The Book of Secrets (The Last Oracle #1)

When I decided to review this book, I was a bit apprehensive. Sometimes books like these are vehicles for more of a paranormal romance type of book, which isn’t really my cup of tea. But this book had wonderful world building and character introductions. The plot was well developed. I’m so happy this book is exactly what I wanted.

This is the first book in a series titled The Last Oracle. I have never read this author before, and I wasn’t even aware she had written anything else until after I had read this book. That explains how well-written this book was; she isn’t a novice. Not only, though, was it was well-written, the book was fun and the world building excellent. I really enjoyed the different aspect of oracles, and I’d say what it is, but I don’t want to spoil that part of the book. One thing that struck me was the simplicity of this book. Don’t get me wrong, the book wasn’t simple, but it had an overall old-fashioned, simple feeling that really drew me in, almost, but not quite, a noir feeling. You’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean. I’m hoping that we get to learn even more about the characters. And while this did suffer a little bit from first book syndrome, this was a fun ride, and I can’t wait to see what adventures Helena will go on next! Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and Curiosity Quills Press for the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.

I received a copy of The Book of Secrets (The Last Oracle #1) by Melissa McShane from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued initially by the summary and am happy to report that the book did not disappoint!

The good: a plot that moves swiftly and was not a dime a dozen snoozefest. This book had a well-woven story and crisp descriptions of people or things that keeps the reader engaged, and a mostly likeable protagonist (Helena Davies) that you want to root for.

The not-so-good: the supporting character development could have been stronger and with the swiftly-moving pace of the story, some threads of the plot weren't fully explored/explained; plus, the ending of the story (even though it's setting the stage for the second book) felt rushed and underwhelming. Lastly, what should have been a huge battle scene, was little anticlimactic.

All in all, reading The Book of Secrets (The Last Oracle #1) by Melissa McShane was an enjoyable way to spend a winter evening, and am happy to had the opportunity to do so.

This was a very enjoyable, quick read. It is very similar in style to Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore and The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Alchemist. An innocent young girl unknowingly gets wrapped up in a magical world where there is an ongoing war. As she accepts her new role she realizes she isn't quite as out of place as she originally thought. The prose is not necessarily eloquent but the plot is fast paced and it will keep you on your toes. Overall there isn't much text devoted to character development. I am looking forward to getting more of their backgrounds in the upcoming books of this new series. Fun read!!

Just a fun little book.

I am a dedicated Melissa McShane-aphile. And this was a solid book, cute and a quick read, with characters I enjoyed (well Viv annoyed me a couple of times,) a world I am dying to know more about, and a potential romance that needs to be explored.

Ready for the next book in the series.

At first I am a little sceptical because the cover of this book is not really inviting. I thought that this book will tell the story of another magic school by looking on the cover only.. How wrong I was!

The plot is fast-paced even though there are some filler part that I think could be shortened. But the character and the world building are beautifully described. The ending is somewhat flat and left reader with so many questions and wonder, though it is a good strategy to make sure that reader come back for more to satisfy the curiousity.

Overall this is another magical book that I enjoyed and can’t wait for the sequel.

“People don’t just receive a book and read out exactly the answer they came for. They have to work at understanding it.”

This book was definitely not what I expected it to be. I enjoyed previous works in Melissa McShane’s “The Extraordinaries” series and so I was excited to read something else from her and the plot of this book really jumped out at me. Of course, anything having to do with a bookstore is going to intrigue me, but this one stood out because it promised to weave together what seemed like a couple different genres, Mystery, Fantasy and Paranormal.

In some ways this book felt almost like a prequel and not a first book. I can’t really explain why I felt that way except that there’s a lot of explanation and just setting up for further events that seems to happen in this book. We get to know the characters, and they’re very likable, but not enough to make me be truly invested in them just yet. The overall plots are very interesting, but there’s still so much left to know and sometimes the explanations appear to fall short or feel open-ended.

