Thirteen years have passed since monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged the world into a catastrophic Monster War. Now, after a ten-year reign of terror, monsters and humans have finally reached an uneasy understanding. Both sides must abide by the Monster Contract, but New York City remains a dangerous place to live. Street thief Kierse knows this better than anyone. When a lucrative job goes awry, she faces a shady figure named Graves. He’s a powerful monster Kierse has never encountered, and he’s well within his rights to kill the thief caught stealing from his house. But instead of killing her, Graves does the unthinkable: he offers Kierse a robbery job.

All Kierse has to do is sneak into the lair of a heavily guarded monster beneath the city and steal a coveted artifact from an impenetrable vault. If she succeeds, she’ll not only gain untold riches, but also have the chance to discover who she really is. It’s a deal that could easily end in capture, torture, and death. For an orphaned crook like Kierse, it’s a deal she can’t refuse. As she lives and trains alongside Graves, preparing for a dangerous job that will either save her a lifetime or make her another victim, Kierse learns there are worse things in the world than monsters. And the closer she gets to Graves, the more she realizes her fate is not only inextricably linked to his, but to something so ancient it was long thought to be a myth.

Loosely inspired by Beauty and the BeastSet in an alternate New York, KA Linde’s urban fantasy invites readers into a fascinating world of ruthless monsters and curious legends. It’s a romance full of foreboding, hinting at the impending steamy romance between Kierse and Graves right from their first contentious meeting, as well as the suggestion that Kierse unwittingly wields a power far more valuable than her thieving skills. The Wren in the Holly Library is – to use a phrase from another fantasy book – the epitome of a tale of likes wishing like. Graves and Kierse may be on opposite sides at first, but they find themselves drawn to each other physically and emotionally. Their futures were intertwined even before they first met, and every obstacle they overcome feels like another step closer to their mutual success or ruin.

I am not a delicate flower that you should not crush in the palm of your hand.”
“No, you’re as delicate as a bomb.”

While the romance between Kierse and Graves drives the story forward and shows readers softer sides of the brooding monster and the cunning thief, it’s also the part of the story that seems most familiar. If you read a lot of romance novels, the formulaic romance plays out exactly as you’d expect, with plenty of sweltering heat, poorly kept secrets, and inevitable angst. Yet it’s the lingering trauma of the Monster War backstory and the tentative peace of the current treaty that give readers something substantial to sink their teeth into. From the humans to the monsters, every central character in this book is damaged in their own way. They’re all just trying to survive in an uncertain, terrifying world, and readers don’t need to have encountered vampires, werewolves, or ghosts to understand this very human feeling.

The Wren in the Holly Library has short chapters and a fast pace, which keeps the plot moving and the romantic tension high, but it also means that many of the book’s central moments feel rushed. Kierse’s innate gift for thieving gives her the ability to slip in and out of safe rooms with enviable ease, but the very fact that she has so little trouble overcoming barriers means you never get a genuine feeling that she’s not going to make it. Kierse is a complex character, and her motives—to survive to live to see the next day and protect her friends—are understandable, but there seems to be no obstacle she can’t overcome, be it a dislocated shoulder or an inability to master the magic Graves is teaching her. Readers want characters to succeed, but we also need them to fail, and sometimes that means making them seem weakened for more than a few chapters.

There were many Beauty and the Beast Reinterpretations and The Wren in the Holly Library is a novel that stands out for its dystopian monster world, its diverse characters, its strong found family theme and the interweaving of Irish legends, which promises a whole new setting and a series of challenges for Kierse as the story progresses. If KA Linde’s series draws on these elements in unique and surprising ways, it has the potential to step out of the shadow of all the romantasy books that have come out so far. And after the exciting revelations in the final chapters, not to mention the possible hint of a love triangle, I really hope it succeeds.

★★★½

The Wren in the Holly Library was released by Tor on July 4, 2024