If you asked for a dark academia book recommendation based on vibes, I'd give you this one.

Este has one wish: to attend Radcliffe Prep, where her father went as a high schooler. Heartbroken after his death, she feels like it is her last chance to connect with her dad from beyond the grave. She doesn't get quite the experience she is hoping for when she is framed for stealing a priceless book on the first day by a handsome ghost, Mateo. As punishment, she has to work the night shift at Radcliffe's library and convince Mateo to give her the book back or be expelled. When she finds out that Mateo has his own reasons for wanting the book, they work together to solve a century-long mystery, where Este's dad is at the heart of it.

The closest we get to a fantasy world in our ordinary lives is New England in the fall. Rachel Moore brought to life every academia nerd's dream. A haunted library, secret passageways, and the joy of being surrounded by books of all shapes and sizes. Without being overly descriptive, the world came to life in a way that made me forget I'm in the hottest state right now.

The mystery in this book wasn't the worst I've read, but I did want more. I think it will still work well with other readers, but the twists were a tad too obvious for my liking. To its credit, the plot wasn't dragged on for the sake of being longer, but I still wish the reveals could have been more alluded to than outright stated. This is definitely more of a personal opinion, as I read a lot of thrillers and mysteries outside of the fantasy genre, which has really shaped how I view mysteries. It was fun and had a decent number of twists, but there will be readers who will connect the pieces quicker the Este.

The romance was cute, even though it strayed into instant love. Este is very protective of her heart, not wanting to get hurt again after her dad's passing. We see this in how she pushes away those who try to be her friends. Mateo was very charming and sweet, and I liked seeing the connection between the two of them. I was hoping for a little more build-up, but considering how short the novel is, I was still satisfied with how the two came together.

All in all, I think this will be a charming little read for all of my fall girlies, and those who dream of having a hot ghost boyfriend.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I didn't enjoy this at all.... I found it lacked substance.
I think I may need to move away from YA books.

Thank you to Harper360YA for the arc of this book.

The Library of Shadows is everything I wanted and more, it's mostly set in a haunted library, it has a friendship I can liken to Wednesday and Enid from the Wednesday Neflix show and an air of mystery surrounds the disappearance of former students.


After struggling with the death of her father it has always been Este's dream to attend Radcliffe Prep school in order to feel closer to him, on the first day she lands in trouble when a rare book goes missing which she must return.

The school is known to be haunted and has a history of students disappearing every 10 years, Este's roommate Posy is keen to document paranormal instances and creates a Paranormal Investigators group which Este is reluctant to join.

I absolutely loved this book, I wish there had been more adventures with the Paranormal Investigators but I fully enjoyed the story unfolding and loved that it was set in Autumn to add to the spooky vibes.

This book had similarities to The Devil Makes Three which I also loved so if you liked that book then definitely pick this one up!

Perfect for readers who love dark academia, haunted libraries and a touch of romance.

Unfortunately DNF'd this book. I loved the concept, but personally it was just taking too long to actually get into the story, instead it felt like the same things being repeated over again.

Very intriguing story. The characters were very well developed but I have to say I was able to guess the "bad guy" pretty early on, despite the effort of misdirect from the author.

I received an eARC of The Library Of Shadows from Harper360 YA. Here is my honest review.

When I was sent this eARC, I was so excited. Just by seeing the title and cover, I was eager to read.

Este is distraught after her Father dies. So she enrolls into Radcliffe Prep, where her Father went to school, to try and be close to the memory of him. Although at Radcliffe Prep, not all is as it seems. whilst navigating hidden passageways and hints of the school being haunted and finding out that students have kept disappearing over the years, Este needs to act fast or she'll be next.

I feel like this book will be quite enjoyable for a few people, but I'm not going to lie, I struggled a bit with this book. I found the characters unlikeable and couldn't really connect with them. I feel like Este and Posy's friendship is non-existent, so I couldn't justify the character's actions after acting as if a treasured friendship existed. Posy was selfish and didn't really seem to care about Este at all, just her club. So I really found it annoying how Este was so disheartened when she kept thinking about their diminished friendship.

