Format: Kindle, 400 pages
Release Date: January 5, 2016
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Source: Publisher Invitation
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels—magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books—rescue them from a demonic hound.
Jumping into some of the world's most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik's world and her own, before both are destroyed.
Thief of Lies is the first installment in author Brenda Drake's Library Jumpers series. 16-year old Gianna Kearns and her friends Nick & Afton are visiting the Boston
Athenaeum Library when Gia notices a guy who apparently vanishes into thin air. Curious, Gia picks up the book the boy was reading, Libraries of the World. After uttering the words "Apire la porta" Gia, Nick, and Afton find themselves transported to The Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Gia and her friends encounter a demonic hound that is stopped thanks to the efforts of Arik, the boy who disappeared, and his fellow Sentinels Lei, Demos, Kale, & Jaran. Sentinels are magical knights who protect libraries. Arik states that humans can't jump, so why was Gia able to use the key word to travel through a wormhole from Boston to Paris? What does the crescent brand mean? Is Gia a witch, a warlock, or something different? What Gia fails to tell anyone, is that she once experience her own magic but was told to keep silent about it.
Gia is an interesting character in that she's into fencing, can speak fluent Italian, loves being around books, and is able to take care of herself without relying on others. She's also the daughter of two Sentinels which is unheard of. She is forced to deal with a whole lot of information in a quick manner. She finds herself taken away from the only family she knows, and transported to a realm where she will be taught how to be a Sentinel. Gia is also at the center of a pretty intriguing prophecy that drives the villains actions.
The whole idea behind magical globes intrigues me, and I dare say Gia's ability to use them is too cool for school.
Unfortunately the dreaded love triangle makes its ugly self known later in the story with the arrival of Bastian, who is a wizard and someone who puts Gia into a difficult situation in choosing between Arik, and Bastian. I do believe this story is truly unique in its world building, and the various characters that are introduced. I liked the introduction of laniars like Faith who are supposed to protect Gia, along with the various factions around the globe. One can hope that this continues in the sequel.