I know this is the case with the “romance” between Helena and Malcolm. I put romance in quotes because I feel that’s the direction the author is going with the two of them but they honestly interacted so little and there wasn’t much indication of a romance past Viv and Helena’s interest that it will be a wait and see until the next book. It’s something I’m absolutely interested in. I want to know more about Campbell just on his own, his character is the most interesting out of all of them and there’s little to know about him from this book alone.

I did really enjoy the magical elements of this book, although it is hard to tell whether this book would be considered Fantasy or Paranormal. All of the details on auguries and future predicting was interesting and I’m looking forward to learning more about Abernathy’s and how it works, plus very little was really touched on about this big war that everyone is supposed to be involved in. I would love some flashbacks involving Silas as well, even though he was more of a side mention relating to Helena’s development as custodian in this book, his character is fascinating and it would be great to see more of him.

In the end this book kind of stumped me. It was so enjoyable all the way through, easy to read, the characters grabbed me and so did the story elements, and yet something still felt like it was missing. Overall, wonderful, well-written and enjoyable. But when it ended I almost was still waiting for it to really start, if that makes sense. Like the quote above, I feel like this book is something you have to work at understanding in a way, you have to appreciate it for its uniqueness. Hopefully the next book will really deepen the characters stories more, build up a sense of the world and the mystical elements and maybe then it won’t feel so much like a starter but an adventure.

I requested The Book Of Secrets on NetGalley after seeing the cover, and without paying much attention to the description. Book themed stories always interest me, especially if they’re in the fantasy genre. I hoped that this one wouldn’t disappoint me and it didn’t. I finished it in one sitting.

Although I choose this book because of the cover, it’s a little bit deceiving. I was expect a fairly innocent book, but the story isn’t as nice as the girl on the cover. It’s filled with monstrosities and death. It’s more mature than the girl on the cover.

Helena is an interesting character. At first I thought she was a bit soft, but early on she already became stronger out of necessity. Maybe a little too fast. She doesn’t seem unsettled after seeing a corpse and she seems quick to get over a murder happening before her eyes. It’s almost as if her feelings are reset within a couple of days. She doesn’t forget, but she doesn’t feel the fear. That would have made her seem more like a real person.

The world McShane created, where there’s a war against invading monster, is one I see more often (in movies, series or games) than read about. It’s refreshing and she created factions with opposing philosophies which both seem legitimate. She did her best to make both sides sympathetic with their take on dealing the invaders.

I rate The Book Of Secrets with 4 stars. It’s a promising story with more than enough elements to like. Don’t judge this book by the innocent cover, because there’s a depth in the story that isn’t visible on the outside.
I’m looking forward to what the next book will bring for Helena.

My thought process when I saw this book while browsing Netgalley went something like:

Hmm, set in a bookstore, that's a good start.

Hmm, sweet-but-competent-looking young woman on the cover, also good.

It's by Melissa McShane? Sold!

My experience so far with Melissa McShane is that she writes smooth prose with very few errors, and indeed this was the case. I'm starting to think of her as the other [author:Lindsay Buroker|4512224], the one who, instead of ensemble casts with amusing banter, writes determined, sensible, capable young female protagonists dealing with whatever gets thrown at them (supernatural and otherwise).

I did feel with this one, though, that it was somehow lacking in intensity. It shouldn't have been: we have Lovecraftian invaders from another dimension threatening the world, after all, plus a complete n00b dealing with magical politics in the wake of the man who had just employed her hours earlier being murdered, leaving her to deal with suspicious police and a magical bookstore for which the manual has gone mysteriously missing. (Having more than once been in the position of taking on a challenging new job with no documentation, I identified with that part.) By taking over, she's stepped on the toes of another young woman who saw herself as the designated successor, and isn't being mature about it. And there's a hot, dangerous monster hunter who turns up regularly to save the heroine (though she then immediately does something sensible and effective to underline for us that this is not a damsel-in-distress scenario; I appreciated that).

