3.5 stars rounded down because I think the ending was a cop-out. This was an interesting and unique premise which was very welcome. I liked the characters, I liked that although the main character Isaac was sort of on the outs with his agency it wasn't because he had a big mouth or was an asshole. I thought Lena was an interesting character but she was set up in such a way that she will never be free of her burdens which prevent her from being truly real.
Some good things:
Lena is the very beautiful love interest and she is described many times as being heavy set. she's also majorly kick-ass and saves Isaac on more than one occasion, one time even shielding his body with hers. He describes her as perfect.
There is lots of action and danger and injury and emotion.
There are lesbian and bi characters and they are powerful and smart.
Isaac had a lot in common with me (fear of bridges over water, couldn't even highlight his textbooks because it was marring them, sf geek in addition to the fantasy) which made me relate to him better.
His mother proposed to her husband-to-be, not the other way around.
All kinds of sf references, many that only true fans would recognize (particularly Doctor Who stuff), and Firefly is one of his top two shows.
The story was mostly unpredictable. The plot ending could have gone several as I didn't know which until they did.
The author had a good understanding of publishing and printing.
Isaac loves Lena so much that he He's willing to let her go. This isn't a case of not fighting for your love, it's him realizing that the fight will only make it harder on her and not fighting will make her happy. He is not a stalker.
Some not so good things:
He claims to have read every sf/f book in his work library (3,000+), plus every vampire novel ever written, plus the ones that he needs that aren't there plus plenty of non-sf/f books plus all the ones he has to catalog for the agency--I don't think even a book a day would be enough to get through all that given that he's fairly young and couldn't have started reading all the adult stuff until the middle grades at the earliest. So I found that unrealistic.
At one point a character is tiny, a couple of inches high, but dust is still in the same proportions (some dust motes would be at least golf ball sized) and it doesn't take as long as it should to get from place to place.
A doorway was described as the ideal place to take refuge during an earthquake. No, under a sturdy table or desk is and a doorway is actually one of the worst places--despite what we learned in school--because there is no supporting structure shoring it up and because even skinny people are thicker than doorways.
He's injured severely, completely out of it in peril, then he wakes up and is fine.
Plot hole: We are told no sentient beings can come from books (Lena came a different way) but vampires are from books.
An excerpt from a book that was written by a non-writer for the wrong reasons should have been much worse than it was.
a few logistical questions were never answered like what would happen if a magical item were destroyed outside of the book and what if a book were destroyed before a magical item from it had been neutralized.
Overall it was a good book but I think the last 2-3 pages were too easy and a cop out. It really tainted the ending for me. But that's not why I'm not giving it a higher rating. Something about the book just didn't connect with me. Something about it felt unpolished but I can't put a finger on it at all. I don't think the extra-large type in the hardback edition helped. If it weren't for the absurd ending, I'd be eager to read the next one when it comes out. Right now I could take or leave it. I do give him props for being a feminist and I would try another series of his if it weren't all high fantasy. But as it is, when the next one comes out I'll take a look if I notice it and then we'll see.