Este's character, I couldn't feel empathetic towards. I found her interactions hard to connect with and forced. This was such a shame, I wish I could have gotten into this book more. I found quite a few moments, where I felt quite disconnected from the characters, the plot, and the writing, I won't go into detail so as not to reveal spoilers.

Mateo, I found not too bad of a character, but there were some loose ends that I couldn't wrap my head around, just to how clueless he seemed to be or what exactly happened all those years ago when he first became a ghost by the heir (which I was able to guess with ease) and the relationship between them. I would have preferred a more in-depth interaction.

Overall, I think this book just wasn't for me. But I can see how the premise may be enough for some people.

This books was the perfect way to start out my spooky season reading list.
It is ghostly, suspenseful, and heartwarming.

Our story follows Este who gets a full ride scholarship to a prestigious academy, where students are prepped to go to top colleges and potentially get into book preservation and archiving. She does this in order to connect to her deceased father but when she gets there she realizes he left a trail of clues and warnings.

After getting in trouble for breaking and entering Este is forced to become a nighttime archival assistant but she soon realizes that monsters lurk in the darkness and they are looking for her. She must team up with ghosts and new friends to solve an over 100 year mystery of disappearances.

I loved that Este wants to be an archival assistant and learn book preservation. As a lover of libraries , bookstores, and rare books, I have always yearned to learn more on the topic myself. Having lost a parent and one parent becoming somewhat emotionally distant she learns to live without help but she soon has to learn that we do not have to do everything alone. I understand her as I had to navigate many things on my own and only in my late 20s am I learning to accept help from others when needed.
The romance that develops between her and Mateo is beautifully done and I like their chemistry. It is YA romance and only has some mild kissing. But I like the slow burn as they work together and open their hearts to one another.
Este's new friends are also well written and I enjoy that even though she pushes people away to not only protect herself but them, they stick by her anyway with understanding of her situation and past. We all need people in our lives that will be there through the good and the bad.

If you are looking for your next spooky , bookish read this one is for you! You wont want to miss it!

Thank you so much to the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this ARC copy. All opinions are my own and I would never review or recommend a book I did not personally like.

The Library of Shadows

High school me would have died for this book. I was obsessed with the Meg Cabot Mediator series and this gives the same type of reading experience. At 30, I eagerly picked this up and enjoyed it immensely. I will say, the jaded and cynical teen female lead is harder to sympathize with as I age. But her growth as a character was admirable and I think something a lot of young adults would identify with (I know I would have).

Plot - 4
Writing and Editing - 4
Character Development - 4
Personal Bias - 4
Final Score - 4

Thank you Rachel Moore, HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

I am sooooooo upset at this book because I was supposed to love it, everything about it sounded like it was written for me, but alas! it disappointed me sooo much! It is a verrrry much YA novel, and besides the beautiful prose, it failed to surprise me with the plot! I knew from like 20% in who the antagonist was going to be. And on top of that, the romance realllly stole the show

Thank you to Harper360YA for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Library of Shadows is a Rom-Com set in Radcliffe Prep - a haunted boarding school with a labyrinthine library, mysterious teachers, a history of disappearing students, secret rooms, and... ghosts?

Este Logano doesn't believe in ghosts, at least, not until she meets Mateo, one of Radcliffe Prep's former students that still haunts the school halls.

Este came to Radcliffe to find a connection with her recently deceased father (who also attended the school as a teen) but she is soon swept into a world of secrets and dangers at Radcliffe Prep.

+ I thought this was an engaging and entertaining read. It's a fast paced, standalone novel, with an interesting cast of characters.
+ The romance was cute, and I enjoyed seeing how their dynamic changed and developed as the story progressed.
- The ending is fairly predictable, but satisfying, although it is wrapped up very quickly.

Overall, I'd recommend this if you're looking for a cosy romance with added ghosts and secret libraries!

