The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

I had high hopes for this one but was left wanting more.

It was long, people weren't really likeable. The plot had the bones of a great story, but it never developed in a way to fully draw me in.

I don't always enjoy historical fiction and with this one set after WWI, it wasn't something I thought truly added to the plot.

I am not sad I read this book, however as someone into contemporary romance, witchy fiction and thrillers, it was lacking something for me.

Holy cow was this a slog to get through.

Ivy Radcliffe inherits Blackwood Abbey from a rather distant and unknown relative's death. She claims her property, moves in, and finds that the abbey itself is rather run-down, the staff is a bit standoffish, and the surrounding area bleak and uninviting. Nevertheless, she has an amazing library now, but everytime she spends any length of time within it, she comes out with headaches. Dizzy spells. Weird memory loss. She ignores warnings from, well, basically everyone, keeps mucking about in the library, and in true FAFO fashion, Finds Out that there's supernatural forces afoot amongst the books.

I feel like the author was trying to make Ivy out to be some sort of strong, independent woman in WWI-era England, but never really nailed the execution. Lots of things happen to Ivy, but she never really seems to take charge of anything to solve things. Her plans seem to amount to "bumble around until Ralph swoops in to rescue me", or get captured because Ralph wasn't able to swoop in and (immediately) rescue her, because that comes later. Between that and the constant memory loss plot crutch, it got rather repetitive by the end.

Btw, guys don't smell like woodsmoke and leather. Not even Ralph.

Like many of the reviews I'm reading on this book, I DNF at about 75% lol. It got so dry and predictable that I felt like I knew everything that was going to happen so I didn't feel the need to finish. It had such potential!! The setting was perfect, characters very unlikeable

3.5 Stars. Story had tons of potential and I feel it just fell short. Ivy, the main protagonist, does some things that felt out of character early on, probably because it was necessary to advance the plot, but the book was not very long, so I feel like some extra story keeping in character and advancing the story would have taken this from a good book to a great one.

A quick, short read that touches on the occult just a bit, with just a tease of mystery. Good, not great, but an enjoyable read.

I liked the gothic English manor and the romance was okay. The ghost part of the story and all that happened because of it was unique, but I'm not sure that I liked it. The way it was written was done well, but that part of the plot seemed like a romance where they just won't talk to each other. I did like the characters enough to be happy with the ending.