The thing is, the invaders have been threatening the world for centuries, and they're not threatening it any more than usual; they're dangerous, they kill someone in front of the heroine and pursue her and attack her, but I never found them ice-in-my-veins terrifying, somehow. The magical politics is conducted relatively politely by people who are mostly nice and helpful. The hot monster hunter doesn't offer much encouragement to the heroine to suggest that he's attracted to her in turn and things could become steamy between them. The murderer is notable for absence from the plot most of the time; the urgency of solving the murder seems low, amid everything else that's going on. And a couple of sudden shifts of what had seemed like intractable positions in the rivalry subplot kind of defuse that situation.

I certainly didn't dislike it. The characters are appealing, the setting is well thought out, the infodumps are competently incorporated in educate-the-n00b conversations. I'd happily read a sequel. I just thought it could do with more urgency.

I received a copy from Netgalley for review.

The Book of Secrets is the first installment in author Melissa McShane's The Last Oracle series. This is a brand new series from the author. I first became aware of the authors work through her series called The Extraordinaries which I am looking forward to continuing. McShane's new world is a curious one. It is a world in which our protagonist, Helena Davies, walks in for an interview at Abernathy's, and gets hired by the mysterious Nathaniel Briggs on the spot. Abernathy's does business via phone calls, order forms, catalog trade, and in person.

After Nathaniel is found dead, a curious thing happens. Helena inherits the bookstore as custodian. Of course, this leads to all sorts of questions. Why did Nathaniel hire someone with no experience, and no knowledge of what Abernathy's really is? Will Helena be able to do the job she's supposed to be paid fairly well for, or will she have to abdicate to someone else? It's obvious that Nathaniel had no reason to believe that he would die any time soon, but the questions still continue right until the very end at why Helena was chosen over someone who has had previous training.

There are also questions regarding the war which has been ongoing for 700 years. There are creatures who come from somewhere outside our reality. Nightmareland creatures want the magic that humans are born with, but only a few have access to. As a custodian like Lucia Pontafelli who becomes a support mechanism in all of Helena's questions and circumstances she finds herself in, she can also see through glamour and what the monsters actually look like. Wardens like Malcolm Campbell, who is predicted to become Helena's romance buddy, fight and die every day in order to protect this world from the monsters that invade our world.

Abernathy is also a weapon in that it gives out answers at how to fight the long war. It is expected to treat each side (Nicollien & Ambrosite) as equals regardless of personal feelings. Abernathy's runs on what's called indeterminacy. Abernathy is never organized by author, title, or subject. By never being organization, no one actually knows what is in here, therefore anything can be in here. While Helena is learning all about her new function in life, there's those pesky police detectives who truly believe that Helena is involved in some way even though they have zero evidence of actually accusing her of doing evil. Thankfully, Helena does have a bit of relief in her best friend Viv.

There are times the synopsis is perhaps a bit too revealing at what happens in this book. This is one of those cases. So, let me highlight the more interesting aspects. First, Helena isn't a member of the cast of the Librarian, but she is being compared to Flynn. Second, Abernathy's isn't a Library, it's a living oracle, and the greatest of its kind since the disappearance of the Lady at Delphi. People come into Abernathy's with questions, and it is up to the custodian to find the answers given by the oracle. Sometimes those answers are not what the person wants to hear.

Abernathy's is a place that takes both money and magic in payment for augery's. Custodians of Neutralities can't use magic or ask questions on their own behalf. However, many custodians like Helena have abilities bestowed on them by the virtue of their position as custodian. This is not a standalone, although you might think it was after everything is said and done. I would love to have the author dig deeper when it comes to Silas Abernathy. I think there is a fountain of information just waiting to be revealed.

Ever thought that your new job was a killer? Try working at this bookstore…

Helena just took a job at a quaint bookstore, and her first day’s a doozy. She quickly discovers that Abernathy is everything you ever wanted in a bookstore and much more… Her boss is dead, magic is real, she’s inherited the bookstore which turns out to be an oracle, and it seems she’s on at least one killer’s hit list. Luckily Helena’s mom is making lasagna for dinner, so it’s not all bad.

