Thank you for Netgalley, Victory Editing, and Amelia Spencer for letting me receive an arc of this book. To be honey, I am a bit iffy towards how i should rate this book since there were parts that were really boring and other parts that were really interesting. But I might say that I’ll probably tune in for the second book especially because I am intrigued over the romance sub plot in this book.

Also her friend Maya deserves better!!

Secrets of the Catalogue is set an a world similar to our own, only it's populated with Librarians who are able to enter and exit books at will. It follows the story of Emerson Blackwell, a newly discovered Librarian as she chases the truth behind the Libarians' motives.

The things I liked about the book:
- It was extremely fast-paced, so there wasn't much downtime to be bored in.
- The worldbuilding and concepts were relatively original and unique, and I found them enticing.
- It ended on a cliffhanger that left me excited for book two!
- None of the characters were insufferable to listen to.
- The descriptions were vivid and I could easily picture some of the more unique characters.
- There were aspects of the plot that I really enjoyed (but I can't say without spoilers).
- It was a short and easy read.

The things I thought needed work:
- Although I appreciated the fast pacing, it could be easy to get lost because sometimes scenes shifted within a sentence and if I wasn't paying close attention, I wouldn't know what was happening.
- Some of the worldbuilding was a bit vague at times. Also, there's an entire world of books to jump into and the two main "stories" the protagonists are both high fantasy with elves and Fae. As a fantasy reader, I was okay with this but I feel as though there could've been more variety.
- None of the characters felt fully fleshed out - even Emerson, although she was the POV character.
One more thing that's not a criticism, but the book felt very YA in some of its plot structure and character development. I can't tell if it's supposed to be adult (because all of the characters are older) or YA, but if it's going to be marketed as adult fantasy, it might not appeal to some more critical readers.

Overall, I gave this book a 3.5 stars, and I'd be interested to pick up book two when it comes out. Great read for fans of James Riley's "The Story Thieves" who are looking for an adult series. It also reminds me a bit of Cassandra Clare's "Shadowhunters" series.

As a librarian, I'm a sucker for books like this. Books about someone who comes across a secret library and has the ability to enter the book itself?! How cool. Pacing of the story was good, jumped you right into the story. Would read more by this author.

Secrets of the Catalogue by Amelia Spencer is a fantasy novel about Emerson Blackwell, a directionless young woman who moved to NYC after losing her mother in a fire, who discovers a secretive library and learns that all may not be as it seemed with her mother’s death.

I always love books about books so I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold up to its promise for me. The novel throws the reader in very quickly. We get a couple scenes of Emerson’s life before she discovers the library. I would have liked to have seen more, we don’t get much of a sense of her friend or Emerson’s broken heart before we are suddenly tossed into the new world.

The novel had all the elements needed and they hit in the right places, but the pacing just felt off. Like it was a story not fully developed. For example, the challenges that Emerson faced all had simple hand wavy solutions (the bears can read your mind, we just fell out of a book, etc). I would have loved more.

Overall, I’d say the book had a good concept but fell flat for me. It reminded me a lot of Peng Shepherd’s The Cartographers, disappearing mother and all, but wasn’t executed as well. I enjoyed exploring the other worlds contained within the books, though it didn’t feel like there were enough of them, and I don’t feel attached enough to Emerson or any of the others to care how it turned out.

Favorite quote: “The banned books don’t even hold real worlds. They’re fiction. That’s why the inhabitants are so messed up.”

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Pros:
- Truly fascinating world of magic I would have loved to have seen more of.
- Mom’s story is interesting and I would have liked to see more of that as well.

Cons:
- Not a lot of lead up, the reader is just thrown into the world after a couple scenes description of how miserable Emerson’s life is.
- The hand wavy explanations bothered me. It would have been fun if some of them, such as the grizzlies, came with challenges and weren’t explained away with “they know where they’re going and won’t abandon you.”

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

I'm always keeping an eye out for the next 'Harry Potter'--a book that is a mix of real life 'stuff' and magic. Sort of like realistic fantasy? Anyway, "Secrets of the Catalogue" is a contender, as it is an interesting premise--individuals known as the Librarians have the ability to 'jump in' to the world of a certain book. Our heroine, Emerson, discovers a surprise in one of the books, and this leads her to try to figure out who is telling her the truth about the secrets of the catalogue and who isn't.

I liked much of this book: there's a bit of romance mixed in as well, the descriptions of the book worlds were very vivid. and I loved the premise of being able to 'jump' into a book. I have to say I found the two warring factions described in the book (the Central library and the Foundation) difficult to understand in terms of what was going on, and there was a lot in this book that was NOT resolved at the end, which also kind of annoys me.

I'd give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. I will probably read the next in the series because of all the unresolved stuff.