The Book That Held Her Heart

Though I did enjoy The Book That Broke the World, it was the first time that anything written by Lawrence seemed to suffer from the infamous middle book syndrome. It was another solid effort, which isn't surprising given the author's track record. But it did suffer from the same shortcomings found in The Book That Wouldn't Burn, mainly that the storylines occasionally appeared to be meandering a little aimlessly in certain portions of the tale.

The first installment was Lawrence's longest published work thus far. Up until that point, I had always felt that the author was concise and none of his scenes were ever overwritten. Unfortunately, throughout the Library Trilogy several sequences feel a bit extraneous or longer than they need to be. This problem is exacerbated by the multiple points of view needed to convey the story in its entirety. Lawrence excels at first person narratives and in my opinion that's one of the aspects that made his previous novels so captivating. He may not be as comfortable tackling numerous perspectives, or for some reason a certain depth of character appears to get lost when he must juggle diverse POVs. In any event, something I can't quite put my finger on seems to be missing from this new series compared to the rest of the author's body of work. And the he same can be said of this third volume. Although Lawrence comes up with another engrossing finale and a somewhat heartbreaking ending, I still have mixed feelings about The Book That Held Her Heart and the series as a whole.

Here's the blurb:

The secret war that defines the Library has chosen its champions and set them on the board.

The fate of an infinite library hangs on one book, a book that holds the power to break the unbreakable. In the face of such forces, fragile things like hearts, family, and the world seem certain to fail.

The people most vital to Livira are scattered across time and space, lost, divided into factions, in mortal peril. Somehow, she must bring them together and resolve the unresolvable argument that fuels the library’s war. The bond between Livira and Evar has stretched and stretched again. Can it hold at the end, when things fall apart? Can it bring them together against impossible odds? This is the last chapter, the final page. The end threatens and no one, not characters, readers, or even the author, will emerge unscathed.

As mentioned in my previous review, at the heart of this latest series lies an infinite library containing all the knowledge ever written down. We now know that this library is connected to other such repositories across the entire known universe and across time itself. The implication behind such a need is that all species, no matter where and when a certain technological level is reached, will always elevate warfare to a point where they end up on the brink of extinction. And given their inevitable quest toward self-destruction, can this cycle ever be reversed? We learned that the very first library by was built by Irad, the grandson of Cain and thus the great-grandson of Adam and Eve. Jaspeth, his brother, believes that the library glorifies the original sin of knowledge and seeks its destruction. In a clash that echoes down through the ages, the library has become the symbol of the war waged by the two brothers, a conflict opposing knowledge and ignorance. You may recall that The Book That Broke the World ended with the creation of three portals by Hellet's death at the hands of his sister's monstrous automaton. Through one of these, Mayland took those who would like to see the library destroyed. Through another went Livira, Yolanda and others, seeking to save the library. Finally, Yute and Kerrol escaped through the third portal, both of them seeking a compromise that could end the conflict between the two factions.

I wasn't expecting yet another perspective to be added to what I consider an already too large cast, but the introduction of Anne Hoffman at the beginning of The Book That Held Her Heart really set the tone for this final volume. You would think that including the POV of a teenage Jewish girl just as the Nazis are about to take over Germany would be somewhat discordant, but you would be wrong. This truly was a master stroke on Lawrence's part, one which allowed him to weave fascism, antisemitism, and book-burning into an already multi-layered story. And even if she only appears in a few chapters, Anne shines in a way that overshadows the rest of the cast, Evar and Livira included. Speaking of these two, the trilogy's main protagonists, they find themselves in different timelines and dimensions and they do their best to try to save the library and get reunited somehow. The whole cast find themselves in various wheres and whens, and Lawrence must needs rely on multiple points of view to keep readers apprised of everything that's occurring. Once more, the absence of a certain kind of balance between the POVs impacts the overall reading experience to a certain extent. At first, I believed that we had dodged that particular bullet when the author went for another interracial romance in the second installment, but I should have known it was coming. Thankfully, unlike let's say Richard Morgan, Lawrence keeps everything understated in the brief interracial sex scenes found in this book.

The Book That Held Her Heart takes us on another journey across time and space. Once again, the novel does suffer from pacing issues, especially at the beginning and in the middle. But everyone should know by now that Mark Lawrence is a strong finisher and I wasn't disappointed by the series' conclusion. I was afraid that the author was steering us towards a "they lived happily ever after" sort of ending, which would have cheapened the whole thing. No, instead of delivering a rousing endgame and an exciting finale, as is usually his wont, Lawrence went for a more bittersweet and heartbreaking ending which was just what the Library Trilogy needed.

It will be interesting to see where Lawrence takes us next. There's probably another series already written and ready to be published, so I figure we can expect something new in 2026. In the end, I realize that I have mixed feelings with the Library Trilogy because I never quite connected with its protagonists the way I did with Jorg, Jalan, Snorri, Nona, Yaz, etc. In my humble opinion, Mark Lawrence just shines more when he writes first person narratives. Hence, the multiple POVS didn't work as well for me. And though I was invested in the tale itself, I always felt that the characterization left a little something to be desired. Them's the breaks, I guess, and your mileage will vary in that regard.

With six trilogies and a number of short stories under his belt since 2011, Mark Lawrence has yet to disappoint. Definitely looking forward to whatever he has in store for us!

The final verdict: 7.5/10

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.