At the beginning of the year, I made a list of authors that I've been saying I need to read and commit to reading at least one book by each of the authors in 2026. Here's my thoughts on one of those books/authors.
Goodreads: The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox
Blurb: World War I England, a young woman inherits a mysterious library and must untangle its powerful secrets
With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she’s descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home.
The abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious. But there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors: a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. And she senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own.
Rumors swirl in the village about the abbey’s previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the center of it all. And as events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the library’s mysteries in order to reclaim her own story—before it vanishes forever.
My Thoughts: I really thought I would love this. It's set in a Gothic-y library and the main character who has been struggling to survive suddenly ends up with a title and an abbey. Ivy quickly realizes that all is not what it seems. The household staff is hardly welcoming, and she has to pick a lock to get into her own library. Then more and more unexplainable things begin to happen.
This is one of those stories that it probably is best not to know much going in. There's a lot going on behind the scenes but the reader and Ivy are in the dark for so long that it gets a bit frustrating. I understand why Ivy is in the dark but because I had no idea what was going on for so long it did start to be repetitive. Ivy has a headache and feels fuzzy, Ivy wants to do something but is told no by the housekeeper, the random "family friend" shows up and Ivy falls for his act when it is clear no one else likes him. The last quarter of the book did start picking up and the end was interesting, but it took a bit to get there. I enjoyed Fox's ability to set the scene, and I would like to read more from her, but this one was a bit flat for me. I don't think I fully got over the slower pacing of the first half. My Rating: Liked It (3 Stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment