Books I'm Excited To Read - Lions of Fifth Avenue

 

Goodreads:  Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

Blurb:  It's 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn't ask for more out of life--her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building, and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. As her studies take her all over the city, she finds herself drawn to Greenwich Village's new bohemia, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club--a radical, all-female group in which women are encouraged to loudly share their opinions on suffrage, birth control, and women's rights. Soon, Laura finds herself questioning her traditional role as wife and mother. But when valuable books are stolen back at the library, threatening the home and institution she loves, she's forced to confront her shifting priorities head on . . . and may just lose everything in the process.

Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after she's wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public Library. But the job quickly becomes a nightmare when rare manuscripts, notes, and books for the exhibit Sadie's running begin disappearing from the library's famous Berg Collection. Determined to save both the exhibit and her career, the typically risk-adverse Sadie teams up with a private security expert to uncover the culprit. However, things unexpectedly become personal when the investigation leads Sadie to some unwelcome truths about her own family heritage--truths that shed new light on the biggest tragedy in the library's history.

My Thoughts:  I have been looking forward to reading this one since it came out.  A dual timeline story with a family mystery all talking place in a library!  How could I resist it?  Yet somehow this book sat on my shelf for years until I decided to focus my 2023 reading on getting those books I really wanted to read actually read.  This book was one of the main ones that I immediately thought of when I decided to go with that focus.  And I really enjoyed it.  I very much enjoy Fiona Davis's writing style and this book immediately pulled me in.  I especially enjoyed the 1993 storyline with Sadie as she tries to figure out just what is going on in the library's collection and figure out just what happened in her family a generation before.  Initially, I really liked Laura and was interesting in the storyline but as it progressed I found I wanted more from it.  I was more interested in life in the library than Laura's journey of self-discovery but that was what that timeline focused on.  I loved how the ending tied everything together and despite wanting more from the earlier timeline I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.  I can't wait to read more from this author!  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)