The Whimbrel House - a once haunted estate in Rhode Island and inherited by Merritt Fernsby. In the previous book (Keeper of Enchanted Rooms), Fernsby acquired the help of an agent from BIKER (Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms), Hulda Larson.

Now, the home is no longer haunted the way it had been. In fact, the entity that had been the house is now inside the body of a dog. But there are new challenges ahead.

On the romance scene, Hulda and Merritt are clearly attracted to one another but neither knows how to address this attraction. Instead they dance around the issue, not sure if the other feels the same way and not sure how to move forward.

Hulda has other problems to deal with. BIKER is being investigated by LIKER (the London equivalent and home office). It seems that Hulda's boss, Myra, may not be operating entirely within the law, so change may be in store for BIKER. But the LIKER boss doesn't seem to like anyone, especially Hulda. And what's Merritt going to do, anyway?!

I'm generally a fan of Charlie N. Holmberg's work and I really thought she was on to something with the first book in this Whimbrel House series so I jumped into this second book quite eager to continue the enjoyment. But this book definitely doesn't have the 'zing' that I found in the first book.

In the first book, we had a fantastic character in the haunted house. Once that was resolved we really lost a major player. Yes, that character is now a dog and there are more than a few amusing moments with him, it really doesn't have the same bite.

The romance between Hulda and Merritt was a slow building fire kept somewhat at bay by the constant need to battle the demon haunting the house. The romance wasn't the center point but something nice to round out the characters as being 'real.' Here the romance, or lack of romance, is the purpose for the story. And yet ... there is no romance!

Merritt was never a particularly strong character to begin with, but Hulda was a really great character. Strong, confident, and with a mysterious assortment of magic up her sleeve. Here though she's tentative and dumbstruck.

The story surround LIKER investigating BIKER also feels a bit hollow. We just never got enough of BIKER to begin with, other than Hulda, and so we weren't really set up to have a buy-in on the looking trouble.

Too much of this book doesn't work. Holmberg is still one of my favorite fantasy authors, but this book is a let-down.

Looking for a good book? There is nothing 'uncertain' about the magic in Charlie N. Homberg's book, Heir of Uncertain Magic ... it's missing.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

A fun magical sequel though pacing is much slower than the first novel. Would highly recommend⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

In Heir of Uncertain Magic, Charlie Holmberg once again creates a world of magic, love, enchantment and awe inspiring imagination that grabs your attention from the first page. The lovable characters is this book are so fun to follow along as they go deeper with their journeys together. This book follows another book in this series and I would suggest anyone read them in order to keep from having extra confusion when started Heir of Uncertain Magic.

I loved this book! It was a really fun read! overall recommended

thank u for NetGalley for the eARC.

Great sequel!!

The narration for this was well done and I love that it picked up right where Book 1 left off. This one did feel a little slower but it was still a great story! I'm excited to read more in the future!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Heir of Uncertain Magic by Charlie N. Holmberg is the next captivating installment in the Whimbrel House series. In this spellbinding novel, the protagonist embarks on a journey to uncover his magical heritage.

Thanks to the efforts of house tamer Hulda Larkin, the mischievous energy at Whimbrel House has been subdued. However, with Hulda’s task completed, Merritt Fernsby, the inheritor of the remote Narragansett Bay estate, must come to terms with his own enchanted place in the world.

Merritt discovers his own growing powers, which enable him to communicate with plants, insects, and even dogs. Plagued by sleepless nights filled with a cacophony of voices, he is compelled to delve into his mysterious bloodline. Merritt’s journey intertwines with that of Hulda, his former housekeeper, as they both face puzzles and challenges. Hulda’s friend and former employer from the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has disappeared, and Hulda finds herself vying for the now-vacant position of institute director against a suspicious stranger who seems overly interested in Whimbrel House and may have connections to an old enemy.

While Merritt confronts his estranged family and Hulda unravels the secrets of the institute, their paths become intimately entwined in the realms of wizardry, chaos, and love.

Now, onto my review. First of all, I absolutely adore the cover of this book. It is beautiful and perfectly captures the essence of the story. Moving on to the review itself, I must say that I adored the first book in this series, “Keeper of Enchanted Rooms.” It was one of the best books I’ve read this year. Although I did enjoy “Heir of Uncertain Magic,” it didn’t quite reach the same level of excellence as its predecessor. However, this does not mean that I didn’t like it; on the contrary, I found it to be a highly enjoyable read. The writing remains strong, the pacing is perfect, and the setting is atmospheric, magical, and cozy. The plot is engaging and original, and the characters are likable and well-developed. The romance is sweet and adds an extra layer of charm to the story. I am eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

I liked this book a lot, just not as much as the first one. What I liked the most was, of course, the characters I couldn’t wait to hang out with again after Keeper of Enchanted Rooms. And the setting and the overall vibes of the story are just sooo cozy!

This is a perfect book to curl up with, grab a cup of tea, your favorite blanket, and disappear from this world for a couple of days. And it is so different from what I usually read, it always feels fresh and like a great palette cleanser.

But this second book didn’t feel as exciting to me as the first one. Quite a bit happened, but I can’t escape this feeling like nothing much has changed.

Still, I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

If you want to see my much more in-depth review, you can check it out on my book blog NovelOnMyMind.

Thank you to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of Heir of Uncertain Magic by Charlie N. Holmberg in exchange for an honest review.

Love love love love love! Holmberg is genuinely one of my favourite authors and it is only thanks to joining Netgalley a few years ago that I discovered her. If you haven't read one of her books you really should.

