by Georgia Summers
First sentence: “
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Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Release date: November 18, 2025
Content: There is a lot of violence and swearing, including many f-bombs. There is also one closed-door sex scene. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Cassandra Fairfax never expected much out of her life once she left Chiron’s bookshop. She was a thief – dealing mostly in the magic books that had once been her livelihood at the bookshop- and, with one bad night, she was a killer. But then she got a letter from Chiron willing her his bookshop – again, something she never expected. Except, he was murdered. And the magic bookshops on the river are failing. And maybe Cassandra isn’t cut out to live a non-criminal life. Then again: maybe she’s the only one who can save the magic from disappearing from the world altogether.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I really liked the magic system – there are magic books (not ones with instructions, but regular books that just happen to have magic properties) that can be bought (not necessarily with money) in bookshops that you can only find if they are needed. There are readers – Cassandra is one – who can read from the books and make the power come out. It’s dangerous – there’s an instance early on when a reader read a sleeping-beauty-like book, and it was taking over the house and the owners had to go in and fix it. It wasn’t hard to follow, and Summers did a good job implementing the benefits and detriments as she went along, so by the final conflict, there was a lot at stake.

And it kept me interested. I liked the characters – and there are many intriguing characters to like and dislike – and while I thought for a while that Summers wasn’t going to be able to wrap the story up, she did in a very satisfactory way.

I’d love another book in this world, not because it needs one, but because I’m fascinated with the world she created.

Highly recommended.