Ash and Quill was one of my highest anticipated books of the year, and it definitely lived up to my expectations.
The third instalment in The Great Library series expands to new corners of Caine's hugely vast world, and I honestly can't get enough of it. We see more from the minds of the burners, as well as more from Jess' family of book smugglers, and the lines between good and bad become even more blurred in the process. Three books in, and there are still more aspects of this alternate fantasy universe to learn about, and I love it.
The characters are all back and just as beautiful and dumb and lovable. Their growing relationships is something I look forward to every book. I kind of forgot what happened from the last book (I always do) but the dynamics between the core 7 characters were what really sucked me back into the story and helped me find my place in what was happening again.
I don't think I enjoyed this book as much as Paper and Fire, which was probably my favourite in the series so far. For me it lacked a little bit of the drive the first two books had, and I couldn't help but find myself wanting the narration to be omniscient sometimes rather than limited to just Jess' perspective. I wanted to get inside the heads of the other characters a little more and see the intimate moments rather than having Jess need to be present in order for me to see them. But I think that's largely down to me just loving the characters too much and wanting as much of them as I can have.
Overall, this was an excellent continuation of one of my favourite series', and I'm so glad I'll be getting two more books of these characters and this world, because I'm definitely not ready for it to end just yet.
Diversity Note: The 7 core characters include characters from England, Wales, Germany, Spain and Italy, a Middle Eastern Muslim girl (who wears a hijab), and a M/M relationship. (Note that the book is told entirely from the perspective of the English character.)
Warnings: violence, death, blood, mentions of past torture
An ebook copy of this book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
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