Multiple entities would like to get Helena out of the way, including some that would like to delete Abernathy’s oracular powers altogether. To make matters worse, not only must Helena learn to understand this new magical world and the Long War that she’s been dragged into, but the instruction manual for the store is missing. Add in a jealous custodian wannabe who might be scheming against her, nasty murderous critters and perhaps a murderous human or two, and Helena’s life gets a bit more complicated. Thankfully, one of the local Wardens is helpful in a buff ex-Navy SEAL lethal way. And, luckily, Helena has her BFF Viv, who she can confide in and count on for fashion advice.

Book of Secrets is a fun, fast read with a really cool magical system. It’s obviously an introduction to a world and magical system that is much larger than what is explained in this first book, leaving room for growth and interesting developments.

Overall: very worth the read. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

This book felt a little flat to me, I think because I had trouble caring about the main character, Helena, and so found it a bit difficult to connect to the story.

The magical world described in this book is fairly unique. Mages from two different schools of practice battle Lovecraftian-style monsters from another reality with the aid of magical entities known as Neutralities. One of those Neutralities is Abernathy’s, a bookstore that doubles as an oracle. Of course, the narrator of the book, Helena Davies, knows none of this when she gets a job at Abernathy’s. It’s only when the man who hired her is murdered on her first day at work and she becomes the custodian of the oracle that Helena starts to learn about the world she’s gotten mixed up in. It’s a pretty steep learning curve, too, with a murderer on the loose and monsters lurking.

So, the world built here is interesting, and most of the novel is spent educating Helena and the reader about how it works (the “secrets” of the book’s title). Not that there isn’t action (including one rather shocking and unexpected death), but since Helena knows nothing when she starts to work at Abernathy’s, a lot of explanation is necessary.

The amount of time spent on describing the magical world far outweighed the development of Helena’s character, though, and I think that’s why I had trouble getting drawn into the story. I never felt like I got a clear picture of who Helena is as a person outside of her interactions at Abernathy’s. I know that she has a family and a best friend, Viv; that she has an ex-boyfriend, Chet; and that she had been leading a rather aimless life before being hired. But it’s all very shallowly sketched.

Book of Secrets isn’t a bad book, and maybe I’m just disappointed because I’ve enjoyed other books by the author so much more. I’m interested enough that I want to read the next book in the series, The Book of Peril. Hopefully Helena’s character will come alive for me as the series continues.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

Review goes live on the Butterfly-o-Meter Books blog on March 2 2018 at 00,00 am gmt+2 and will show up on Goodreads sometime later.

In a Flutter: Fun new world!
Fluttering Thoughts:
Worldbuilding: Abernathy’s is a fascinating place. The whole world is very fun, with its Long War, the neutralities, wardens, magis, aegis, divinations, and the two factions of the magis.
Characters: Helena Davies is a young woman looking for a job. Her love of books shines through and makes her easy to like. She’s an odd match in the beginning, but she makes her way step by step.
Mr. Briggs was intriguing. Lucia was pretty cool, very snappy and kind of fun. Viv was a bit too out there, but still sweet and a nice contrast to Helena. Ofc Malcolm Campbell is yummy and I’m looking forward to finding out more on that front.
Plot: The murder mystery was fun and kept me guessing. There was a lot of action, but it didn’t tiring at any point, and the pace of events was engaging.
writing: First person, past tense narrative, Helena’s POV. Loved her voice.
Curb Appeal: Cool cover, hooking blurb – impulsive buy material for my UF cravings.

I’m looking forward to reading more in this series.
I recommend The Book of Secrets to fans of divination/Oracles stories, magic wars, and UF mysteries. There’s a bit of Sci-Fi-ish tone to the whole thing, though light, but I also recommend it to fans of Sci-Fi/Fantasy blends too.

McShane wrote a whimsical, magical tale about a magical bookstore and the normal, every day human that inherits it. Helena Davies needed a job. She never thought when she walked through the door of Abernathy’s Bookstore she would be swept into a world that she never knew existed. Finding your feet in a world where learning the magic around you means your survival, Helena must decide who she can trust, because there is a murder in their midst and a diabolical plan unfolding.

Fun, fast paced and filled with intriguing characters, The Book of Secrets captivates, entertains and keeps you guessing till the end.