Heir of Uncertain Magic was... magical :D It is typically Holmberg and so fantastic, do yourself a favor and grab yourself a copy now!

I had higher hopes for this second book in the series since I enjoyed the first book so much. This second book in this series was just okay for me, so really probably 3.5 stars (which I can't give that dang half), but I rounded down unfortunately. The pacing was slow, and there wasn't as much action or suspense as in the first book. It was still well-written as far as descriptions and character development and the still slow pace of Hilda and Merritt's romance. I enjoyed Owein in his new form and how he was involved in the story this time, but I just needed more from the story line and plot. It just didn't keep me engrossed enough to want to pick it up to read and get through it at my normal reading pace. Still, it was very enjoyable and I look forward to finish reading the series when the next book is released!

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ℍ𝕖𝕚𝕣 𝕠𝕗 𝕌𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟 𝕄𝕒𝕘𝕚𝕔
Wʜɪᴍʙᴿᴇʟ Hᴏᴜsᴇ
Bᴏᴏᴋ ²
𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗡. 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗴
Fantasy
304 pages

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs

Merritt and Hulda delve into some unsavory dealings relating to the institute as their relationship changes.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs

This story is plain-out charming, even when deception creeps in.

You can’t help but love all the characters that have anything to do with Whimbrel House. They are an eclectic lot, for sure!

The charming Whimbrel characters mixed with the devious ones make for a captivating story full of love, magic, and a relenting search for the truth.

~Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3PTtY9k
~As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases.

~Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

This book was entertaining, lighthearted, and fun but the plot was slow and lacked any real depth. I wasn't able to get as deeply invested into this book as i did with the first. OVerall though, it was well written and enjoyable.

I was really, really surprised by the first book in this series. I loved it! All of the best characters were back which I really appreciated!

The villain and conflict in this book was not as exciting to me as book one. But I have just learned that a book 3 is in the works, so I will absolutely be reading that!

There is something about this series and characters that makes me so stinking happy. Like everytime the main couple interacts I can't help but blush, it is just TOO CUTE. I genuinely think this will be a forever comfort series, the writing and characters are just so heartwarming. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! It was a really fun read! It was nice to see these characters back for more magic and mystery, charlie n holmberg does it again! Plus this cover is amazing

Heir of Uncertain Magic is the second Whimbrel House historical paranormal mystery by Charlie N. Holmberg. Released 11th April 2023 by Amazon on their 47North imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The first book in the series, Keeper of Enchanted Rooms, is also currently available on KU.

This is a very well written ensemble cast character driven mystery/fantasy with an engaging bunch of protagonists and a seamless world-building magic system. The characters are well rendered and believable within the framework of a paranormal fantasy. It's a historical mystery, set in the early Victorian period and although it's not at all derivative (and a different time period altogether) it fits in the same general shelf as Stross' Laundry Files, and Stroud's Bartimaeus.

The agency is filled with the sort of bureaucrats that readers love to hate: bumbling, incompetent, completely malign or a combination. Protagonist Hulda is efficient and admirably restrained, but not about to take being sidelined without a fight. Her foil, Merritt is the homeowner of a formerly magical house for whom Hulda was previously employed (book 1) as housekeeper and factotum. The author has an admirable eye for detail and even the secondary and tertiary characters are well fleshed out and add important detail to the story.

Four stars. It's not a fluffy cozy, there are some hard edged descriptions here, including the magical abuse of a child, admittedly currently inhabiting a dog's body. There are also some really really over the top silly departmental acronyms which yanked me out of the story, BIKER and LIKER to name a couple.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A nice follow-up to the previous book, although I found the style a tad too frolicky and whimsical to really pull me in.
The style doesn't fit my prefernece and I found it overly bantery and dialogue heavy. It also lacked wonder and the darkness of the first book, which took away the tension for me.

Saying all this I am sure that lovers of quirky romantic magic fans will still enjoy this book very much and the craftwise it is lovely.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize when I requested this book that it was the second in the sequel. Normally I'm better about realizing that, however, that day I was like ouu yes please. So I enjoyed that the author re-established a large portion of what happened in the first book, where most people probably didn't enjoy that as much as I did. I would have to say after reading this book, I definitely would like to go back to the first one and read that as well. Just because this book was so well written, the characters developed nicely, and magic, hello, who could say no to that?

I absolutely adored the first book in this series and was so happy to receive an ARC for Heir of Uncertain Magic. Once again, I was happy to be back in Hulda and Merritt's company and especially loved the broadening of Owein, Baptiste and Miss Taylor's roles in the story. I'm looking forward to the building of this found family in future books!

4.5 stars. This is the second book in the Whimbrel House series. I fell in love with the first book and was thrilled to find out there was going to be more. This book starts about 2 weeks after the last book ended. I'm not familiar with the different types of magic so I had a bit of trouble keeping them all straight, but there was a table up front explaining them all. I love all of the main characters and enjoyed following them all through this escapade. It hits all the emotions again including humor. It's right up my alley. I also love the way romance is portrayed in this series. It is so innocent and a breath of fresh air. Disappointed I will have to wait almost an entire year before I can read the next one which I believe will be the last of the series. Don't want to see this series end as the first book made it to a status of one of my all time favorite books.

I got this copy for free from Netgalley for review and appreciate it very much.

Riveting and enchanting, Holmberg delivers a masterful tale of magic and adventure. I was hooked from the first page and found it hard to put the book down. Well-written and fun to read, Heir of Uncertain Magic is definitely a book that should be on everyone's reading list.