Man, this trilogy is a disappointment. After loving book 1, the sequels could never recapture that magic for me. This book was too short for its ambition. There is WAY too much going on, way too many characters in way too many timelines doing way too much jumping around to satisfy this story in 350 pages. It was also so convoluted that I struggled to care about half the things happening. A new POV was introduced and while that POV was ultimately unnecessary, I actually enjoyed that POV more than most of the others in this book.

There's a book I love somewhere with the rough outline and shape of this book. But it was never to be.

6/10

The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence is a stunning and emotionally charged conclusion to The Library Trilogy, delivering a powerful story that left me with a multitude of emotions. This final installment brings to a mighty and thought-provoking close a tale centered around a great and infinite library, its fate hanging in the balance as forces for destruction, preservation, and unexpected alternatives clash across multiple realities, races, and timelines.

Lawrence masterfully weaves a complex narrative that spans time and place, including a compelling new perspective of a young girl who once ran a bookshop before devastating events disrupted her life. This blending of real-world history with a fantastical universe feels natural. It enriches the narrative’s core themes: the ongoing battle between knowledge and ignorance, the power of stories, and the importance of choice.

The characters, many of whom we’ve come to know and love in previous books, face heartbreak and sacrifice, and the emotional rollercoaster they take us on is both wrenching and rewarding. Livira and Evar’s journeys are deeply explored. Still, we also see new relationships and perspectives emerge, especially with characters like Celcha, Mayland, Yute, and Kerrol, whose differing views on the library’s future add layers of moral complexity and hope for solutions beyond destruction or blind preservation.

The writing is rich in emotional nuance, offering insightful reflections on humanity, and possesses an almost lyrical quality that draws you into the story’s many twists and turns. Lawrence balances weighty, often heartbreaking themes with moments of wit and charm, creating a pacing that never loses momentum despite the depth of its subject matter.

The ending is nothing short of phenomenal, a gut-punching, heart-breaking finale that also feels earned and satisfying. It will linger with readers long after the last page, prompting reflection on the power of words, the cyclical nature of history, and the choices that shape us. This is a series that challenges perspectives and rewards readers with profound storytelling.

For anyone who loves fantasy that explores complex ideas, rich worldbuilding, and deeply human stories, The Book That Held Her Heart is an absolute must-read. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful journey that I am eager to reread in its entirety.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the opportunity to read this incredible book.

Arc supplied by NetGalley

4.25 stars

This book was such a genuine heartbreaker and I sobbed after I finished this because wdym this series is over like?????

A heartbreakingly beautiful end to the series. I loved the direction this book took, including a moment that invites a reader to reflect on both our own past and present when our world is brought to the library. There are some truly poignant moments in this book, moments that will make you cry and others that will bring a smile to your face.

I love this series so much, I feel like this book was written as beautifully as the first 2 and I absolutely loved how this one started and finished. This series for me is unique and it gripped me from the start, I love the characters, the twists and turns, I really loved the journey I went on whilst reading this novel.

The Book That Held Her Heart was a pleasing end to an enjoyable trilogy. Book one remains my favourite in the series, however, I felt book three did a pretty good job of wrapping up a lot of different threads.
I really enjoyed a lot of the POVs this time round, I felt the storyline featuring Anne was a clever addition to the plot and tied in with the broader themes really well.
My only complaint about this final book was that I felt it could have been a little longer and that, if it had been, it may have allowed for some lingering questions to be more fully clarified.
Mark Lawrence's writing remains some of my favourite and I look forward to whatever he writes next!

I kind of enjoyed this book. I haven't read the preceding books though and I felt that it inhibited my comprehension of the storyline somewhat.
I think I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more if I had a better handle on the characters and their history.
I did really like the way the characters moved around the world possibilities once I grasped things a bit better.
A really great concept for world building too.
I wouldn't read it again though, not without reading the whole set.