I received this copy of The Book of Secrets from Curiosity Quills Press. This is my honest and voluntary review.

My Rating: 4.5 stars
Series: The Last Oracle
Sequence in Series: 1
Written by: Melissa McShane
Print Length: 213 pages
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication Date: February 18, 2018
Genre: Urban Fantasy | Paranormal

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Secrets-L...

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How do I tell you how much I loved this book without spoiling anything for you but give you enough information to convince you that you’ll love it too… Oh, I know!

Magic.

Bookstore.

MAGIC BOOKSTORE!!!

Review endeth here.

Just kidding! Seriously though, those two words would be enough for me to pick up this book! Without giving away anything spoilerish, Helena answers a newspaper advertisement for a job at Abernathy’s Bookstore. Her first day on the job could easily be a contender for the Worst First Day at Work award 🏆 when her boss is murdered before giving her a handover or at least letting her know what her tasks will involve besides using a typewriter (!) to address labels to post the bookstore’s catalogue to customers.

Without having the foggiest idea what signing her employment contract actually means Helena’s life quickly becomes much more interesting, dangerous and bizarre than she could have imagined possible. Thankfully she has her best friend Viv to help with fashion choices, the blind date from hell, and some much needed “No, you’re not crazy. I believe you, girl!” chats.

During Helena’s first week at Abernathy’s she meets a plethora of customers, who range from gossipy curiosity to full blown rage at her appointment as Abernathy’s new custodian. It turns out Helena has stumbled into the middle of a war of the worlds (of sorts) that she knows nothing about.

It’s up to her to try to fast forward her training in a previously unknown magical world, all while dealing with the fallout of the unsolved murder of her boss and a murderer whose identity is a mystery. Some of the people Helena meets at Abernathy’s seem to be trying to help her learn the ropes, others are just waiting for her to fail and Helena doesn’t know who she can trust and whether she’s even the right person for the job.

There are so many characters, magical elements, reasons why Abernathy’s is the coolest bookstore in the history of the universe, plot points and hopes for future books in the series that I’d love to go into detail about but I can’t wreck your experience of this book with spoilers. 🤐 Please trust me when I tell you that there’s so much more to this book than I’ve told you.

I just have to say that I loved the writing, the characters, the mythology and of course, the bookstore, and I can’t wait to read the rest of this series. My favourite characters so far are Viv and Judy; Viv because she’s such a fun character and Judy because I can’t wait to see how her character unfolds throughout the series. Even though this is only the first book I can see this series becoming one of my favourites.

Food I Need in my Life After Reading This Book: Chocopocalypse cake 🍫 🍰 🤤

Melissa McShane, pretty please with an entire Chocopocalypse cake just for you on top, I don’t want to sound desperate - but I’m desperate! I need The Book of Peril in my life urgently. Hmm, what can I do to convince you?! Threaten to go to Abernathy’s and both categorise and alphabetise all of the books? Tell you my augury foretold it magically appearing on my Kindle overnight? Tell the familiars how lovely they look today? 😊

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Curiosity Quills Press for the opportunity to read this book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Helena Davies is directionless and in desperate need of a job. Answering a newspaper ad for a position in a bookstore she finds herself thrust into a world she had no idea existed. On her first day her employer ends up dead in the basement and she finds herself custodian of Abernathy’s. The bookstore is in fact a living oracle. In a world where magic exists and beings from another dimension are hell bent on destroying the world.
With a colourful supporting cast Helena discovers more than just magic, she discovers herself.
The Book of secrets is an incredibly well-crafted, complex and powerful story that gripped me from first page to last. I am eagerly anticipating the next in the series.

A wonderful fantasy that kept me hooked till the end. I dont read many books about oracles!

