2019/06: The Burning Page -- Genevieve Cogman

'I have spent most of my life preferring books to people,' Irene said sharply. 'Just because I like a few specific people doesn't change anything.' [p. 332]

After the events of The Masked City, Irene has been put on probation, which means that she and her apprentice Kai get all the most tedious and / or dangerous jobs. The Library, meanwhile, is under attack: and although Irene fears that she's a priority target (she read a secret in a book, and now she knows too much) her superiors don't agree.

The Burning Page is rather less hectic than The Masked City, but Irene and Kai do get to travel, and chase, and be chased. They visit a version of Imperial Russia, where Irene's book-acquisition is stymied by the fact that the Empress has borrowed the key volume as bedtime reading: 'I do feel a bit guilty about snatching it mid-read from someone's bedside table'.

Meanwhile, Peregrine Vale is suffering the after-effects of events in the previous book, and finding himself strangely drawn to likeable-but-untrustworthy Fae Lord Silver. And someone known to both Vale and Irene may be betraying their secrets to the mastermind behind the Library's troubles.

I enjoyed this more than The Masked City: it's light reading, true, but the prose and dialogue are witty and the characters interesting. I'm looking forward to the fourth and fifth volumes, though trying not to buy more e-books unless they've dropped in price on Amazon. Never say never, though ...