Ok, I was a little wary of starting this book. It's outside of my normal genre but I wanted to read something a little spooky since Fall is right around the corner.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! It's fast-paced and I was a little creeped out more than once (I will admit that's not hard to do!). The characters were all likable and the setting was perfectly described. It felt a little reminiscent of The Inheritance Trilogy to me...so if you didn't enjoy that you might not like this one...but it's still worth a read!

I will say the characters read on the younger side for me but that wasn't an issue. There were also a few pop culture references at the beginning but it wasn't so much that I felt that it detracted from the story. I know that's not everyone's cup of tea but I wasn't bothered by it.

All in all, I really enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more from this author!

This book was pretty strong for a new author. The characters were enjoyable to read about the the mysteries were unique and fascinating. I do wish we received more background on the ghosts, because their storylines seemed very unique and interesting to learn about. I also think the setting had a lot of potential to feel more real and characterized, rather, it missed a lot of the descriptive style of writing I usually enjoy when hearing about memorable book settings. The romance was enjoyable but moved a little too fast for my liking. Overall, unique story and talented author!

Este Logano has been accepted as a scholarship student to a prestigious prep school, one of the most haunted in the nation and one her late father attended. While touring the school on her first day, she is distracted by a handsome student who directs her into sneaking into the restricted area of the library and allowing him to steal the most valuable book in the school. Threatened with expulsion, Este has to work the night shift at the library and try to find the lost book, but all is not as it seems at night in the library and Este may have to fight to survive.

The novel is very descriptive and really places the reader in the setting of this school, painting the fall foliage, the dust floating between the stacks, the shadows stretching toward Este. It is easy to get lost in the lush descriptions Moore paints.

The characterizations are okay, some characters are fleshed out better than others, and all have odd names. There is not a Jenny, Sarah, or Michael among them. Este has a fair bit of development and her personality comes through. She makes plenty of poor decisions but it fits her character. Her roommate Posy could not be more annoying as she is constantly hauling around ghost hunting equipment, being as eccentric as possible. I skimmed when Posy was on the page as reading her behavior was painful.

Mateo is a bit of a conundrum as I feel not much was done to build his character and he acted out-of-character for someone who was born in 1901. For someone who was born in the Victorian Era, he didn't fall upon decorum or have any issue seeing any parts of the human form that would have made Victorians blush. And while I appreciate he wasn't a chauvinist, claiming women can't do this or that, he never really felt like he played the right part. Daveed grew up in the eighties and had character traits that placed him in his era, even Luca who grew up in the 20s acted like a flapper, but Mateo acted very much like he was a Millennial at the earliest. If his behavior had more of what I would have expected from someone growing up in the Victorian era, I think it would have heightened the romantic tension, rather than relying on the ghost trope as to why they can't touch.

As for the weakest part of this book, was the plot. Este follows many clues left by her father to figure out the mystery behind the ghosts of the school and not one single clue is easy for the reader to figure out on their own. Este makes large leaps in reasoning to come to her conclusions, and even at the end, pulls out an item that holds the key to the plot that I do not think was mentioned at any point earlier in the book, a storytelling sin. The twist was also fairly obvious for the reader, and while some have guessed it sooner, I guessed it at least at the halfway point. So we have leaps in logic while also some things being too easily guessed. There is also a huge plot hole that is revealed at the end of the book, and I'm not someone who is skilled at noticing plot holes.

All said, I think teens will enjoy Library of Shadows if they are Bibliophiles, dark academia, or enjoy paranormal romance. The mystery aspects to this story leave something to be desired, but I think there is still pieces to this that are worth the read. I think teens will find the romance swoon-worthy and the romantic scenes are chaste enough that I would allow my teen child to read them without worry.

Parth paranormal ghost story part rom-com, with a dose of dark academia, The Library of Shadows is a fun, pacey debut from Rachel Moore and is sure to do well within the YA demographic. Perfect for fans of The Devil Makes Three and The Dark Vault series by VE Schwab, it kept me interested the whole time and was overall a very fun read!

