Joanna and Esther are sisters who were raised around books. Magical books. Books full of spells – add a drop of blood, read them aloud, and anything can happen. You could become invisible, make your houseplants sprout golden blossoms, protect your home. Or something more sinister.

Joanna has a gift – she can “hear” the hum of magical books, and she and her father have amassed a collection. A collection that needs to be protected, and Joanna has remained at their family, locked behind powerful wards, doing just that.

Esther’s only magical gift seems to be that magic doesn’t work on her. None of the spells that her father reads from the books in his collection has ever had any effect. Joanna wonders if that’s why she left home at 18 and has never been back.

The truth is more complicated and more dangerous than either of them know.

Nicholas is a Scribe; he can write the spells that fill the books. He is the heir apparent to The Library – a vast collection of these books, dating back centuries, and protected by his family. His world and the world of Joanna and Esther are about to collide.

Esther is in Antarctica, her latest temporary home, when she discovers that someone else on the base is using magic. Joanna is home in Vermont when she finds her father dead in their front yard, clutching a dangerous book, leaving only a cryptic note behind. Nicholas is essentially a prisoner in his English manor house, protected from those who would steal him and use his gifts.

Their separate stories slowly begin to intertwine, bringing the sisters back together, revealing family secrets, and uncovering a world of magic and menace they never knew existed.  

This was a lovely read, full of magic and secrets, the sort of story that makes you wish that there really was a reality beyond what we know, some secret world that we could somehow inhabit. This book was from my personal library and you can find it on Amazon.