The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg

As I was reading, I would have given it 4 stars maybe, but the end caught me off guard and left me feeling a bit frustrated.

First of all, I adored the treasure they were after, and I enjoyed the basic idea of the library (anyone who's watched The Librarians or read other recent magic-library books will be familiar!). However, I had trouble with the 1st person pov character, Neith. She tells us that she is super tough and reckless and Indiana-Jones-esque, but she doesn't show herself being that way very often. Mostly, she's just a concerned & frustrated leader of her team – which is fine, but she kept making really bold statements that threw me for a loop each time.

Also – this is minor, but stuck in my craw – Neith's opinion about death/murder/morals was very confusing. She talks a big talk about not caring about eating meat despite most of her culture being against it, and about shooting people, etc. But then she never really shoots anyone, and she clearly feels super superior over everyone in “beta earth” (our world) for being so violent. She also says that “morals are optional for curators” about 75% of the way through the book after acting – again, not talking, but acting – as the noble hero up to that point.

In any case. I had expected the book to be a fun artifact-finding adventure, but the end was more of a political drama. Plus, the real culprits do not get caught! Honestly I wouldn't have picked the book up if I had known about the internal drama aspect – that's just not my thing. Twist endings are fine, but I'm not the right reader for political stories. Plus, Neith was pretty hardheaded and ignorant about it all, which was hard to read. I know it's setting up another book, but personally I hate having so much of the plot unresolved.

And I must admit – as some other reviewers have pointed out – there were some editing issues that I found distracting. Mostly it's head-hopping in 3rd person pov. Not a big deal, but it did throw me out of the story, especially because the book is structured almost like a professional report, so such errors are out of place.

All in all, the set up was interesting, but the characters and narration could have used some more work. Until the last few chapters it's a fun read for a quick escape, but I'm not sure I'll trust the next one.