The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

#TheAstralLibraryDeluxeLimitedEdition #NetGalley

I loved Quinn’s novel, The Rose Code, and, after that one, I have always read her books. I enjoyed The Briar Club but it did not displace The Rose Code as my favorite. Now Quinn has written The Astral Library; this one is different from her earlier books that offered suspenseful historical fiction.

This time, Quinn has written a novel with some elements of fantasy. Main character Alix travels to the Astral Library which is like no library I know of-I only wish that it were real. How does Alix get there?

Well, Alix’s mother left her to the vagaries of the foster care system. Note that Quinn clearly sees the flaws in this system for those who are in need. Alix (names Alexandria for the famous library) has had one consolation only in her young life and that has been reading, reading, reading.

When the story opens, Alix is struggling financially and emotionally. One day, when at the Boston Public Library, she accesses the Astral Library meeting with it idiosyncratic head. Alix is told that she can choose to enter the world of any one book. (Read the story to find out what she chooses). While in the library Alix faces danger and adventure. She visits books and times that are real for her in these moments. For example, Alix visits Sherlock Holmes and the world of Huck Finn. In another plot in this novel, Alix enters paintings as, for example, one by Thomas Cole.

What will happen to both Alix and the Library? What will her life be like by the end of this novel? Readers will hope that her life improves. I know that there is one character that I hope she will be involved with long term (again no spoiler so won’t say who).

This book is part of what seems like a recent genre to me in which people enter the world of books or a character from a novel appears in the life of a book’s protagonist. This is a trend that I have enjoyed.

Those who can roll with this story without questioning how the events could happen will enjoy a book with lots of mentioned literature and art. These are elements that I enjoyed.

Note too that a theme of this novel is body positivity. Alix is a size 22 and there is someone she knows who makes a gorgeous blue dress for her. There is also commentary on the importance of libraries and the importance of all kinds of books being available to all.

I recommend this book to those who like their books to have that books within books vibe.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 26 February 2026

Description:

from the publisher

This stunning DELUXE LIMITED EDITION is only available on the first printing while supplies last! The collector’s hardcover features stenciled edges, illustrated endpapers, and jacket effects.

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?