Con The Book That Held Her Heart Mark Lawrence da por terminada la trilogía The Library, que tras el fulgurante comienzo que fue The Book That Wouldn’t Burn ha ido perdiendo fuerza con cada entrega. No es que los libros siguientes sean malos, el problema quizá son las expectativas que despertó en mí como lectora la primera entrega, que no se han culminado en las siguientes.


En el desarrollo de The Book That Held Her Heart los personajes están separados en el espacio y el tiempo, lo cual impide que ahondemos en sus relaciones interpersonales. Si bien el autor abraza totalmente la continuidad de la historia con nuestro propio mundo, estas revelaciones se diluyen un poco en el maremágnum de relatos desde cada punto de vista que nos ofrece, que se antoja excesivo. Es un libro corto para todo lo que Mark Lawrence quería contar y largo para la falta de ritmo que contagia muchos de sus capítulos.

La complejidad de la historia aumenta cuando ya no es solo posible viajar en el espacio y en el tiempo, si no también visitar posibles mundos, what ifs que el autor fuerza un poco indicando que la Biblioteca te lleva a donde necesita llevarte. Es un recurso un tanto forzado y tramposo, que hace que las fronteras entre la fantasía y la realidad se diluyan, sobre todo con la inclusión del personaje Anne Hoffman, una judía en la Alemania donde los nazis van tomando preponderancia, una ambientación muy adecuada para el racismo, tema subyacente en todas las obras de la saga. También está presente la búsqueda de la Otredad del enemigo para deshumanizarlo y justificar cualquier barbaridad.

La Biblioteca es el campo de batalla entre el conocimiento y el olvido y hay que reconocer que eso sí está muy bien representado en las casi 400 páginas del libro, con las distintas facciones empeñadas en llegar al mismo centro. Como final de una trilogía tan ambiciosa como la que nos planteaba el autor, The Book That Held Her Heart quizá se haya quedado un poco corto.

4.5*
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Book That Held Her Heart is the finale of the Library trilogy, picking up right where we left off in the previous book and taking us on a wild ride through time and space with both the fate of our cast of characters and the fate of the whole Library on the line.

I have slightly mixed feelings about this book for one reason only: the first book was so magical and so whimsical that the other two haven’t lived up to my expectation, not because they’re worse, by any means, but simply because they are different. We’ve also gone from two very immersive POVs to a whole slew of more shallow characters, which obviously has both pros and cons. It’s like I’ve been given two very good storytelling styles and I just happen to prefer one of them. That being said, I still absolutely think everyone should read this series, just maybe beware that each book sort of has a different focus.

Something that has grown stronger and stronger with each book as the whimsy has waned slightly is the core theme of how information and propaganda are intertwined with the politics of society, and in this instalment, this is applied directly on real life political history. It’s a great move from the author, an incredibly strong allegory, and it’s impossible not to stop and think about the current political situation in the western world.

The plot is amazingly abstract and weird, which I really enjoyed. The characters constantly weaving in and out of time, becoming separated and meeting again is such a cool storytelling device, and it’s slightly expanded on in this instalment as we enter alternate timelines while the whole world is falling apart at the seams. Lawrence manages to make it reasonably logical and understandable, while keeping it very dreamlike and unreal, like what’s happening is not actually happening. It really reminded me of The Neverending Story or The Starless Sea.

The ending fits the series perfectly, it’s bittersweet, unexpected but also entirely what needed to happen. The Book That Held Her Heart is a great finale to an even greater series, it’s near and dear to my heart, and I’ve had a wonderful time in the library.

When The Book That Wouldn’t Burn came out, I finished it in three days and quickly became a favourite, recommending it to many. It was my go-to recommendation. However, this book took me forty days or so to finish, putting me into a terrible reading slump. The only positive thing about finishing it is that I’m finally free of it.

