Book Review: Where The Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez
If you’re a fan of a cliffhanger, few books have thrown a last-minute curveball quite as wickedly as last year’s What The River Knows. With the novel’s last few pages, Isabel Ibañez left readers gasping with shock and wondering whose side reluctant hero Whitford Hayes was really on. With the release of the highly-anticipated sequel, Where The Library Hides, we discover within just a few chapters the answer to that complicated question and it sets the scene for a story that’s fuelled by betrayal, love and conflicted loyalties.
Picking up where the last book left off, we reunite with Inez Olivera in Egypt in the wake of a series of events and revelations that have left her reeling. Not only is she grappling with her beloved cousin’s murder and her mother’s devastating betrayal, but she’s still battling her uncle over her inheritance and his stubborn insistence that she returns home to Buenos Aires. Out of time and desperate to remain in Cairo, her only option is to accept her once nemesis Whit’s sudden marriage proposal. But the former British soldier has his own reason for wanting to marry Inez, and it’s got nothing to do with chivalry.
Playing into reader’s worst fears, it’s not long before Whit’s true purpose is revealed, leaving Inez – and readers – reeling once more. Yet her inner turmoil over the uncertain future of her marriage is just the beginning of this story. As Inez and Whit navigate old wounds, new duplicities and relentlessly troublesome family members, their journey takes them on a search for Cleopatra’s lost Chrysopoeia, an alchemical manuscript that could be the answer to all their problems. They’re not the only ones searching for it though, and soon they’ll need to decide between love, duty and their desperate search for the extant artefact, or risk not making it out alive.
If I married him, I would have free rein over my fate. It made my head spin. A destiny uncontrolled…Whit’s offer was appealing. And there was the other thing. The thing I couldn’t have predicted when I first set sail for Egypt. I had fallen in love with Whitford Hayes.”
Revisiting Ibañez’s vivid imagining of late 19th century Egypt for a second time is just as thrilling as the first time around. Everything is so beautifully atmospheric, from the descriptions of the fabled sights and the fragrant scents to the sprinkles of magic and mythology that add a touch of fantasy to the historic tale. Whilst the storyline isn’t quite as tightly paced as the first book, there’s such a sense of wonder and discovery threaded through the pages that not even a few overly strung-out reveals can detract from the overall enjoyment of the book.
The vibrant setting is a huge draw for readers who like to step into the world of a novel and feel as if they’re travelling to another place and time. However, it’s Inez and Whit themselves that make this such a heartfelt and romantic book. When you put two headstrong characters together, there’s always bound to be sparks. Yet the ultimate joy is seeing them not only bicker until they want to strangle each other but having them work as a united team to save one another and protect a culture that others seek to exploit.
Happy ever afters aren’t a prerequisite with books, particularly within the fantasy genre, but Isabel Ibañez indulges those of us who adore a HEA by delivering a genuinely lovely final chapter and epilogue that’s tender and hopeful – and might even tease at a spin-off featuring a certain British hero’s younger sister. That’s definitely something that fans of the books would welcome with open arms, so here’s hoping!
★★★★
Where the Library Hides was published by Hodderscape on 7 November 2024
