*Received via NetGalley for review*

More "religious" than I expected, and less "bookish," but still an exciting read once it gets going.

Claire Hadley has looked over the Unwritten Wing for three decades. It is a place where the books, unfinished and unwritten, reside. The Library is located in a neutral space in Hell. Sometimes their characters get restless and step outside their books' bindings. While Claire's job includes caring for and repairing those unwritten books, it is also her job to watch over the characters, including tracking them down if they escape. When demon courier Leto is sent to her by Lucifer himself about an escaped book, Claire does not hesitate to put together a search party made up of her assistant, former muse Brevity, and a relectuant Leto, and rush off to bring the book and its character back.

Nothing goes quite as planned for Claire and her colleagues, however. The routine task of tracking and bringing home an escaped book turns into something much more involved. For a fallen angel is on his own hunt, that for missing pages of the Devil's Bible. His search leads him to Claire. In an effort to stave off a war between Heaven and Hell, it is up to the librarians to find the power-bearing pages before the angels--and other forces--do.

Is it any wonder I was drawn to this book after reading the description? Imagine the untold stories kept inside a library like the Library of the Unwritten. Imagine the characters stepping out of the pages and coming to life. A.J. Hackwith does an amazing job of world building and crafting characters the reader can relate to and root for all along the way. I really liked the way the author set up the afterlife--taking into account various belief systems. Heaven and Hell are not the only places people can go when they die.

While a bit of a slow start, the novel gets better and better as it goes, and by the end, I wanted more. More Claire. More Brevity. More Hero. More Damsels. And more about the Library itself. There are many layers to this novel, and to the characters. Watching them grow and evolve over the course of the novel was half of the fun. There is a lot of action and intrigue mixed in as well, which makes this an even more compelling read. I had not idea what to expect once I stepped into this novel, and what a wonderful experience it turned out to be!

At first I was like this is interesting then it turned into something I wasn't interested in. The concept of characters from book coming to life is always interesting but the backdrop of hell is not for me.

A lyrical start to what I hope turns into a series. The characters were well-written and the plot hung together. I very much enjoyed this.

I absolutely loved the Library of the Unwritten and am earlier anticipating the sequel. The Library of the Unwritten tells the story of Claire, a librarian who is in charge of the Unwritten Library. The library is not your typical library as it resides in the realm of Hell and holds the books that were mere thoughts of authors and never written.

The Library of the Unwritten has Claire at the beginning chasing after an unsuspecting Hero that has escaped his book and has fled to find his author to inspire her to write his story. However, things take an unexpected turn when the Unwritten Library and Heaven come on a near collision course to discover pages of a book that was never known of, and completely unexpected. A book that in its entirety could change everything Claire, Heaven, and Hell know.

Thus begins the quest to recover the pages of the most unexpected unwritten book, the Devil's Bible. The pursuit leads Claire, her muse assistant Brevity, the Hero, and a demon assistant Leto to run into the angels Ramiel and Uriel, along with an adventure throughout other near forgotten realms.

The story from the start captivated me and kept me wanting to know what would happen next. The story was so unique and refreshing because it was like one that I never had read before. From beginning to end the story was as enchanting as a myth or legend. It really is not so surprising for me to love this book given that I myself wished to be a librarian and could only dream to be the Librarian for a library such as this one.

I absolutely cannot wait to see what Hackwith comes up with next and look forward to anything she has in the future.

I ADORED this book. It's more than just a book about what happens when unwritten books come to life - it's about Heaven and Hell, about what it means to be a good person, about what is right and what is wrong. This book is like if American Gods and Good Omens and The Starless Sea had a baby, and I loved it.

Loved the premise of this book, but I could not ever get in. I finished, but it was with effort. It felt tedious at time.s.

If you are a book lover, you NEED to read this! The premise: all unwritten books sit in a library in the neutral part of hell. Sometimes, the characters come to life, and one in particular is on the hunt for their author. Now it’s a race against the clock to capture them and bring them back before they wreck havoc on all things good. This is an amazing fantasy read for all bibliophiles alike. I LOVED it! Excited to read more from this new series!

