Historical Fiction about a library just about tops the list for me. But when you get more specific and the library is one of the world’s best, “The New York Public Library,” you have my attention.

Fiona Davis said it best, “Early into my research on the building, I discovered that when the library was built, the
architects included s seven-room apartment, deep inside, where the superintendent and his family lived for
thirty years. He and his wife raised their three children there, and once I learned that I knew it would make the
perfect setting for The Lions of Fifth Avenue. I invented a fictional family – the Lyons – and decided to tell the
story from the wife’s point of view in 1913, as well as her granddaughter’s in 1993.”

I was already going to read this book, but when I read the above paragraph, I was sold.

Let us discuss the ‘elephant in the room,’ uhm, pardon me; I mean the ‘Lions on the steps’ first. They are icons for this beautiful building and were first named for two of the benefactors, “Leo Astor” for John Jacob Astor, and “Leo Lenox” for James Lenox. They were later changed by NY City Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia, during the Great Depression, as Patience and Fortitude, to reflect the virtues needed during that era. The names stuck. I can go on and on with facts about this marvelous marble masterpiece, but you will discover all the fun facts within the book. (I always want more.)

The Lyons family are living in the private, seven-room apartment snuggled within the library because Jack Lyons, husband and father, is the Library’s Superintendent. His wife, Laura, and two children, Harry, eleven years-old, and Pearl, seven years-old, live with him. Naturally, the kids adore living in the library, especially at night when they feel it is their private playground. Laura has to quickly set some rules where they visit one room a night accompanied by her. Her husband Jack is usually too busy with paperwork involving the entire library’s staff and budget. He is also working on writing his own book so that leaves all family duties to Laura. Even though it is 1913, women have become restless with discovering and nurturing their own intellects. Laura really wants to attend Journalism school but does not know how she can manage her household and the finances let alone talk to Jack about the subject.

During this time, their son, Harry begins to act out and gets involved with some ‘rough characters’ at his school. Unbeknownst to his parents, Harry stops going to school and starts swiping some books from the library. Laura does start going to Journalism school and gets involved in a women’s intellectual organization. Chaos ensues.

Advance eighty years to 1993 where we find Sadie, unaware she is Laura Lyons granddaughter, working at the same library as a curator and researcher. Sadie is quite intelligent but awkward in some of the social graces. She was married before to Phillip, who was not nice to her. Sadie’s mother Pearl is in ill health and living with her brother, Lonnie, all in Manhattan. Pearl never told her two children much about her parents, Jack and Laura Lyons, and her brother Harry. She has good reasons for this, but they were her personal decisions. Lonnie and his wife have an adorable young daughter that they have hired a babysitter for, Robin, since they are both professionals with demanding jobs. Robin might not be as nice as she seems.

Meanwhile, back at the library books are starting to ‘go missing.’ Everyone is suspecting everyone else; especially Sadie and her co-worker who have access to rare books and valuable collections. Again, chaos ensues.

So much happens within each time period I am merely glossing over basic story points to pique your interest. If you thought I was spilling the whole story, spoilers and all, you would be oh so wrong. I jest and am just joshing. ‘Har har!’

Both time periods tie together in amazing ways by our super sleuth, Sadie. Get ready for a bumpy ride through the decades plus new light on library thievery. I never realized, but it does make sense. All those valuable but precious rare books!

There was an article in mid-June from Pittsburgh, PA. concerning two men who stole over $8.1 million worth of rare books and artifacts from the Carnegie Library over twenty-five years. One man was a librarian and the other a bookshop owner. They were just caught last year, 2019. It is a serious business, unfortunately.

In summary, this might sound like an epic, but it moves quickly, and you can easily keep up with the characters. I would read any Historical Fiction book Fiona Davis writes; you can easily see she is passionate about her work. Highly recommend.

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Random House, and Fiona Davis

A great love story to the New York Public Library world famous for both its architecture and collections of all things related to books and authors. The story involves secrets, familial relationships, love, and theft. A dual timeline story of a grandmother and granddaughter who are both grappling with mysteries of rare and valuable books stolen from the library while they are living or working there, respectively. Their stories take place about 80 years apart and are beautifully intertwined to a lovely conclusion. The best part of the book takes place when the grandmother and her family are living in the apartment housed within the library. Facts about the library’s design, rare books, and articles in the library’s collections are scattered throughout the story making it a more enjoyable read for history buffs and bibliophiles alike.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton (an imprint of Penguin Random House) for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Fiona Davis, queen of NYC historical fiction, has done it again with this thrilling, mysterious and wonderful novel about a fictional family living in the New York Public Library’s real superintendent apartment hidden in the main branch. In 1913, Laura Lyons, her husband Jack and 2 children move into the library for Jack’s new job. Laura is desperate to build her own career and help make money for the family, starts attending Columbia Journalism School and begins to mix and mingle with the women of the time fighting for woman’s rights. But, things start to get tricky for the family when priceless books start to go missing from the library. 80 years later in 1993, Laura’s granddaughter works as a archivist/librarian at the library when priceless books start to go missing for her as well. Are the book thefts somehow connected to her family history??? What a great book this was!! I loved reading about the 1910s and I had such a fun time reading the two women’s stories and how they did or didn’t connect. 5 stars!

What more can an avid reader ask for than a book about books and taking place at a library?! I was very captivated by both timelines in this historical fiction. The suspense of who the book thieves were kept me coming back again and again. I loved the vivid language of the library! Even though I haven't been there myself, I can almost see if clearly in my mind's eye. The characters were wonderful and the writing was engaging.

This novel is an intriguing historical mystery revolving around the New York Public Library. We follow the Lyons family who lives in the superintendent's apartment inside the library in 1914, and Sadie, who is the curator of a special collection at the library in the early 90s. The storylines of these characters intersect in several interesting ways -- especially those revolving around the theft of priceless library books.

Usually with books with multiple perspectives, I find myself drawn to one character over another, and end up rushing through the parts with the unloved character. The great thing about this book is that both characters are well done, and I didn't find myself as the reader wanting to get back to the other storyline. Fiona Davis made both women have their own issues, flaws, hopes, and dreams.

Parts of the mystery were predictable, but there were elements that were surprising as well.

A well researched and interesting novel, set in the magnificent New
York Public Library. The story spans two different eras, with a common theme, the theft of rare books and manuscripts. Laura Lyons lives with her husband Jack, the superintendent of the library, and their two young children, Pearl and Henry, in the beautiful apartment, contained in a wing of the grand old building. Laura has aspirations of becoming a reporter and attending the Columbia School of Journalism, a feat unheard of by woman in the early 20th Century. But the threat to their plans and security are threatened, when Jack comes under suspicion of the thefts.
80 years later, Sadie Donovan, a curator in the library, deals with thefts, as history seems to repeat itself, and a link between her and Laura will complicate the investigation.as she struggles to find out the truth of what happened to Laura and Jack, she must try to clear her own name.
This mystery had me trying in vein to sort now the connections and similarities of the thefts, while exploring the workings of a treasured NY landmark.
Fiona Davis is a wonderful storyteller, and her characters are well developed and interesting as well! My thanks to #PenguinPublishing and #NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own. I loved this book!

This is a tough review for me. The writing and history and dual timelines are interesting, especially how it is all tied together. I loved how it all took place in the library. I enjoyed the mystery and the exploration of early feminism. However, the conclusions about feminism was problematic for me, a real let down. I won't say more so as not to spoil it.

This was an amazing tale mainly set in the New York Public Library.

It begins in 1913 with a family who actually live in the library. The husband Jack Lyons is employed there and they have 7 rooms on an upper floor. Jack is writing a book which he hopes will cement the family's financial future. He and Laura have two children, Harry and Pearl. Laura loves living in he library, but Jack's work in the library and on his book take so much time that she feels a bit lost. Laura wants to become a journalist and also write. She goes to journalism school (one of the few women of that time who do) and eventually becomes a published author on her own.

Interspersed into Laura's story is the life of Sadie Donovan who is a curator of the Berg Collection in the library. She is fascinated with Laura Lyons's works. She wants to learn more about the woman who worked for woman's suffrage and equal employment.

Both in Laura's life and Sadie's life, precious items were stole from the library. Security was such that no one knew how the thefts were accomplished. Sadie began to think that there was a connection between the thefts almost 80 years apart.

There are plenty of surprises in the telling of this tale. The characters are marvelously described and fleshed out during the course of a few chapters. All are believable. The format, going back and forth between the two time periods is sometimes a little disconcerting, but all in all, I can't imagine any better way to tell these stories.

The only reason I give it four stars is because I feel that the author put into the story a gratuitous storyline of homosexuality. The novel was perfect without it. I have come to believe that many authors feel they have to add a bit of this just to sell books or be boycotted but the LGBT groups. Not so. This book would stand alone with out the references.

I am always a fan of books about libraries. The Lions of Fifth Avenue was so interesting because I had no idea that there was an apartment in the New York Public Library. I loved that there was a story (a mystery even!) around the library. It was told from 2 different generational points of view which put in an extra layer of interest. It was satisfying at the end of the story to see how the 2 sides/stories intertwined and effected each other. I will recommend this book to historical fiction patrons.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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It’s 1913 and Laura Lyons is feeling restless. She and her family are living in apartments within the brand new New York Public Library, and Laura spends her days tending to her children and her husband. She is thrilled when she learns of her acceptance to Columbia’s journalism program and sets her mind to go, money be dammed. It’s around that time when rare, valuable books start to disappear from the library, sending suspicion her family’s way. In 1993, Laura’s granddaughter Sadie is happy enough in her job at the New York Public Library. No one knows of her connection to Laura Lyons, who later in life became a famous essayist. Sadie’s own mother, Laura’s daughter, refuses to speak of their time living in the library. When rare books again start to disappear from the library, Sadie is determined to uncover the truth about the thefts and the possible connection to her family.
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The Lions of Fifth Avenue is a decent story and a middle-of-the-road read for me. I found some of the plot points to be very interesting, and I enjoyed the duel timelines of Laura and Sadie. I though the author did a great job tying everything together! It took me a little while to make my way through this one because the beginning is quite slow. I found the last half of the book to be much more engaging, and once I hit the halfway point I flew through the rest! It is a solid, yet slightly predictable mystery. The subplot of Laura writing about the Hererodoxy Club was really interesting, and I could have done with a whole book about that subject alone! Book nerds like myself will love the library setting, and I love any book set in pre-war New York City. Thank you @duttonbooks and @netgalley for my advanced reader’s copy! The Lions of Fifth Avenue is out on 8/4 🦁

NYPL, early-20th-century, late-20th-century, journalist, theft, women, mystery

I came to the home of Patience and Fortitude and stayed for the excellent storytelling. I had been hoping for a story about a family who had lived in the hidden apartment in the library and also one about the intrabuilding book retrieval system that has been in place for so very many years and here is a book with all of that and more. This one takes in the beginnings of the rights of women movement which later devolved into women's suffrage, family stresses and secrets, as well as potential scandals about missing books. I loved it and look forward to an audio version that I can read no matter what else I am doing (even though I prefer the scent of books).
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Dutton and Plume via NetGalley. Thank you!

Author Fiona Davis has written another dynamic, layered, intricate historical fiction mystery centered around an iconic building. THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE even has a nice twist in the title because our leading family has the surname Lyon. I loved this book and raced through it, devouring every detail and nuance. Truth be told, I have never been inside the famous New York Public Library, but I am a profound lover of libraries. Davis offers up her, now regular, two time-frames, two protagonists, each moving forward towards their inevitable conclusion. She handles the pacing and the careful release of details with considerable skill. There was no chance I would step away from this book. I was just too curious about how the two stories would end. You’ll have to read it yourself to learn the details, I won’t share more. It is an excellent book. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

With thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in return for an honest review.

In the last year or so I've become increasingly fascinated with the New York City Public Library and so I appreciated that the library almost became its own character throughout the book. I took a bit of time to get in to the story but thoroughly enjoyed the second half, particularly the twists that I did not see coming. This was my first Fiona Davis book and I will definitely be researching her backlist.

I love books by Fiona Davis, so I was really surprised when I struggled with the first third of this book. The tone was so melancholy, and it's not fun to read something depressing right now. However, it started to get so much better and turned out to be really interested. I liked the setting of the New York Public Library, and both Laura and Sadie were interesting characters.

Fiona Davis is a master at setting scenes and describing locations in such a way that you feel that you have been there. The grand New York Public Library itself seems to become a character in the tale of the Lyons family
and missing antique books of historical value decades apart. The Lions of Fifth Avenue kept me drawn in throughout and Fiona Davis is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Thank you to NetGalley for this advance read copy.

I absolutely loved everything about this book! Both of the storylines set in different times drew me in so well that I never cared when it switched. Usually I favor one over the other but the author has done an amazing job! The descriptions, the characters, the families, the relationships, it all made me want to keep reading.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis, 368 pages

In 1914, Laura Lyons and her family have the most unusual living situation: the family of four shares a small apartment inside the grand central branch of the New York Public Library. Laura's husband is an aspiring author and superintendent of the building, while homemaker Laura is determined to attend journalism school and become a reporter at one of the city's many newspapers. But the theft of some very rare editions from NYPL's archives cause a wrinkle in their plans, with suspicion falling on Laura's husband. Seventy years later, Laura's granddaughter Sadie is an archivist in NYPL's Berg Collection, curating an exhibit of rarities when another string of rare book thefts begins, threatening Sadie's job and the literary history of the library. Could the two crime sprees be related? It seems unlikely, but there are definite similarities.

Who doesn't love a mystery set in a gorgeous library? Davis certainly chose a strong setting, and her dual storylines are intriguing, pulling in everything from early-wave feminists to the rare books black market. There were certainly a few things that I had questions about, particularly in the 1914 storyline, but overall this was a great story to sweep you away from the world at large today.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue is a historical novel set at the New York Public Library. It tells the story of two women whose lives are changed by their time at the library. In 1913, Laura Lyons lives in a mezzanine apartment at the library with her family. Her husband works as the library's superintendent and she is pursuing a career in journalism, unusual for a woman in her time. When a rare copy of Edgar Allen Poe's Tamerlane goes missing, their lives are changed. In 1993 Laura's granddaughter, Sadie Donovan, is working as curator at the library. Once again, several rare books go missing, and the search is on for the thief.

I wanted to read The Lions of Fifth Avenue because I enjoy Fiona Davis's writing and I absolutely adore books with a library setting. I sell vintage books, so the antiquarian book storyline was especially appealing to me.

I absolutely loved this book and have been telling friends about it since I first started reading. The history of the New York Public Library is fascinating, from the early apartment cloistered in the building, to the methods of handling and cataloging books (and other historic, book related artifacts), to the curators' daily work. The details of antiquarian books at the library and their special markings and attributes was especially fascinating to me.

There are intriguing passages about the library like this:

"Sadie led the trio through the halls, pointing out all her favorite spots: the painted ceiling of a cloudy sky above the back stairwell, the Edward Laning murals depicting the history of the written word in the rotunda, and the view of the foyer from the second-floor balcony. Then down to the stacks where the library’s millions of volumes were housed.

'If the shelves were laid end to end, they would measure over eighty miles,' she said.

Mrs. Smith let out a small 'Oh, my.'

'This particular branch of the New York Public Library is a research library, not a circulating one,' said Sadie. 'That means we don’t lend the books out, they must be consulted on-site. Furthermore, the stacks are not for browsing, they are closed off to the general public. Instead, a patron consults the card catalog and puts in a request, and then the book or books are sent to the Reading Room. The retrieval process hasn’t changed much in all the time the library has been open to the public, since 1911.' The stacks consisted of seven tiers that rose from the basement level to just below the Reading Room. They reminded Sadie of an ant colony, with library pages dashing up stairs and down the narrow aisles, locating one book among millions within minutes along the steel shelves. She pointed out the conveyer system that carried books up to the patrons waiting in the Reading Room, as well as the dumbwaiter used for oversized works." (Kindle location 337).

I found the lives of Laura, in 1913, and Sadie, in 1992, very compelling. They both struggle with pursuing work that they are passionate about. Laura wants to be a journalist and essayist at the point that few women pursue this career. When she runs into an old college friend and attends the Heterodoxy Club in Greenwich Village (a group for women to express opinions on the vote, birth control, etc.), her conviction about her future changes.

Sadie longs to be curator of the library, but she has to fight for the position and really struggles in her early days on the interim job.

Both women also try to sort out their personal lives. Laura is married with two young children, but she wants more than the conventional life of wife to a powerful man. Sadie is divorced and intends to stay single, until she meets the investigator working on the case of missing books at the library. I found Nick, the investigator, very intriguing -- he was much more complex and sophisticated than expected. I loved the slow building romance between Sadie and Nick.

The two parallel cases of missing antiquarian books were utterly fascinating, and the mystery from 1913 wound into the 1992 timeline as well. I found the search for the books, through old bookstores and covert dealers and collectors, so interesting to read about.

The Lions of Fifth Avenue is one of my favorite reads from recent years, and will certainly be high on my book list for this year. I cannot recommend it highly enough for fans of historical fiction, libraries, antiquarian books, literary history, New York history, or just fans of a beautifully told, compelling story.

Hidden within the grand architecture of the New York Public Library, Laura Lyons lives in an apartment with her husband and their children. In 1913, Laura seems to have an idyllic life, but she yearns for the same passion that her husband has for his novel in progress. Hoping to find her drive in life and help with her family’s finances, Laura applies to the Columbia School of Journalism. The search for stories takes her across the city, where she wants to go beyond the “women’s assignments.” This leads to Laura connecting with an old classmate who introduces her to the new bohemia in Greenwich Village - where women discuss suffrage, politics, and traditional roles. As Laura’s world is expanding and changing, her home life threatens to fall apart when a string of thefts occur at the library. Laura must choose her path forward or risk losing what she has always known.

Sadie Donovan’s dream job as a curator in the library’s famous Berg Collection is disrupted when items for the upcoming exhibit begin to disappear, eighty years later in 1993. As she works to uncover the truth, Sadie must also grapple with her family history as the granddaughter of the famous feminist essayist Laura Lyons. Teaming up with the library’s private investigator leads Sadie to reveal shocking realities of her family’s involvement in those thefts eighty years earlier.

Fiona Davis, best-selling author of The Dollhouse, The Address, The Masterpiece, and The Chelsea Girls, delivers another carefully crafted historical fiction novel centered around a New York City landmark. This story encompasses mystery, women’s rights, and most of all a love for reading and books.

Thank you netgalley for the ARC of this book. I wanted to like this book more than I did. I loved that it took place in a library which is what drew me to it. The mystery of the missing books was well done. I found a few things about it unrealistic though. The circumstances behind Harry leaving and what he does and the way that Laura reacts is just unbelievable in my opinion. I don't want to give the story away so I won't say too much. The book thief and how that all played out also seemed unrealistic to me . However I had no problem staying interested in the book. It kept me wanting to know what was going to happen. I did like the ending.