The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

Hester Fox

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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.Lush, atmospheric and transporting, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library is a skillful reflection on memory and female agency, and a love letter to books from a writer at the height of her power.


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    There are so many aspects of this book that should spell automatic success (based on my personal preferences that is): 
    • Gothic, historical atmosphere
    • Mysterious, semi-sentient library
    • Ghost stories with a religious undertone
    • FMC from the lower class is moved to upper class suddenly
    • Memory loss as a main plot device

    For the most part, the author uses these devices and crafts an interesting plot and characters - especially with the unreliability of our main character, Ivy. The use of memory loss and how little we know through her perspective does an excellent job of keeping the reader guessing what is real, what is a dream, and what is actually happening around her. On the other hand, unfortunately, Ivy is incredibly naïve and her decisions/actions are, more often than not, eye-roll worthy, and occasionally, 'what the hell are you thinking' inducing. 

    The concept and setup of the plot and characters is promising, but the execution was just lacking. I enjoyed it well enough, but it could have been so much more.

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