Before you even open the cover of THE ASTRAL LIBRARY, you know immediately that it is something special. At least in the first edition of this book, the edges of the pages are stenciled in blue with a dragon-scale pattern, and the endpapers are gorgeously illustrated in blues and gold. But the physical appearance of this masterpiece by Kate Quinn --- her first foray into magical realism --- is no greater than the story itself, which is a true love story.

However, this is not a typical love story between two people. It begins and ends with the same question: "Have you ever wanted to live inside a book?" Those of us who are book lovers know the answer to that: Absolutely!

Alexandria “Alix” Watson was an abandoned child when her mother left her at the age of eight to follow a boyfriend who didn't care for children. Alix wants to believe that it was all a mistake and that her mother will be coming back into her life, even though she's now an adult. The one thing Alix did get from her mother was her love of books. And libraries. After all, you can leave a child in a library for hours while spending time with a man who doesn't like kids.

Alix has never stopped reading. Even when she aged out of the foster care system and survived on a series of low-paying jobs, she kept her library card. The painful reality of being really poor is described perfectly by Alix as she relates that her cheap pleather boots are falling apart.

"There's no way to explain in words how delightful it was to experience THE ASTRAL LIBRARY.... It will fill the hearts of book lovers, and if you are here reading reviews about books, I'm sure it will fill yours, too."

"Because I couldn't afford hundred-dollar boots that would actually last, it meant that two months from now I'd have flapping soles again, and be looking at twenty-two more bucks for another pair of crappy pleather boots, and by the end of the year I'd have spent $132 plus Massachusetts sales tax on boots that didn't do sh*t to keep the rain out, all because I never had $100 in my bank account to spare at any point in time for a decent pair. I'd end up spending more money to have wet, aching feet, and that's another facet of poverty math: how expensive it is, how frustratingly, ruinously expensive, to be broke."

Alix is in trouble. Her bank account, with only 30-plus dollars in it, is hijacked by a stranger. Her roommate tells her that she has to move out from the couch she currently rents. Alix’s part-time job at the library doesn't have any extra hours for her to work. So her life seems to be at its lowest point since she was abandoned by her mother.

That's when Alix finds a hidden door in the Boston Public Library that opens to a magical library with an ageless Librarian (emphasis on the capital L) and a chance to get away from her horrible existence. In the Astral Library, which can be accessed from any library by a patron in need, those who are desperate to leave their lives can live inside a book of their choosing.

There is so much in this novel that is incredibly clever that there is no way to encompass it all in one book review. The magical library is stunning and described in detail, including the magical tea and snacks that appear for readers. There are the library ghosts who died with too many books on their To Be Read list, who don't feel they can pass over until they've caught up on their reading (I quite like that idea; I will definitely die without having read an incredible number of books on my TBR list!). There are rules about which books are eligible for living in (only those in the public domain, so there are no copyright issues), you can't be the main character or change the storyline, and when the plot ends, if you decide to remain, there are no guarantees where the story will go. Books, of course, take on their own lives.

But before Alix gets to live in a story, the Astral Library is under attack, and she might be the only one who can save it. She might be lacking a college degree, but she's feisty and the possessor of a vocabulary better than most college professors. I learned a few new words because Alix is proud to be a sesquipedalian, using long words perfectly in the narrative --- and pleased with herself for doing so.

Alix is not a typical waif-like, slender, beautiful young woman. She’s lived on cheap fast food and pasta and worked three jobs with no chance to exercise, so she's a large person. But as we find out, she’s lovely, strong, determined and smart. When Beau, the extremely handsome guy who has a bespoke clothing shop, dresses Alix, she feels resplendent. And Beau is another study in diversity with his caramel skin and around-the-world ethnicity, his devotion to fashion, and his history of boyfriends and girlfriends. While a romance is blooming there, it's certainly not the focus of the story.

Books are the focus. And Quinn doesn't play favorites. While Alix loves fantasy, other genres get equal representation. In fact, the first book Alix travels into with the Librarian on their quest is a Sherlock Holmes novel. Quinn points out what we all know: "What a miraculous thing a book was, when you stopped to think about it: whole worlds springing to life from nothing more than squiggles on a page."

It would be a spoiler to discuss the evil facing the Library. But what I can share is that Quinn is passionate about libraries (her mother was a librarian). She defends libraries as sanctuaries, where people can go and feel safe. Those looking for work can search for jobs there, and those without a computer can use one there. "A library is where you should be able to find the books that people are trying to ban and exactly why people are trying to ban them." It's where Alix gave herself an education --- reading books from the public library. She says, "Cathedrals used to be sanctuaries, but that was only for people who believed the same things, the same god --- people who weren't too different. Libraries are sanctuaries for everyone, no matter how different."

There's no way to explain in words how delightful it was to experience THE ASTRAL LIBRARY. I cried at the end --- not from sadness or even happiness, but just from the joy of having been so immersed in stories that I know and don't know, from reading about characters who love books as much as I do, and from thinking about the splendid fantasy of living in books. It's an incredibly wonderful concept, and Kate Quinn does a stupendous job exceeding any expectations you might have regarding a story about living in books. It will fill the hearts of book lovers, and if you are here reading reviews about books, I'm sure it will fill yours, too.