Serena’s Review: “The Wren in the Holly Library”

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Book: “The Wren in the Holly Library” by K. A. Linde

Publishing Info: Entangled: Red Tower Books, June 2024

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: Can you love the dark when you know what it hides? Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.

Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight. In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce…of sorts.

But tonight, Kierse—a gifted and fearless thief—will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library…not knowing it’s the home of a monster. He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.

Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk. But he’s been playing a game across centuries—and once she joins in, there will be no escape…

Review: I was excited to check this one out when a publicist reached out with a copy for review! For one thing, the cover is lovely, and I’m always happy to have more pretty books. On top of that, either the author or the publisher knew what they were doing to pique a librarian’s interest: 1.) simply include the word “library” in your title (yes, we are that easy to please) and 2.) blurb the book as a vague re-telling of “Beauty and the Beast.” You know, the story where the hero gifts the heroine an actual library. So, let’s see how this all bore out!

While this wasn’t quite the perfect read I was hoping for, there was still a lot of really good stuff included, so let’s start with all of the positives. One of the first things that stood out to me was the unique world-building. I very much enjoyed the modern urban fantasy setting and the way the author played with the idea of a New York City that is still recovering from a massive reveal: that monsters are real. Especially in the first section of the book, we spend a decent amount of time roaming the streets with our main character and her friends, exploring all the various ways in which this shift in reality affected every bit of society. In some ways, nothing has changed, with the rich still able to essentially buy their way out of the monster problem. But in a myriad of more subtle ways, the entire culture of the city has shifted, from the lack of a night life to the delicate balance of politics at play between the city’s human and monster populaces. I very much appreciated how much time and effort the author put in to creating this world, and it was one of the things that really pulled me through the first half of the book when I was struggling a bit with the pacing and character work.

The characters were a bit more of a mixed bag. On one hand, I liked the fact that many of the characters, especially our two main leads, were truly morally grey characters. Our heroine essentially spends the first bit of the book telling readers that she got into theft simply because she enjoyed stealing, full stop. And then turned out to be good at it, hence her job. Unlike “bestest best assassins” who never kill anyone and when they do they then break down with massive internal crises, I appreciated that the author simply allowed her characters to be a bit questionable. This is a dark world, and in many ways, we see again and again that only those able to adapt have even survived up to this point.

That said, I did struggle to really connect to Kierce (weird name alert). In the first chapter, I really enjoyed her. She meets the mysterious love interest, and, overall, manages herself well, being both reasonable in her actions, entertaining in her commentary, and, notably, not simply overcome by good looks as so many heroines seem to be. That said, as the story continued, I struggled more and more to maintain my interest. Part of the problem, I think, is that shortly after this first chapter, Kierce goes back into the world and the reader is quickly introduced to a huge cast of supporting characters, all with various connections to Kierce and her life. It simply became overwhelming, and given how many of them there were, I was never quite sure where I was supposed to be directing my interest. Further, because so many characters are introduced quickly, many of them felt like they were presented in a flurry of “check box traits lists” before the reader was hurried on to meet the next one.

This wasn’t helped by the very nature of the story; that it, it’s one chock full of betrayal and secrecy. That being the case, for most of the read, I was left feeling off-balance and, again, unable to connect to any of these characters as they were constantly revealing/withholding information and betraying one another, to the point that it was almost easier to disconnect a bit than to try to keep track of motivations on an individual basis.

And, lastly, I didn’t particularly enjoy the spicy scenes in this one. The dialogue in these scenes, especially, felt a bit cringe-y to me. But this is an incredibly subjective area, so I’m sure other readers will not struggle with it the way I did.

All of that said, I do think this book has potential as the beginning of a series. The world-building was interesting and the writing was fairly strong throughout. Honestly, I think this will be a hit for a lot of urban fantasy fans who are looking for a spicy romance read as well. I struggled with some of the character work, but I’m also hopeful that some of this is now resolved in this first book and I will enjoy the sequel more. If this one has been on your TBR list, it’s probably worth checking out!

Rating 7: An intriguing world people with truly morally grey characters, though perhaps a bit too keen to betray and withhold information from one another.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Wren in the Holly Library” should be on this Goodreads list: Speculative Fiction Heist/Caper Stories