When The Book That Broke The World concluded, the human Livira and the canith Evar were only briefly reunited before the destruction befalling Crath City and the inner chambers of The Library led to them (and their various friends and family) being split up once again. An unconscious Evar was dragged away by his siblings Mayland, Starval and Clovis through a portal, while Livira was forced to go through a different one with the strange girl Yolanda leading the charge. Through a third portal went Yute (Yolanda's father) and Kerrol, Evar's fourth sibling. Meanwhile, a smattering of humans including Livira's friend Arpix, as well as Lord Algar and King Oanold were left behind in The Library itself, forced to learn how to survive in the strange chambers.
Much like the last two books, The Book That Held Her Heart: The Library Trilogy - Book 3 spans different times and worlds. Each group is focused on their own particular mission, and each believes they are doing what is best for the world at large. Strangely enough, The Library doesn't necessarily provide its travelers what they want, but what they need, and it seems like all of their best laid plans will not survive very long.
For the party led by Mayland, he is bent on following Jaspeth's path and is determined to find a way to destroy The Library. All of this knowledge contained in one place only leads to trouble. For Yolanda's group, she is following after her late mother's path, that of Irad. Her goal is to find a way to break the shaky compromise between the godly brothers so that the restrictions placed on The Library can be removed. Finally, there is Yute and Kerrol. Despite everything the former Assistant has seen (or really, because of everything he has seen), Yute is determined to find some third route that is a balance between Jaspeth and Irad, a path that will not lead to the endless cycle of war that he has witnessed for millennia.
While Evar will recover from his injury, he will do so with a new and unique power, a power that will lead to a new understanding of the living nightmares that have haunted him for years. Mayland seems determined to convince Evar that Jaspeth's path is the only true way to freedom, but given Evar's recent history with Livira, Evar won't be as easy to convince as Starval was in the previous book. Meanwhile, Clovis seems to have softened somewhat with regards to humans. It seems she has her own budding feelings with a human and, as a result, her blood lust seems to have lessened. Now, all she needs to do is find Arpix again so she can show him exactly how she feels.
Meanwhile, Livira's own path seems to be just as confusing as ever. Yolanda is convinced that Livira's book, and its strange time loop nature, is the source of the destruction tearing through The Library. If Yolanda's plans to save and restore The Library to its full potential can happen, then Livira must track down her lost book and... well, what exactly she must do is unclear. This mission will send Livira even further in the past than she has visited before, but there must be a reason.
Interestingly enough, it seems The Library has sent Yute and Kerrol to an even stranger destination. They emerge not in a world with The Library at the center, but from a small bookstore in 1930's Germany. While The Library spans all places and all times, a world that looks a lot like ours is far removed from the one Yute knows, so, much like Livira's strange destination, there must be a reason The Library sent him and the young canith to this particular where and when. Yute is saddened to see that many of the same patterns in behavior he observed in his own time are playing out here as well. Minorities are being persecuted and a power is on the rise that is taking advantage of people's fears. It seems that even in this strange world, people cannot escape their baser instincts.
Once again, the nature of The Library means that even as dispersed as these characters have become, they will eventually be drawn back together and their different threads will slowly join back into a single story where the fate of not only The Library, but all of the worlds will be decided.
Like the books that came before it, The Book That Held Her Heart is anything but a straightforward path to its conclusion, but the many turns it takes are all necessary in order for the final resolution to truly work. I commend Lawrence's efforts for this whole trilogy. While it won't be for everyone, I enjoyed it. In fact, I might make some time for a full re-read now that all three books are out and I have a better understanding of the world and how it works.
