Amber Polo

Liberty Cutter has returned to her hometown in Ohio to take over as director of the local library. Soon after, the library mysteriously burns down and is relocated to the nearby abandoned academy building. While supervising necessary renovations to the long-abandoned building and replacing books lost in the fire, Liberty discovers some strange, hidden secrets about the town. When she meets a talking dog amid the stacks in the library, Liberty realizes her life will never be the same.

This was such a fun book! Shapeshifters. Despicable werewolves. Talking dogs. Librarian humor (including some great insults using the Dewey Decimal system). It all comes together into a fun supernatural tale that I couldn't put down.

Released is the first book in The Shapeshifters Library series. I won a copy of the second book on Goodreads, so decided to read book one first. I'm definitely glad I have book two waiting for me on my tbr shelf...I want to know what happens next!! There are four books in the series so far.

To learn more about Amber Polo and her books check out her website here… (altro)

3.5

Book source ~ ARC. My review is voluntary and honest.

When the public library of Shipsfeather, Ohio burns down, the Library Board moves Head Librarian Liberty Cutter and her merry band of librarians to the old Shipsfeather Academy. Liberty has doubts about the building since it’s been abandoned for twenty-five years. It’s going to be horrible inside, right? Wrong. It’s gorgeous inside. It does need some basic work to make it into a library and bring it up to code, but once it’s done it’s awesome. The townspeople love it. Well, the ordinary townspeople love it. The werewolves who run the town hate it. Because in this world dog-shifters protect people and books and werewolves are greedy bastards who try to keep the public ignorant by burning books. The old crone Alpha werewolf cursed the dog-shifters and they’ve been stuck inside the Academy for all those years. But things are changing now. The old Headmaster of the Academy, Chronus, and Liberty are at the heart of the change. Will the dog-shifters finally be able to break free?

This is a sweet story about shifters and librarians. At times, the story is too simplistic for me. It’s a great concept, but the execution just falls a bit flat. However, the characters totally make up for this. They are awesome! If you want a good vs evil, sweet story that revolves around librarians then this is just the one for you. It’s an enjoyable read.… (altro)

“Liberty [Cutter] had been born in Shipsfeather [Ohio] and had lived here until her mother disappeared when she was five years old. Her four law librarian aunts had swooped into town and taken her home with them, eventually adopting her. They refused to talk to her either about her parents or Shipsfeather. She’d taken the job of Library Director because she wanted to run her own small town library and make a difference to the townspeople—and hopefully uncover the secrets of her own history. She should have been suspicious when no other librarian in the entire country had applied for the job, but she’d been too happy to question Fate.”

Liberty’s mother’s disappearance isn’t the only strange thing about Shipsfeather. When she’s on her way to work on the only Monday she hasn’t gone in early, she finds the two-story red brick library is sheathed in smoke and flames and spots a rangy critter fleeing the scene . . .

The story amps up quickly amidst a cast of quirky characters. Liberty must deal again with her nemesis Harold Dinzelbacher, Shipsfeather’s bankster and Chairman of the Library Board of Trustees. He’s blocked every innovation Liberty has ever proposed to update the library. Amid clues that the library fire was no accident and that Dinzelbacher may be more conniving than she realizes, Liberty questions his and the mayor’s plan to situate the new library in the crumbling, old Shipsfeather Athenaeum and Academy building.

But Liberty buckles down anyway to help renovate the Academy into a shipshape library with all the cyber-age bells and whistles, even as she senses someone following and observing her. Gradually she discovers more than she’d bargained for. Her new books begin to disappear, and she finds that the Shipsfeather Academy was once a training ground for an ancient race of dog-shifters whose mission is to protect the world’s knowledge. A powerful curse sealed those shapeshifter librarians in the Academy basement while a pack of book-burning werewolves took over Shipsfeather in their quest to destroy all books and their defenders forever.

Chronus, the English Sheepdog headmaster of the old Academy and leader of the dog-shifters, cautiously befriends Liberty and they join forces to keep his pack – and the world’s books – safe from the werewolves and their crafty human supporters.

I found the premise of shapeshifting dog librarians not only fun and fascinating, but also convincing and possible. I’ve often suspected librarians and dogs as having much more colorful lives than meets the eye. After all, librarians have all the knowledge of the world at their fingertips and can answer any question given enough time to research it. The domestic dog has over 400 distinctly different-looking breeds, all cultivated from the genes of the ancient grey wolf. If any critter can shapeshift or hide its talents in plain sight, it has to be the “ordinary” dog. Blend these two versatile elements – the humble dog and the humble librarian – as cleverly as Polo does in The Shapeshifters’ Library: Released, and you’ve got, voila, a well-considered, zany fantasy.

See the rest of my interview with Amber at http://jellyfishday.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-shapeshifters-library-interview.htm...… (altro)