There was so much happening in this book that it didn’t give me time to connect with the characters like I had previously in the other books. The pacing of it dragged for me, and the plot wasn’t as gripping either and it felt pretty flat to me. Livira is the one who sunk her claws into me while I read the first book; however, it seems she’s missing those claws in this book. As much as I enjoy her in the previous books, I didn’t really care for her or any of the characters. I’m quite forgetful, so the fast-paced action and lack of character development made it difficult for me to remember any details.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn made me curious for more, and The Book That Held Her Heart made me bored. I do think this story could have been two books rather than three.

Fans of the author may enjoy it, but I found it lacking.

The final book in the trilogy which I somehow missed the second book in the series. So I must say that I need to find that so I can go back and read this one. Making it hard to review this book as I would have hoped to. I did find the first book long and didn't really enjoy it and this one was much that same.

Sorry I could not review this one better but maybe I will have to go back and start again to enjoy the whole trilogy as a single yet long read.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

And the trilogy is complete! WOW! I'm certain I must have said this in my review of Book 2 last summer but I desperately require a complex time-travelling universe-bending diagram of this plot to refer back to when I inevitably return to reread.
The way Lawrence opened this book was just so smart. After two mammoth books of timeline hopping and infinite reality theories, I felt like this book finally put everything we'd learnt into practise. As soon as I started the first chapter and realised we were on Earth - OUR Earth! - I knew we were going to be pushing the boundaries of what you can do with a plot and where you can send your characters. It's so refreshing to be reminded that when you write a book you can quite literally do whatever you want.
Last year, I spent a lot of time talking about books about books. Book 2 of this trilogy played a big part in that: an infinite library that is constantly being destroyed and rebuilt depending on where you are in history. I found the ethical debate on the sharing of knowledge fascinating and I honestly couldn't decide what side to root for after backing Livira for so long.
A fantastic piece of work of huge proportions, I'm quite sure I will need physical copies of all three books to really appreciate the full scale of it!

The good thing about The Book That Held Her Heart is that it sticks the landing, it successfully closes the trilogy in a satisfying was with regards to the characters, even if it leaves its central philosophical issue still up to the reader. We ended The Book That Changed The World with our reunited lovers and their friends and family being scattered via the Library mechanism after being attacked by the King (who was a pretty minor baddie in book 1). Again in classic trilogy fashion we open with another new set of eyes, a new character who comes across some of those time and space-displaced characters. Unusually though for this fantasy trilogy, where these characters end up is on Earth, in pre- World War Two Nazi Germany. This is a big leap for Lawrence, he had previously suggested that the Library contained all the books in all of the worlds, but there was no suggestion or portal fiction initially. And the insertion into a Jewish-run bookshop both dulls the fantastic, and lightly cheapens the point that had already been made about book-burning societies. Again Lawrence has to do some convenient worldbuilding on the sly, these parties being made of three races, only one of which are human, the magic of the library lingers briefly over anyone using it to travel to make them seem like locals.

But what of Evar and Livira. They ping pong about a bit, becoming various forms of ghosts in the past, yet again witnessing more developments in tyranny and warfare based on books takend from the Library. Livira is still a joy to read as a character, even if she now is a little too knowledgeable, and it is clear that her book (written way back in The Book That Wouldn't Burn) is the big magical MacGuffin. The rules of the universe are so slack though that I am sure a few a broken here to bring us to our eventual conclusion, where our three parties all converge on the bad guy, and then we get the literary equivalent of the whirling lights in the sky of an MCU film.

I'm a little flippant about this series as I do think its large cast and excessive lore do weigh down what is quite a lovely romance at the heart of it. And by virtue of being such a big story with such a deep philosophical underpinning (is knowledge good or bad), that it was never going to wrap itself up neatly, and its ending is a little bittersweet to me. I am also not sure about it dipping its toe in a Nazi Germany, it certainly makes its point of destruction of knowledge and book burning, but I am not sure it is a point that needed to be made that way. Nevertheless, it is a very enjoyable trilogy which, if read together (as I did books 2 and 3) is quite addicting and readable for all of its flaws, and with a very enjoyable character at its heart. They were books that I enjoyed.

