The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

By: Hester Fox

Narrated by: Ell Potter

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Don't miss Hester Fox's next novel, THE BOOK OF THORNS, where two sisters who never knew the other existed meet on opposite sides during the Napoleonic Wars and must use the magic of flowers to solve the mystery of their mother’s death—while surviving the war raging around them...

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

Boring and tiresome

Boring and weak storyline. I do not recommend it. More Young Adult than anything else.

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

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.

Lame

This may not be the worst book I've ever read, but it's on the list.

Great story

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

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.

Absolutely Tedious

The other two- and three-star reviews do a good job summarizing the character and plot flaws of this underbaked mess of a book. Unfortunately the narrator really leans into the foolishness of the main character, which only adds to her overall un-likability. I really wish I would have read more of these reviews before purchasing, but was afraid of spoilers. Save your credits/money and choose another book that won’t have you wanting to pull your hair out over a bunch of cardboard stereotyped characters making all the wrong decisions.

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.

More like YA fiction

I echo what a former review says that this is more like YA fiction. Simplistic story line and surface-level character development with some weird sexual tension interspersed. However, the story is rich in ambience and I found the story more or less engaging. It’s a little fluffy but I’m not mad at that.

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.