Book: The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman

Published December 2015 by Tor|340 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the paperback from the library

Series: The Invisible Library #2

Genre: Adult Fantasy/Steampunk

Librarian-spy Irene is working undercover in an alternative London when her assistant Kai goes missing. She discovers he’s been kidnapped by the fae faction and the repercussions could be fatal. Not just for Kai, but for whole worlds.

Kai’s dragon heritage means he has powerful allies, but also powerful enemies in the form of the fae. With this act of aggression, the fae are determined to trigger a war between their people – and the forces of order and chaos themselves.

Irene’s mission to save Kai and avert Armageddon will take her to a dark, alternate Venice where it’s always Carnival. Here Irene will be forced to blackmail, fast talk, and fight. Or face death.

I liked The Masked City, but not as much as I thought I would.  I think I liked the first one more, but I found myself a little more bored reading it.  I had a harder time getting into this book, and that made me a little sad, since I really like the premise of a librarian-spy.

It is an alternate Venice, and I liked the Venice we see in the book.  Instead of a Victorian-steampunk setting, we get an alternate carnival setting, and one of the interesting things about this series is the potential to see the different realities and dimensions the librarians have to go to for their missions.

I think maybe I wanted more time in the library, and less time in the world said library is in.  I just really wanted more about the library, but since there are more books, there’s a chance we’ll be spending more time in the library itself.  I think I just wanted more balance between the library and the different dimensions.  And as much as I want to keep going, I don’t know that I want to immediately read the next book in the series.  I’m sure I’ll get back to it eventually…or maybe I should try the audio book?  I suddenly had the thought that maybe it’s a series I need to listen to, and not read.

It is entertaining and fun and light, and it would be great to read over the summer.  They’re really good summer reads.  Or just good vacation reads in general.

3 stars.  I liked it, but it didn’t have the same appeal that The Invisible Library had.