at her disposal to stay alive. But even as she draws her allies close around her, the greatest danger might be lurking from somewhere close—someone she never expected to betray her…


The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman

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The Bookish Owl – The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

The Masked City Genevieve Cogman

New book and it’s The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman.

That’s it. That’s all you get. It’s Monday, and it’s raining, and my head feels like it’s full of rocks, so I’m gonna need you all to work with me and pretend I just did a few cheery paragraphs about this book, okay? Okay.

Okay, okay…

It’s the sequel to The Invisible Library. Which was weird. But which I liked. And which had dragons. And robots.

There. I did the thing. I am now going back to scowling at the Monday.


The Masked City
by Genevieve Cogman

The written word is mightier than the sword—most of the time…
 
Working in an alternate version of Victorian London, Librarian-spy Irene has settled into a routine, collecting important fiction for the mysterious Library and blending in nicely with the local culture. But when her apprentice, Kai—a dragon of royal descent—is kidnapped by the Fae, her carefully crafted undercover operation begins to crumble.
 
Kai’s abduction could incite a conflict between the forces of chaos and order that would devastate all worlds and all dimensions. To keep humanity from getting caught in the crossfire, Irene will have to team up with a local Fae leader to travel deep into a version of Venice filled with dark magic, strange coincidences, and a perpetual celebration of Carnival—and save her friend before he becomes the first casualty of a catastrophic war.
 
But navigating the tumultuous landscape of Fae politics will take more than Irene’s book-smarts and fast-talking—to ward off Armageddon, she might have to sacrifice everything she holds dear…


The Masked City Genevieve Cogman

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The Bookish Owl – The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Ladies and gentlemen, I will now be reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman.

Let’s hope it’s not filled with invisible words.

This series was recommended to me on Twitter (see, Twitter is good for something) and the author is new to me… meaning I don’t really have anything to write for this post. It’s so much easier to come up with stuff when you have expectations.

So I’ll just give you a random owl fact:

Did you know that you can tell whether an owl is nocturnal or diurnal by the eyes? If they got those scary, totally black eyes, they’re nocturnal. If you can see a yellow iris, they’re diurnal. Meaning Artemis, the fellow featured on all my book photos, is diurnal.

However, no one’s told him that, so I still have to deal with night hooting.


The Invisible Library
by Genevieve Cogman

One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction…
 
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it’s already been stolen. 
 
London’s underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.
 
Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself…


The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman