【 THE ASTRAL LIBRARY 】

Genre: Fantasy (low)
Audience: Adult
Author: Kate Quinn
Published: February 2026
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 298 (hardback)

It’s no secret that I’m a great admirer of anything that Kate Quinn writes – and this is certainly no exception. This book was everything I wanted The Midnight Library to be. A magical library set in another realm (an in-between sort of realm) where you can live in your favourite novel and escape reality.

What a fun and brilliant plot. I loved the way that Quinn tackled this because it isn’t a new idea and it’s certainly been done before, and yet everything was refreshing and unique. We follow a down-on-her-luck character who’s rapidly losing what control she has left on her life. She’s had almost nothing but disappointments in her life and is ready for a miracle to save her.

And without giving any specifics of the plot away, she finds herself at the Astral Library. This is the life-changing experience she so desperately needs to turn things around.

I had some set ideas about what I thought this book was going to be about, and I have to say, it diverged quite drastically from that idea very early on (to my delight). Quinn surprised me by taking what seemed to be, at first, a highly predictable plot, and changing it into the adventure of a lifetime, and definitely not one the reader sees coming. I also loved how relatable Alix is – she acts exactly how any bookworm would when faced with a magical library.

But rest assured, there are plenty of bookish worlds that we get to explore and waltz through as the plot progresses. I loved the caveat that you could only travel into worlds where the book was in the public domain – I thought that was a very fun little addition to the story (and let’s face it, needed from Quinn’s point of view!)

I listened to the audiobook version and the narration was brilliant. Narrated by the same narrator as all of Quinn’s other books, Saskia Marrleveld, it was a fantastic audiobook experience and I highly recommend it.

If you’re looking for a magical adventure that heavily involves books and the worlds within their pages, then this is very much so the book for you. Vastly different from anything else she’s written, this still holds up to Quinn’s signature style of a compelling, high-stakes plot that is rich in detail and enriched by complex and fully developed characters.

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Title: The Astral Library
Author: Kate Quinn
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From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.

Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives…inside their favorite books.

The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?