I picked up this book because I received an ARC of the 3rd book in this series. I was hooked right away. As a librarian, how can I not love a series about a library!

But seriously, Jess comes to the library as a student after growing up in his father's book smuggling business. Where he was raised more as a worker/commodity, than a son.

In this world, there is the Great Library of Alexandria, which has been created to protect all the books/knowledge of the world. People are not allowed to own their own copies of books (:-0 Can you imagine such an atrocity). The Great Library gives everyone a "blank" which has an index of books in which you can read--somewhat like downloading an ebook is how I equated it. The opposing faction to this is the Burners. They want to stop the Great Library, believe everyone should have the power to read what they want, and own books. These two entities are at war. On top of that, there is actual war happening in England.

Jess, actually is a book lover, he believes they are precious, and would love to own them himself, but he is not a Burner.