The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan (Nov 18, 2025) Thank you @williammorrowbooks for the #gifted print copy!
Eleanor Bruton is found dead on the shore in Scotland. Dr Anya Brown has just received a job opportunity that seems almost too good to be true at the Institute of Manuscript Studies in St. Andrews. Detective Clio Spicer is risking her career to investigate Burton’s death. Anya’s boyfriend is getting paranoid about their new living situation. And underneath it all, two rival female secret societies, The Order of St Katherine and the Fellowship of the Larks, are racing to find a long-lost artifact in their very different approaches to amass power, and get women in position to achieve control and global influence.
Without revealing any of the twists, there is a very strong F-the-patriarchy vibe (in multiple interpretations) to this one. There are numerous POVs, tons of diabolical action, cut-throat people at every turn, mysterious messages, and a building paranoia as Anya and her boyfriend begin to realize exactly how high the stakes are. It is wildly entertaining and doesn’t wrap up in a neat little bow but leaving us with a well-earned conclusion. There are so many people with concealed motivations in this one that I wasn’t sure that all of the people I wanted to be on the right side actually were until the very conclusion.
🎧 Audiobook Thoughts: Rose Robinson and Steph de Whalley do a really nice job with this one. There were, however, a ton of POVs and it would have been great to at least have one more narrator to divide that work for more clear differences in the audio. (9h 53m)
Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
🎧 Audio performance: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Smart Kate 