The Wren in the Holly Library

Wren in the Holly Library, Book 1

By: K. A. Linde

Narrated by: Stephanie Németh-Parker

CAN YOU LOVE THE DARK WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT IT HIDES?

Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.

Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight.

In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce … of sorts.

But tonight, Kierse—a gifted and fearless thief—will break that treaty.

She’ll enter the Holly Library … not knowing it’s the home of a monster.

He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.

Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk.

But he’s been playing a game across centuries—and once she joins in, there will be no escape …

©2024 K.A. Linde (P)2024 Recorded Books

Almost great book

Love the story,hate all the overdone sex scenes.Will not buy the rest of series because of this, wish I had known before purchasing.

Monsters, and Inclusivity, and Magic—oh my! Pluralistic Dystopian Romantasy sans the HEA.

This is a surprisingly difficult review to write. This was such a complex and creative story—so well-written. I’ll start with what I loved about it. I always look forward to a long read/listen as long as the content is quality and the story moves along without repetition or stalling. This was one such story. It had so many different threads all woven together. It was fascinating and the characters were deep. It was a little emotional, too. Stephanie Németh-Parker was a superb narrator! It isn’t often that I find that a narrator (especially female) does such a pleasing job with multiple male voices as well as having a pleasing female voice, cadence, and tone. She was A+ (Andi Arndt level). I enjoyed the fantasy and romance—to a degree…
Now we get to the not so fun part. I trying to be cautious that I’m not overly critical because this was definitely an exciting start to a wonderful series. However, while I can understand—and even appreciate cultural trend changes in literature—call me old-school, I feel like a lot of potential is sacrificed on the feminism pyre. Sadly, we can’t have our cake and eat it, too. We can’t have a strong male without a female who is ok allowing him to be so. I give K.A. Linde some credit for doing this to some degree—since Kierse did look to Graves for strength and credited him with protecting her.
‼️🆂🅿🅾🅸🅻🅴🆁🆂‼️
However, the mysteries that began so strong just kind of fizzled out. The complexity built, but the answers and resolutions were too overwhelming-simplified. While I know it’s not even close to the same genre, I want to use JK Rowling to illustrate because the example still suits. Everything in the Wizarding World had a purpose and depth—depth that led up to events you didn’t see coming ("𐀁ℓωαʏƨ"). It wasn’t as if the author just hastily cut out a make-do puzzle piece to fit the empty space, abusing her authorial ability to create any resolution to the dramatic scenario. C.S. Lewis, whose Chronicles of Narnia were allegorical and alluded to Christianity in a similar way to how Linde incorporated symbolism from myths and religions had a narrative that followed a clearly laid out plan. Therefore, despite its fictional, even fantastical nature, there was still a clear fictional framework. My point is that there were times in this story that complex and important climactic events were solved in an over-simplified way at the author’s whim. While she was at liberty to do so, it caused a lack of intrigue for me. S. King does this a lot with his stories as well. Although he is still one of my favorite authors, I find that sometimes his creative machinations outwit his creativity for resolve, therefore, the climactic resolution is usually either nonexistent, nonsensical, or just over-simplified. There is an art to that kind of climactic “non-resolution,” and he has mastered it, but it still isn’t my favorite technique despite its tendency to spur on reader thought and imagination. I love it when authors like Douglas Lincoln and Preston Child, for example, weave complex sci-fi/fantasy scenarios and explain and resolve fictional situations in such a way as to almost make them believable because the explanations don’t seem far reaching, or just a figment of the author’s imaginations—despite them being just that.
My major issues with The Wren in the Holly Library were how I felt the author was limited by feministic and liberal persuasions, which were so obvious in her story that I sometimes felt as if I were at a liberal rally rather than in a dystopian fantasyland. As someone who has a degree in Religion, which includes extensive study of world mythologies, this was tough for me. I love the author’s creativity and how she wove all the symbols and her experiences into an intriguing, well-written story. I don’t want to detract from that, or give the impression that I did not enjoy the story. But the obvious way that the heroine “saved herself,” and left at the end to “find herself” were not so enjoyable. Perhaps it’s because I am from a different generation and appreciate different things. For that reason, romance looks different for me. I fear that the author is bringing so many elements together into the story that it’s going to be difficult to resolve them all in a satisfactory way in the future. The steamy start to the story also fizzled out pretty quickly, and despite readers saying it was a steamy story, comparatively speaking, it was somewhat mild both quantitatively and qualitatively. In the future, I would love to see less focus on liberalist, dystopia, and more focus on bringing the story together cleanly by way of a more accurate use of symbolism and myth so the resolutions don’t seem so simplified or justified, as if the author hadn’t really worked out sufficient resolution, so she just quickly made something up on the fly to pacify. I had a really difficult time with Kierse choosing her two friends over Graves simply because she accused him of not telling her that he suspected what she was—although he clearly had, and he had just forgiven her for outright lying to him. These are some of feminisms worst attributes, in my opinion. They make for a disappointing Romantasy. Perhaps by the time the next book is released, I will be over my little tantrum, and I’ll see where Linde takes us—her readers. Perhaps there will be some character development leading to maturity for Keirse. I could never get on board with the “I need to find myself, not settle by being his beloved partner” approach.

Well written

Well written start of a new series. Narrator did a very good job. I look forward to the next book

.The diverse and believable voices of the narrator.

I loved the storyline and the narrator made it all come to life. I loved this book.

Great Intro to a New Series!

I love to it's introduction to a new series. I especially love strong FMCs and Kierse certainly is that. Love me a morally grey MMC and Graves gives that in spades. The story definitely kept me engrossed, trying to figure out things out. The narrator is also aces! She differentiates characters very well. I can't wait for the next book!