I really enjoyed this book. I was curious about a library in hell and the more I read the more fascinated I was. The idea that unwritten books exist and the book could possibly come to life was brilliant. I was totally invested in Clair's journey to save the library and her no nonsense approach that got her burned more than once. Brevity is the best assistant and Leto was such an interesting character to watch grow. I have way more questions than answers about Ramiel and Hero is definitely my favorite.

I am looking forward to the next book because I can't wait to what is next for the library and Claire.

Amazing world building, characters and action! Love the plot but most of all, I loved the characters. And this was just a breath of fresh air.

The imagination and unique premise of this book alone make this a book I would highly recommend to all readers, but this book has so much more to offer. One of those, and the standout item for me, was the characters, each were well developed, dynamic and evolved along with the plot. I fell in love with each one and the narrator does a fantastic job at bringing each of these characters alive right before my ears. I am so glad this is the first of series, I get to have more time with the characters and their stories. I highly recommend this book to all readers.

This book was beautiful and the characters were so realistic. I can't wait to read the sequel about Hell's librarian.

A very unique take on the "libraries inside of books" theme. I'm a huge fan of books about books and this one is a winner. I loved the characters, and while I found myself wanting more, I'm not entirely convinced it should be a series. It works well as a stand-alone.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to read this ARC prior to the book's publication, and we did not end up buying it for our library collection.

This was a great novel! I tend to enjoy books about books and libraries so when I saw this book, I knew that I had to read it. I have read a lot of books that involve libraries but never a library located in Hell. Once I started reading, I was hooked. This was a rather exciting story filled with fantastic characters and I had a fabulous time reading it.

Claire is the Head Librarian in the Unwritten Wing in Hell's Library. Her job is to take care of all of the unwritten works that have yet to be completed. She not only must repair books but sometimes has to track down any characters who may have escaped their stories. Claire, along with her assistant, Brevity, and demon courier, Leto, must retrieve one such character who has not only escaped but has gone off to meet their author. They are able to catch up with the character, Hero, but things quickly get more complicated when they encounter the angel, Ramiel, who believes that they have the Devil's Bible.

This was a book that I liked more and more as I read. The characters are interesting from the beginning but as I really got to know them over the course of the story, I grew to care about them. I think that all of the key characters in this book showed a lot of growth. The story itself was really exciting. There was no limit as to what could happen and I found the entire premise to be incredibly imaginative. The story had a lot of layers and I loved how a character's backstory or a small piece of information could suddenly change everything.

I would recommend this story to others. I thought that this was a very well done and unique fantasy. I fell in love with this group of characters and found the book to be very exciting. I thought it told a very complete story and I was quite satisfied by how everything worked out. This is the first book in the Hell's Library series and I look forward to reading more of the adventures of this group of characters as they protect the books in Hell's Library.

I received a review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group - Ace.

At first when I started to read this book, I was totally in love with it. The concept of library in hell was unique enough to grab my interest. By middle of the book I lost my flare for the book a little but that did not last ling because a chapter after I got hooked again.
Bravo to the author for uniqueness!

Very interesting concepts here. I’m not sure it needs to be a series but I’m prepared to be proven wrong.

As a writer, I find that it makes total sense that there’s a library in hell of all the unwritten books.

Adventurous, creative, and very, very odd. That is more or less all I have to say about this book. It was a bit strange, but was very well written. It just isn’t my genre of book. That said, I am glad I read this and found myself curious about what would happen next—all signs of a good book!

Amazing book! Claire is a librarian who understands and protects her many charges - the unfinished books in Hell's library. As she defends and repairs her books over the centuries she becomes uncaring about the needs of books to be completed and tends only to their physical aspects. The adventures begin when a character escapes his book and the library and hunts up his author, hoping to inspire the author to complete the story. A demon plans to take advantage of Claire's absence to take over the library. Strange and unexpected allies join in the battle. Really fun book!
I received this book from the publisher and Netgalley. Thank you!

This one is complicated. The world building is intricate and sometimes confusing. As Claire and her posse travel through different realms to discover the truth behind hell's book, they meet many a terrifying character. I love the premise, but SO much was happening that it could be difficult to follow. I did, however, love the battle in Valhalla.