The Last Heir to Blackwood Library

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.

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.

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.

Based on the blurb, I thought this would be a different story. A good deal of the book was ivy being confused and stubborn. The confusion and forgetfulness was used as a way to layer actions that felt a bit like an easy way to solve plot holes. It was interesting to a point but I felt like I had as many gaps in my memory reading as Ivy.