E-book/ARC/Fantasy: This book just came out, so no spoilers here. I'd like to thank NetGalley for an advanced copy in lieu of an honest review. If you want a summary of the book, read it on the back of the book or any book site. I will only give you my thoughts on plot and character. Here we go:

At first glance of the description, I had a good feeling about the book even though it was "book 1" and I don't need to start another series. This is a "new" adult, not teen, who finds her way into a job at a bookstore. Then came the cliché characters:

Grumpy boss
Good looking, but mysterious rich customer
Snarky BFF who can barely take of herself, but has expensive clothes
Female antagonist with no self-awareness, who wants life handed to her
Police who are easily fooled by magic
Parents who are clueless

I could go on, but you get it. And then something amazing happened. I cared. I cared what happened to the heroine and the people around her. I cared about the shop. I wanted to have that job and live over the bookstore. And damn it, I wanted to know who the murderer was and why. Yes, somethings were rolled up too well in the end, but it only took me two days to read this over a weekend. I really liked the plot and if I see book 2, I'll probably read it too.

A very good fantasy that kept me hooked till the end. It is well written, with interesting characters and an unusual plot that entertains.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Curiosity Quills Press and Netgalley

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel!😍 This is a book that any book lover who loves magic would enjoy! This book was filled with great characters, fantastic word building, a fast paced plot and magic! I loved Helena's character and how even though she was new to the magic world she was open minded and strong. The reason why I am not giving this book 5 stars is because the ending wasn't the best. Overall, this is a story that I really enjoyed and recommend.
I want to thank the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.I appreciate this opportunity and all views expressed are my own.

I requested this book from netgalley based mostly on the description. The title first grabbed my attention...mission accomplished! But once I read that a bookstore held some mystical secrets, protecting the world from darkness...how could I resist?

Helena had no idea how drastically her life would change the moment she signed her employment papers at Abernathy's Bookstore. I really enjoyed this book. What is not to like...she gets hired to work at a bookstore and discovers it's amazing hidden secrets! As if having all of this dumped on her the first day of employment wasn't enough, she is confronted by Judy. She must now learn how to accomplish her new job while dealing with the antagonism from an angry woman who believes she is entitled to the position. Helena's problems don't end there, but she has her best friend Viv for support...and some new allies. Possibly even a future romantic interest.

Each character is well thought out and portrayed beautifully. Helena is a strong female character, not giving into the stress of problems she now faces. Her refusal to give up because life became complicated or hard was inspiring. She was my favorite character in the story. I do feel as if there needs to be more character development to make me feel completely invested in them. This will likely come with the next book in the series.

The plot was nicely done, bringing many turns of events at proper points int he book. However, there were some plot points that I felt were unresolved. possibly intentionally leaving them open for the second book. I finished this book quickly. I did enjoy that the author created two separate factions of the defense of magic in the world. It was a refreshing twist on the typical "girl falls into a job that involves saving the world from some hidden demons, etc." often seen in books and movies these days. I did appreciate the story lacking sexual content. Often times that becomes too popular in young adult fantasy books. The one big battle scene did seem to be semi-anti-climatic.

The tale moved at a quick pace from the beginning. Though the book's pace remained quick, I felt there was a lot of setting up for future books. The information dumping was very well present. It was provided to the reader as Helena learning all of this.

This story did feel as if the ending was rushed, but it leaves off at a nice point for the second book in the series. I look forward to reading where Helena's new life and position take her. Hopefully, the second book has more dramatic scenes where opportunities allow, enhancing the urgency of the book.

The Book of Secrets by Melissa McShane is the first novel in The Last Oracle series. Helena Davies is interviewing for a job at Abernathy’s, a local disorganized bookstore. She is shocked when Nathaniel Briggs hires her and asks for her to start immediately after signing a handwritten contract. Helena is typing (on a typewriter) labels to mail out catalogues when a customer enters the store looking for Mr. Briggs. Malcolm Campbell is astonished that Helena was hired to work in the store. Helena goes searching for Mr. Briggs and discovers him dead from a stab wound in the basement. Who would want to harm Mr. Briggs? Malcolm must explain to Helena that Abernathy’s is no mere bookstore. It is a living oracle that provides prophecies. Helena, as the new custodian (she signed the contract) is tasked with finding the right book to answer the question put to the oracle by Wardens. Abernathy’s is an important tool in helping them fight the invaders in the Long War (information overload for Helena). Magic is real, and creatures invade from outside their reality to obtain it. Unfortunately, Mr. Briggs died before training Helena and the instruction book to assist her is missing. Malcolm is not the only person surprised by Helena’s appointment. Judy Rasmussen has been training for twelve years and wants Helena to abdicate (and she is quite pushy about it). Helena needs to learn her new position while fulfilling her customer’s needs, deal with Judy’s hostile attitude, discover who murdered Mr. Brigg’s before the police arrest her for the crime, and evade the deadly creatures who seem intent on attacking her (that’s not good). Despite everything that is happening, Helena believes she might have finally found her place.

