Name: Liz Carpenter's review of The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman
Item: The Secret Chapter
Rating: 3
Author: Liz Carpenter

Genevieve Cogman

"In the latest novel in Genevieve Cogman's historical fantasy series, Irene and Kai have to team up with an unlikely band of misfits to pull off an amazing art heist--or risk the wrath of the dangerous villain with a secret island lair. A Librarian's work is never done, and once Irene has a quick rest after their latest adventure, she is summoned to the Library. The world where she grew up is in danger of veering deep into chaos, and she needs to obtain a particular book to stop this from happening. No copies of the book are available in the Library, so her only choice is to contact a mysterious Fae information broker and trader of rare objects: Mr. Nemo. Irene and Kai make their way to Mr. Nemo's remote Caribbean island and are invited to dinner, which includes unlikely company. Mr. Nemo has an offer for everyone there: he wants them to steal a specific painting from a specific world. He swears that he will give each of them an item from his collection if they bring him the painting within the week. Everyone takes the deal. But to get their reward, they will have to form a team, including a dragon techie, a Fae thief, a gambler, a driver, and the muscle. Their goal? The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, in a early twenty-first century world, where their toughest challenge might be each other"--

The Secret Chapter

Liz Carpenter

In the latest novel in Genevieve Cogman's historical fantasy series, Irene and Kai have to team up with an unlikely band of misfits to pull off an amazing art heist--or risk the wrath of the dangerous villain with a secret island lair. A Librarian's work is never done, and once Irene has a quick rest after their latest adventure, she is summoned to the Library. The world where she grew up is in danger of veering deep into chaos, and she needs to obtain a particular book to stop this from happening. No copies of the book are available in the Library, so her only choice is to contact a mysterious Fae information broker and trader of rare objects: Mr. Nemo. Irene and Kai make their way to Mr. Nemo's remote Caribbean island and are invited to dinner, which includes unlikely company. Mr. Nemo has an offer for everyone there: he wants them to steal a specific painting from a specific world. He swears that he will give each of them an item from his collection if they bring him the painting within the week. Everyone takes the deal. But to get their reward, they will have to form a team, including a dragon techie, a Fae thief, a gambler, a driver, and the muscle. Their goal? The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, in a early twenty-first century world, where their toughest challenge might be each other.

Kaya

Mein erstes komplett gehörtes englisches Hörbuch .

Sahi K

Every new book in the Invisible Library always brings me delight and it was no different since the time I got to know the series would be extended. And obviously receiving the ARC made me very happy. What a great way to have some fun on a weekend.

The one thing guaranteed in this series is that the story moves at a great pace, throwing one sticky situation after another at the characters, not giving them time to get complacent. This ensures that we as readers are always on our toes as well, worried what’s gonna happen next and never wanting to keep the book down. As always, there is another heist this time but involving a larger crew and I enjoyed seeing the typical heist tropes used so effectively. We get a 80s style Bond villain who is the mastermind, a master thief, a muscle, a hacker and the one running the show on the ground. It felt like watching a movie with lots of twists, not being able to guess initially who might betray whom, but ultimately figuring it all out and delighting in the knowledge. We also get us a bit more allusion to the dragon’s history which has been going on for the past couple of books now. And while I was enjoying an entertaining and predictable ride, the author completely blew my mind with the epilogue and I can only wonder what the long term consequences of those revelations are going to be. 

Irene has always been a favorite character of mine and reading more about her only made me happy. While she is her smart, witty and resourceful self when trying to get out of tricky messes, I liked getting to know her a bit more personally this time around. Her dysfunctional relationship with her parents and being involved in a task which means something personal to her showed us a bit of introspective and vulnerable side to her, and it definitely made me appreciate her more for being the kind and loyal person she is. 

We see that her relationship with Kai is going well but as we’ve come to expect, it’s the slowest burn romance ever and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. We also get quite a few Fae and Dragon cameos from the previous books, so that was fun but I missed having Vale again. The rest of the heist crew was fun to follow as well, but mostly I enjoyed watching Irene try to work with such a diverse team and figure out how to handle each of their idiosyncrasies. 

Finally, this is a thoroughly entertaining and sometimes predictable heist novel with an explosive ending and I promise you’ll have fun reading it. If you’re a fan of the series, then I would obviously recommend you to continue on this journey. If you have never read the Invisible Library series, but you love novels full of adventures and heists, supernatural creatures and an extremely smart Librarian protagonist, you should totally check this out. From the way the story ended, I hope we’ll get to know a lot more about the Library’s origins in the later books and I can’t wait.

Irene and Kai have to team up with an unlikely band of misfits to pull off an amazing art heist. Or they must risk the wrath of a dangerous villain, in his secret island lair. . . As Irene tries to manage a fraught Fae-dragon truce and her overbearing parents, she's given a hot new mission. The world where she grew up is in danger and only one book can save it. This is held by Mr Nemo, secretive Fae villain and antique dealer, so Irene and Kai travel to his Caribbean retreat to strike a deal. But in return for the book, they must steal a painting from twenty-first-century Vienna. They'll join a team of dragons, Fae gamblers and thieves, so their greatest challenge may be one another. And some will kill to protect this painting, which hides an extraordinary secret from a past age. In this bookish adventure, a Librarian spy must fall in with a nefarious group to achieve her goals. Imagine Ocean's Eleven meets James Bond with a pinch of magic. This is the sixth novel in Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library series.

Pam Sartain

The Secret Chapter by Genevive Cogman (The Invisible Library 6) is about a heist!  Irene and Kai, now representatives of the truce between the fae, dragons and librarians, are being sent off to get a book to stabilise a world that Irene is fond of.

They're going to join forces for this heist, and the job is being put together by someone who wouldn't look out of place in a Bond film as a villain!

This is fast paced, with lots of surprises and secrets! And with the change of relationship between Irene and Kai, there's added challenges to any situation!

I've been really enjoying every book in this series so far, and this book did not disappoint!

 The Secret Chapter  was published 12th November 2019, and is available from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

You can follow Genevieve Cogman on  Twitter ,  Facebook  and her  website .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Pan Macmillan.

My reviews for the other books in the series are below:

 The Invisible Library  (book 1)

 The Masked City  (book 2)

 The Burning Page  (book 3)

 The Lost Plot  (book 4)

 The Mortal World  (book 5)

Anastaciya

Wow. This was something. And actually a book that reads great on its own. The twist is very intriguing.

Rochelle Butcher

Irene and Kai have to team up with an unlikely band of misfits to pull off an amazing art heist. Or they must risk the wrath of a dangerous villain, in his secret island lair. . . As Irene tries to manage a fraught Fae–dragon truce and her overbearing parents, she’s given a hot new mission. The world where she grew up is in danger and only one book can save it. This is held by Mr Nemo, secretive Fae villain and antique dealer, so Irene and Kai travel to his Caribbean retreat to strike a deal. But in return for the book, they must steal a painting from twenty-first-century Vienna. They’ll join a team of dragons, Fae gamblers and thieves, so their greatest challenge may be one another. And some will kill to protect this painting, which hides an extraordinary secret from a past age. In this bookish adventure, a Librarian spy must fall in with a nefarious group to achieve her goals. Imagine Ocean’s Eleven meets James Bond with a pinch of magic. This is the sixth novel in Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series.

Liz Carpenter &
The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

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The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman