The Library of Fates

• Author: Margot Harrison
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: December 2, 2025
• Publisher: Harlequin Audio

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

When its librarian keeper mysteriously dies, two former classmates must race to locate a rare book from their college years that can foretell your future if you confess a secret from your past—but someone is intent on protecting what’s hidden inside…

The Library of Fates was designed to show you who you are—and who you could become. Its rarest book, The Book of Dark Nights, holds a when you write an intimate confession on its pages, you’ll receive a prediction for your future, penned in your own handwriting.

For Eleanor, whose childhood was defined by a senseless tragedy, the library offers a world where everything makes sense. She’s spent most of her life there as an apprentice to the brilliant librarian, showing other people how to find the meaning of their lives in stories.

But when her mentor dies in a freak accident and The Book of Dark Nights goes missing—along with the secrets written inside—Eleanor is pulled out of the library and into a quest to locate it with the last person she the librarian’s estranged son, Daniel, who Eleanor once loved before he suddenly ran off to Europe decades ago.

Together, as they hunt down clues from Harvard to Paris, Eleanor and Daniel grow closer again, regaining each other’s trust. But little do they know that they’re entangled in a much larger web. Someone else wants the book, and they may be willing to kill to get it…

I can’t resist a good book involving a library and books. So when this fantasy came across my radar, it sounded like it would be a great read for me. It has a lot of elements that I like in fantasy—bookish characters, dark academia, and magical books. The fact that there is a mystery within the story was only a greater draw.

Caroline Hewitt did a fantastic job as the narrator for this book. Her voice made it simple to compulsively listen to this story with her clear speech and pleasant-sounding voice. She came across as especially convincing when narrating the past timeline, sounding like a college student. Additionally, there are multiple characters with French accents which she pulls off beautifully, and has no problem pronouncing words in French (which I can’t manage at all, so it always seems impressive). 

The story is told in dual timelines, one from 1995 when they were in college, and the other in 2019, and almost all of the characters are the same. Growing up in a library, it was natural for Eleanor to gravitate towards Odile as a mentor in the library. However, what wasn’t common was that the library had a book kept by Odile where students were encouraged to confess a secret and in turn receive a prediction for your future. Eleanor becomes involved with the other students, and develops a relationship with Daniel, Odile’s son. In the later timeline, Odile has died under suspicious circumstances and The Book of Dark Nights has gone missing, pushing Eleanor and Daniel together to find the book.

I really liked the way that Eleanor and Daniel interacted. In the earlier timeline we see their connection grow from being classmates to being in love, and it felt similar to the way that college romances grew through proximity in classes and become serious and intense quickly, yet the romance didn’t quite come through. In 2019, they are no longer together and Daniel moved back to France after college, but we don’t know why. The relationship between Odile and Daniel felt kind of distant, but I don’t know much about French culture and how parent-child relationships were characterized in 1995, so this might be just the way these two connect. Odile did come across as more nurturing towards Eleanor, so the mentor relationship felt much more connected than Odile did towards her own son.

Unfortunately, the characters also came across as somewhat flat. The world building involved in this story is outstanding, but it feels like it came at the expense of character development. Even the main characters can be summed up in just a few words, which is disappointing when this story really called for some characters who were more complex. The pacing was a little uneven, but the story kept my attention and the pacing wasn’t as important to my enjoyment of the story as the plot. In my opinion, the romance did feel a little lukewarm, almost as if a romance was shoehorned into the story when a close friendship could have worked as well. 

Overall, this was a read that I enjoyed quite a bit. The secret society, the book, and the mystery of what happened to Odile and the missing book kept me hooked on reading, and it was so convenient to have the audiobook version so I could listen to it anytime, anywhere. The world building was outstanding, and I loved learning more about this world and what happened in both timelines, which were equally intriguing to me. There are themes in the story of free will and predetermined destiny through the idea of the book and the highly accurate predictions that are fed back to the confessors, although it felt as though the themes weren’t explored as fully as I would have liked. There was a lot of room in this story for growth, but this is an author that I will definitely continue to read.

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