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Agnes Aubert's life running a cat shelter is turned on its head after a magical duel in the street wrecks several buildings, including her own.

This was very good Cozy Fantasy fare. I quite enjoyed it! I've always enjoyed Heather Fawcett's prose, and was able to sink into the story easily. The characters were memorable and enjoyable as well. I also sometimes enjoy a book where there's some fantastical world building but the point of view character is just a normal person.

Book 3 of this series is just filled to the brim with stuff like this. It's not subtle, and that's not a complaint. It's very much a product of today.

This is a book about books and knowledge and libraries - those kinds of meta stories can be really hard to pull off I've found, but he did a solid job.

It's also got time travel shenanigans which I love. He pulls that off well too I think.

Lots of good twists even in this book.

I cannot wait to read the rest!

I'm pretty sure Mark Lawrence just made this book up but I can never be entirely certain. Either way, great quote.

I really waffled between giving this 3 stars or 4. Consider it a 3.5.

There were parts of this book I really enjoyed, and there were parts that felt like misses. I will say the ending felt very solid and I was actually pretty happy with it. The world building was very good, and I wish there had been a bit more of it.

Some of the prose felt a little stilted. Other parts felt heartfelt and beautiful. It's hard to quantify any particular areas as being weaker than others, it was just a feeling that cropped up from time to time while reading.

I did quite enjoy the evolution of the relationships, and Zyll the goblin was an especially interesting character, but it was hard for me at times to like Fern. Being accused of being 'chronically dissatisfied' felt apt, and I don't entirely feel like that description was ever really fixed. The ending/epilogue tied off some of the emotional loose ends, but I feel like a bit more could have been done to show Fern slowly coming into what it is she truly wanted instead.

Not at a bad read at all; not something I'll probably re-read though.