Following the story of Este, scholarship student at the notoriously haunted Radcliffe Prep, and Mateo, not quite fully alive swoony love interest. Bound together in a mystery involving a mysterious book and Este’s father, the two find themselves increasingly drawn to each other. Atmospheric, spooky and fun, The Library of Shadows will particularly appeal to younger readers who want an easy bingeable story that will have you both laughing and a little bit spooked.

Overall, while I haven’t been reading much YA lately, I really enjoyed this story and Moore’s writing style. While I wouldn’t be rushing for a reread it was a fun romp nonetheless and think it’ll do well within its demographic.

3.75 ⭐️ Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

This book felt like a more light-hearted “Wednesday” with ghosts and romance. It was a fun ride overall!

I loved the academic setting, unique premise, the ghost gang, and of course, sweet paranormal romance. I liked the message at the heart of the story about love and loss so much. My only wish was that the character relationships had been given more time to develop and shine.

This one is a definite recommend! I think it’s really perfect for younger YA readers too.

I loved this book it was a 5 star just wow! I can’t believe this isn’t in more special edition book boxes these months coming! This is the perfect fall read or Halloween read! It is literally just what I was looking for for this season!

A Massive Thank You to the Author, the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book prior to its release date.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the eARC.

This book started out around. 4 star, then moved to about a 3.5… and the ending was pretty ehhh. So it’s somewhere around 3/3.5 but ultimately I don’t think it deserves my 4 star rating.

What I will say that’s good about this book: It is so solidly YA. 13-17 year olds will devour this book. It hits all the highlights of YA paranormal romance. I’m pretty impressed by it actually. It never felt too young nor too old. And I think teen me would have enjoyed it quite a lot!

I did have a few qualms though.

The side characters were pretty bland and one-note. We are supposed to feel this found-family atmosphere but it’s just not there for me. In total, there are like 7 or 8 friend side characters. That’s WAY too many for a romance! We’ve got like 3 on Mateo’s side and 4 on Este’s? Idk. It was too many and I could barely keep track. Also I don’t feel the human friends were of much use? They felt superfluous and I didn’t really like any - nor did I think Posy and Este felt like friends. 🤷‍♀️

The timeline jumps a lot. I don’t… really know how much time has passed. The whole book felt a little discombobulated like that - where things were happening but I couldn’t tell where the ideas came from? Suddenly someone thought something and I was suffering from whiplash.

Finally, the ending was lackluster. I could see threads of foreshadowing but none of it was that surprising and none of it made me gasp. I just went “okay” and moved on.

I think this book is very solid for the YA bracket and j could see a lot of non-critical readers enjoying it! I just think it fell a little flat for me, especially in the second half.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books, Harper 360 YA, and NetGalley for the ARC of The Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Rachel Moore has taken the classic creepy prep/academic school setting, added focus on a haunted library and a backstory of mysterious disappearances, a fire in 1917 and produced a ghostly mystery that will pull you in as the plot twists and turns, taking you down dead ends and mysterious hidden corridors.

The key protagonist Este isn’t the most likeable of characters, having lost her father she’s become a bit of a lover and at times of difficulty pushes people away. However, I like the journey she takes in this book and the supporting characters are truly a great mix, who don’t tolerate her behaviour, even when she is her own worst enemy.

The other key protagonist in this story is the library of shadows, I absolutely adored everything about it from its multiple floors, nooks, crannies and of course Spire. It is a character with its own personality and foibles that are hauntingly charming.

The book blurb says that this is a great read if you loved Ninth House or Cemetery Boys, I’d say if you love creepy fun shows like Wednesday or even the classics like The Addams Family, you’ll definir want to pick this book up!

There’s a lot to like about this book and it’s a pretty quick read, perfect for teens who love a paranormal mystery.

This was fun, and the vibes absolutely matched the cover! The main thing that annoyed me was the ongoing friendship conflict, which was very classic YA so perhaps fine for younger readers.

I also thought the relationship was a little insta-lovey.

HOWEVER, the vibes with ghosts, spooky library, boarding school? Immaculate