The Secret Librarian by Soraya M Lane-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 15, 2025

New York, 1942: Avery is engaged to be married. Longing for adventure instead, she jumps at an unexpected offer to trade her library job for undercover intelligence-gathering in Portugal. But her new life in Lisbon, known as the Capital of Espionage, challenges everything she thought she knew about herself.

Local bookshop owner Camille, a French widow with access to the enemy newspapers and magazines Avery needs, befriends her. But are the rumours that swirl around Camille true—does she really have a Nazi boyfriend? And what secrets did she bring with her when she fled France? Avery must decide—fast—if she can fully trust Camille. Millions of lives depend on it.

As Avery discovers more about Camille’s world, she realises that living in a city of spies will take all her courage. With suspicions growing, they are both playing a terrifyingly dangerous game. And not everyone will live to tell their story. Can Avery and Camille stay far enough ahead of their enemies to survive?

Threaded through with daring, sacrifice and love, this is the inspirational story of two women prepared to risk everything to help others survive the horrors of World War II.

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REVIEW: THE SECRET LIBRARIAN by Soraya M Lane is an historical adult story line set in 1942, focusing on Avery, a librarian conscripted by the US government, and Camille, a French widow who find themselves embarking on a friendship in Lisbon Portugal.

Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Avery and Camille) THE SECRET LIBRARIAN focuses on espionage and double agents in Europe at the height of World War II. Six months after graduation from an Ivy League university, Avery, an American librarian is approached by the US government to work undercover gathering information in Lisbon Portugal about the allies and enemies during WWII . Accepting the position, Avery will meet a kindred spirit in French widow and book store owner Camille, who is secretly working for the Resistance, pulling Avery into a dangerous world of agents and Nazis. Together, Camille and Avery will gather the secrets hidden in newspapers and books, but not before Camille reveals the truth about her arrival in Lisbon Portugal.

THE SECRET LIBRARIAN focuses on war and propaganda, double agents, secrets and lies: espionage and betrayal, deception and revelations. Avery is an amateur who quickly discovers she has the ability to ferret out the information needed back home; Camille is determined to seek revenge for the loss of a loved one, even if she has to seduce a Nazi to get the information she needs. Two woman together, once separated by an ocean, find themselves embarking on a hunt for a killer, one finding love, while the other finds peace when all is said and done. The slow building premise is dramatic, edgy and intriguing; the characters are determined and desperate- no one can be trusted, everyone is suspect in a game of winner take all.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy