The Astral Library

Alexandria Watson, called Alix, grew up in the foster-care system and decided early that books are safer than people. As an adult she juggles three poorly paid jobs, and college feels out of reach. Each night she retreats to the reading room of the Boston Public Library, where she loses herself in fantasy novels.

One evening she goes through a hidden door and meets the Librarian, an ageless and sharp-tongued woman who guards a secret library. People who are desperate or lost come to it to start over inside the pages of their favorite books. The Librarian takes the dazzled Alix under her wing and prepares her for a new life.

That plan stalls when a shadowy enemy appears and threatens everyone the Astral Library has ever sheltered. Alix and the Librarian run, helped by the owner of a costume shop. Their flight takes them into three novels: the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen, the alleys of Sherlock Holmes, and the champagne parties of The Great Gatsby.

The book is a fantasy adventure that moves between Boston and famous fictional worlds, with a chase running underneath. The danger grows closer with every escape, and the question driving it is whom the enemy really wants to destroy: Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself.