I wanted to read this book because I’m always up for discovering new authors, whilst browsing in Waterstones, this book caught my eye due to how pretty the cover was. I’m so glad that I did pick this book mainly for the cover because I fell in love with this book.  

All books, no matter their binding, will fall to dust. The stories they carry may last longer. They might outlive the paper, the library, even the language in which they were first written. But the greatest story can reach the stars. The first point of view is Evar, and he has lived his entire life trapped within a vast library, that is older than empires and larger than cities. The second point of view is Livira and she has spent her life in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where no goes and nightmares stalk. The world has never noticed them. That is all about to change.  

The way that I personally review a fantasy book is how easy it is to get into the book and how the world building is and if I get so confused that I lose the plot of the story during the book. I didn’t get confused once. I was hooked from page one. Like literally page one. This is one of the books where I wanted to dive headfirst into the book and into this world. Mark Lawrence’s writing in his book is beautiful, it was like one minute I started the book and the next it was over, and I didn’t want it to be. I love the love story between our two MCs, I think it was so adorable and innocent and with the year jumped, you were breaking my heart, and I was rooting for them to be reunited. The story was so unique, and it was so interesting, I just stay in that world forever. But both characters have their own character development and their own story within the book with their own problems and their own family and friends.  

The twists and turns had me audible gasping and just wanting more. This book was 560 pages and if it was 1000 pages, I think I would still want more – I did want more, I pre-ordered the second one almost instantly. The ending had me on the edge of my seat and all I wanted was the answers we had been looking for, we thought we found them earlier, but then we didn’t, and it was just back and forth. 

It’s one of those books where if I say one thing specific like, even though I loved it, it could spoil the whole thing. But I would recommend this book to anyone especially people who like fantasy and science fiction and books about books.