The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

De: Hester Fox

Narrado por: Ell Potter

"Weaves a spell of darkness that’s mysterious and magical, and binds it with a knot of deathless love." —New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley on A Lullaby for Witches

In post–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.

Delve into the magical power of flowers in Hester Fox's captivating new novel, THE BOOK OF THORNS, where long-lost sisters reunite on opposite sides of the Napoleonic Wars and must uncover the secrets of their mother's disappearance and their mystical powers…

Look for these other gothic mysteries from Hester Fox:

• The Witch of Willow Hall
• The Widow of Pale Harbor
• The Orphan of Cemetery Hill
• A Lullaby for Witches

©2023 Hester Fox (P)2023 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Sometimes the repetition was a little bit much

I enjoyed the story but found that we were repeating some of the information multiple times which slowed the pace and it sometimes got really a little like you don’t wanna miss something but also want to speed it up

Great story

I loved the story. I felt like I was engulfed by a living library. I’ve never read anything like it.

Great book

I always love Hester Fox’s novels. They take you back in time and describe beautiful, haunting places. Can’t wait for the next story.

Not what I thought it would be

This was ok but didn't love the main character. Just wanted to hurry through it to get to the end.

Magic Library for the Win!

Overall, the story was pretty awesome! The narration was done VERY WELL!! There were a couple parts that seemed to take longer to get through, but it could just be a “me problem”. I’ll definitely still be telling people to read The Last Heir to Blackwood Library!!

Wonderful Story

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I listened to the entire book in one day. I have never done that before and I could not put this book down, Sorry it had to end.

It’s Pretty Good

I liked the premises of the story. It gets a little weird and is a little slow in some places but overall, it was worth a listen.

Wartime Gothic / Medieval Musings

Use of language was strong - as were the builds of the beginning of the story… I enjoyed the characters, but was only a wee bit frustrated at the pacing of the story. I felt as if a little more exposition around the beginnings of the Abbey, may have helped fill in some of the gaps. All in all, it was a great autumnal dive into a little bit of spookiness.

LOVED THIS BOOK!

So many people say this was a bad book and for Y.A. readers. I must be young at heart at 50, because this was a perfect book. I didn't want to put it down. LOVED IT!

And the reader was amazing!

Waste of a credit

I can’t believe I listened all the way to the end. Maybe I was hoping the story would get better (spoiler—it gets worse). It feels lazily written, with characters described in cliched ways not at all borne out by their actions. We are expected to believe the heroine is plucky and brilliant (she “likes books,”and her father was a professor!) but she acts like a dingbat even before she has the excuse of being supernaturally roofied. The story got more and more contrived and ridiculous as it progressed. By the time our civic minded heroine starts her charitable “lending library” (picture a lemonade stand, but with books), I could not stop myself commenting aloud. By the last interminable half hour of this ridiculousness my commentary had degenerated into single words like NOOOO and STOP and noises like UGHHHHHHH. There is so much more wrong with this book, but my dogs are bugging me to feed them dinner, and I think I have already written enough to save someone like me from wasting a credit.