Thief of Lies

“Thief of Lies” is the first in the Library Jumpers series. It had me hooked at the start but lost me a little in the middle/towards the end. Gia is a seemingly normal teenager who likes to hang out in libraries. She goes with her friends Nick and Afton to a pay for membership library in Boston, the Athenaeum, so they can work on their summer reports. At the library, she gets distracted by a hot teen (Arik) who suddenly disappears. She grabs the book he was browsing and sees that it is a book of libraries around the world. A paper falls out, and when she reads it, Gia and her friends are transported to the library on the page that was open. When they arrive, they encounter a ferocious creature, who is killed by the hot guy Gia had noticed before and some others. Gia and her friends learn that there is a whole other magical world- which will now be searching for them, since they were exposed by making the jump.

Gia learns that she is the child of two Sentinels who was prophesied to signal Doomsday. Her mother had run and hidden her since she was a baby, and though her mother died when she was four, her stepfather has raised her as his own. He was unaware of this otherworld. Every Sentinel has a Changeling which looks exactly like them and is used to replace them at birth so they can raised and trained in the magical realm. Gia’s Changeling, Diedre, was raised by Gia’s biological father, Carrig, and his fey wife, Sinead. We spend some time learning about this alternate world with wizards and other magical creatures as well as the powers a Sentinel has (they can do specific magic and have wizards in their ancestry).

There were a few things that kind of lost me about this new world which is created in the book. So, Sentinels aren’t supposed to marry each other. Instead, they are matched on birth with wizards (most frequently). Their children are then wizards apparently. So they would be distilled over many generations, just as the Sentinels are (e.g. Gia’s ancestry has wizards in it as do all Sentinels which is where their magic comes from). How are there still wizards? What is the proportion of wizard DNA needed to maintain wizards in the bloodline? Some Sentinels come from humans, so I get this is something different. I just don’t get why Gia wouldn’t be a wizard also with the recent wizards in her line vs. a technical wizard. Obviously, I am getting too bogged down in the details here. Anyway, I am not sure I totally got the magical world and how all the different species interact/exist, which I would have liked to have explained better in the book (not just the DNA but which species do what as several are mentioned without much explanation).

There also is a love triangle built between Gia, Arik, and someone else (who I won’t name to avoid spoilers) and it felt a little forced, as did the other between Nick, Afton, and someone else (who I also won’t name). It seemed like a bit too much drama, but maybe that’s just how 16 year olds are meant to be/are (I might be getting too old). It was also interesting that 16 year olds are sent to the frontlines of the magical wars, but I guess this makes sense as 16 was old way back when and we send 18 year olds to war. That being said, it really added a lot of adventure and action to the story to have them out on the front and making the calls in this brewing war. There was a lot more action in the book than I expected from the summary, and it really kept it moving quickly! The magic training, however, was definitely my favorite part, and I liked exploring the types of magic a Sentinel can have and how they use them.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I am curious to read more in the series/see how it evolves. The author has created a really complex world in this book (arguably too complex for the length of the book) and, regardless, it is a really fun adventure story. Please note that I received an e-galley from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are entirely my own.

MY THOUGHTS
I've been waiting to read this book for almost two years, when the book was titled "Library Jumpers". That was all I needed to know in order to need this book! This book wasn't as much as I hoped for, mostly due to the romance, but the fantasy elements were amazing and I did enjoy this book!

After being sucked into a book and ending up in a library in Paris, Gia's life is changed forever. They discover Sentinels, magical knights that travel across libraries to protect the human race from various creatures. Now, Gia and her friends are in danger from these creatures and rather they like it or not, they're now in this new world. Gia may be involved more than she realized.

The main idea behind this book sounds absolutely fantastic! A fantasy that is based around libraries? A booknerd's dream! I loved the idea behind this book! This book also has a very complex magic system. I thought that all the magical and fantasy elements were very interesting. They were a bit hard for me to wrap my head around at first, but in the end, I was very impressed by the world Brenda Drake created.

A lot did definitely happen in this book, which may also factor why my head was spinning so much. Gia also founds out a whole lot of stuff in a short period of time, some about the world, some about her, some about other things. There is a lot of information in this book and I still feel like I don't know anything, that there are answers that I still need. I hope my questions will be answered in the other books in the series!

Gia is a lover of libraries and a bit of a tomboy. I liked Gia. She annoyed me at points, due to the romance (which I will get to), but she was a great MC most of the time. We're thrown into this world with Gia ad both of us are still trying to understand it. She cares deeply for her friends and family, and on that thought, they too are really great characters. I can't say that I love her as a MC though. She's great, but I've read many books with similar MCs.

The romance is the main reason why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. I don't have much like with romance in books and it's very hard for me to like a romance in books because it's just so easy for an annoying trope to sneak in. This book was no different. First of all, once a guy was described as hot and with a snazzy accent, I knew that we've found the love interest. The romance just felt too much like insta-love. Arik is not a bad guy, but sometimes all I ever really felt the attraction was based on was the fact that he was really hot, because Gia thought about that a lot. I know there was more to it, but it happened so fast! Add in the fact that of course it was forbidden and of course there's so really hot French girl, with big boobs, hanging around Arik. Of course. I'm sorry, but I've getting sick of these tropes in YA. Maybe eventually, as the series continues, I'll be less annoyed. Also, another guy was introduced and is it wrong that I actually want a love triangle? I kind of want to know more about the other guy.

IN CONCLUSION
Okay, despite my annoyance with the romance, this was a great book. It introduced a very new and unique fantasy world with a very complex magic system! I enjoyed reading this book and I'm very curious what will happen next as the series continues.