"What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world?" I think that tagline sold a lot of people on this book, or at least convinced them that it was something that they might be interested in. I know it hooked me. Which is why I was delighted to receive a review copy from Prime Books via Netgalley.

So how well does it live up to that tagline? Moments of subtle wry humor, the mythological mashup of the setting (a universe where tales have tangible power), women bonding because of shared adventures — I liked all these things. If you were hoping for Lara Croft-style badassery in a library, that won't be exactly what you'll find here. You will see women characters who have to deal with difficult situations. Mercy has to cope with an apparition loose in her library and a geas from an unexpected source, while worrying about her missing mothers. Shadow finds herself possessed by a demon and coerced into working for the Shah, who rules the quarter of the city where she lives. Gremory has to undertake a difficult mission for her demonic superior, Astaroth. And they — as well as the mage Darya — must cope with the power-hungry machinations and manipulations of the Abbot of the Court, Jonathan Deed.

This is very much the beginning of a trilogy. There are many unanswered questions about the characters and what some of the antagonists want even at the end. It would be easy to confuse this with a lack of character depth. In the case of this book's main villain, I think that's not completely unjustified. But I'm willing to wait and see what the next novels bring us before I make up my mind about the protagonists. My sense is that in this book, Williams refrained from using the dreaded info-dump, preferring in most cases to drop clues along the way, breadcrumb-like, as events unfolded.

This novel will demand a certain amount of patience from the reader. The first few chapters in particular involve a lot of skipping around from character to character and place to place after a relatively short number of pages, and Williams is by no means eager to hand all the answers to questions about the characters and the setting to the reader. She does paint gorgeous word-pictures, though. If the deft use of words makes you happy, and you can wait until fairly late in a book to get answers to things that may confuse you at first, you should give this a try.

3.5. What happens in the following novels will determine for me whether this is ultimately a 3- or a 4-star book.

Things I'm curious about regarding the next novel: will the dove motif continue? Have we really seen the last of (view spoiler)[Darya (hide spoiler)]? I hope not and I have a theory that she is the (view spoiler)[disir from the beginning of the book. Paradox anyone? (hide spoiler)] And will Mercy (view spoiler)[get more information about her ancestry, either from her mother or from Mareritt, if she should choose to reappear? What does the Shah have in mind for Shadow? How will Astaroth react to Gremory's failure? Will Loki try again to gain control of Worldsoul? (hide spoiler)]