100 Pages A Day...Stephanie's Book Reviews

"What you send out comes back to you threefold.  It's the way of nature, the way it should be.  And we accept, welcome even, the price paid.  After the day there must be night.  After the summer, the winter."

This is the price to be paid for practicing magic, only Cait doesn't know that magic exists, or that she is a witch.  When trouble from another world suddenly erupts into the basements of the Manchester Central Library, where Cait's grandmother works, Cait must learn about another world and the magic within her- quickly.  The library houses many special books, some behind bars and some from other worlds.  It is one of these books that the terrifying undain and a team of brutal soldiers is willing to hunt down Cait, her grandmother, her mother and Cait's friend Danny, for.

First, I loved that this began in a library, what better place for a dangerous otherworldly book to be stored? I easily fell for Cait's character.  She was easily relatable and a strong character, it was fun to see her discover her magic and find strength within herself.  I do wish that we didn't leave Cait for so long when the point of view switched to the other, magical world of Andar.  There was a lot of world building, back-story and important characters to meet, that tied the story together as it moved along.  Fer and Cait's relationship was an interesting surprise.  Once the story came back into Manchester and the chase was on with the book, I was much more engaged. Also, learning all of the depth of the book, the soldiers and the ties to Andar was intriguing. The best surprise character for me was the archaeon, a literal bookworm who can supply all of the knowledge of the books it has lived in, and in our world, the world wide web.  I hope he shows up again in the next book.

I can use this book for Spring Bookish Bingo!  It has birds on the cover!  One more to bingo!