Thank you to Mark Lawrence, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction | HarperVoyager, and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this! Such a great ending to the trilogy. Full review to come ✨

A great finish to the best triology! The writing is so addictive but also so thought provoking. Fantasy just got a whole lot better and I’m so greatful I got a copy of this! Thank you for completing the triology

WOW...

I thoroughly enjoyed this emotional roller-coaster of a book. This is my first Mark Lawrence series and i am now off to read his other series too. Despite the heavy themes that were present in this book i enjoyed every page of it. This is the perfect conclusion to the story. I am truly amazed by Mark Lawrence's world building; it is complex and well written.

This may be my favourite book of the library trilogy.
I love the way the characters have developed and the world building is immense. It's definitely not a light read but it is a damn good one.

The Book that Held her Heart is the third and final book in Mark Lawrence’s The Library Trilogy. If you don’t know anything about this series all you need to know is that it’s the perfect blend of sci-fi and fantasy. There is a magical library that seems to have endless rooms and resources. There are mystical connections between characters, elements of time travel, ghostly plaines and much, much more.

I was so excited and so sad to reach the end of this series. When I first read The Book that Wouldn’t Burn, it had a profound impact on me. The plot twist at the end of the book (if you know, you know) almost broke me and I had to run to get the second book. Similarly, I was completely absorbed by The Book that Broke the World and the epic adventures that it took our characters on. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Livira and Evar, but at the same time I had to see what happened to them and the near infinite library they loved.

Whilst reading this book I laughed, cried, smiled and more. Because I grew to care about the characters and the world so much it made me quite emotional! If you enjoyed the previous two books, you will love the finale.

If you haven’t picked up this series yet I would just say that it is quite intricately planned with a lot of world building. You may be confused at times but you will never want to stop learning about the secrets of the library. I highly recommend picking up these books!

This brilliant follow up once again shows why Mark Lawrence's popularity continues to grow and grow with my students. A fantastic read.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC! I’m quite late to review this but that’s because I don’t think this trilogy was for me, despite how beautifully written it was. I liked the first book and was intrigued by the second no matter how confusing I found it at times but this went to a whole other dimension - literally.
Bringing in the real world and more specifically events during World War Two such as Kristallnacht was and afterwards with elderly Anne talking about her experience in a concentration camp was, interesting, to say the least. I can understand why it was done with the library being attacked on all fronts and the irony of how similar it was to our own real world and our history being essentially spelled out chapter by chapter but it somehow didn’t entirely feel like it fit. Next I actually quite liked how there were essentially three different timelines with the characters missing each other by a hair’s breadth - it was infuriating but in a good way! However, the last 30% of the book confused me. Okay so Liviras book opens cracks when manhandled, and realities overlap splinter and so many universes are simply “what ifs” so when the characters land there it’s always with a purpose and the purpose is generally to find Liviras book and either Livira or Evar ??? but then Arpix getting hanged and parts of the pub scene made my brain short circuit a bit.
I wished there was more of Celcha in this book as her lowkey villain origin story was really interesting but she appears only towards the end as some sort of Jesus incarnate suddenly all about peace and no vengeance for what happened to her brother. This book and the trilogy in general reminded quite a bit of Babel by R.F Kuang but by god did this feel more philosophical and complicated. I think the last 10% of the book confused me a lot despite the fact that I did understand the book was finally coming back together into one and all the parallel timelines were being consolidated but it also made little sense??? Cause how do we know which one is the true one??? There wasn’t really an explanation just ✨Liviras vibes✨. Also at the end she kinda still has her book and like gets to experience a happy story with Evar??? But I’m still terribly upset that Livira and Evar didn’t actually get a happy ending and Mayland survived. fuck that guy.