The Books of Secrets is well-written and engaging. It has fast pace that will keep readers on their toes. I liked the author’s unique take on magic. I would say more but I do not want to spoil it for you. I did appreciate that the author did not dump out all the details at once. It develops throughout the story, but readers are not given everything in this first installment (we are left wanting to know more). The creature’s descriptions are enough to give a person nightmares (it did not stop me from reading though). Abernathy’s is a fascinating place. The author’s concept for the store was creative and multi-layered. Melissa McShane did a remarkable job at creating a one-of-a-kind world for her characters (and for us). I did feel that the characters needed more development and backstory. I wanted to know more about Helena’s upbringing and Malcolm’s background. I was also not a fan of Viv, Helena’s best friend. I found her annoying, overbearing, and immature. As Helena’s best friend, she is the logical choice for a sidekick. I just wish the author had tweaked her personality a bit. I am glad that The Book of Secrets is just the first book in The Last Oracle series. For a delightful story containing magic, murder, mayhem and mystery grab a copy of The Book of Secrets.

Quirky, quite different and thoroughly enjoyable nd possibly a 2nd book.

This is a great read for young and old alike. Helena is hired to work in a bookstore and finds her new boss dead her first day at work. She discovers it's no ordinary bookstore and is now the new manager in a portal against evil. The story gets a little violent but not enough to keep teen readers away. As friends, magi and magicians step in to help keep the store safe, Helena discovers she likes this un-normal situation she was chosen for. This is book 1 in the Last Oracle series and prepares Helena for additional paranormal adventures. I received this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow – this book was unexpected!

I picked this book up relatively blind to the story or any of the details and just dove right in. What a fun and fantastic world! I was thoroughly engaged from start to finish and sad to see it end. Please tell me there’s more?

Helena is a woman adrift in the world. She’s not sure what she actually wants to do with her life, other than find a job to kill some time and make some money. A want ad has her ending up interviewing for a job at a strangely disorganized book store with a very odd boss. Things don’t really stay that way for too long, though. Helena is rapidly sucked into a world filled with magic, murder, mystery, and an increasing amount of responsibility. Surprisingly, rather than finding herself shying away from her newfound custodianship, she really steps up to the plate.

Aside from the murder mystery aspect of this story, I found myself really enjoying the new magical world that both the reader and Helena have to learn about. There’s different magical factions, lots of people who may or may not be bad guys, aliens (kind-of), and a book store that I am just absolutely in love with. Who knew that a setting could become such a critical character? I can’t say enough good things about this book. Assuming we get some quick follow-up in the series, it will definitely be on of my “must read” list.

The Book of Secrets is the first book in a new series by Melissa McShane. Though the author's more widely known as a historical fantasy writer, this new series is a departure, since it's more of a light urban fantasy with cozy mystery. The protagonist is a hapless 21 year old who lands a job at an antiquarian bookshop and is thrust into an unknown world when her boss gets murdered whilst she's on the premises and she begins to find out that the bookstore is emphatically not your average bookstore.

I especially enjoyed the characters in the book as well as Helena, the main protagonist's, relationship with her best friend Viv. She also has a great relationship with her family! How refreshing to meet a protagonist in a NA book who isn't broken and emotionally destroyed. The entire book is full of quirky characters and the author does a good job of making them real in all their weird and funky glory. There's a foreshadowed slow burn romance interest, but the author doesn't just fling them together on page 12 (kudos for that!). There's the obligatory female love-to-hate character. I don't think I've read a NA novel in ages that had a female protagonist that didn't use the sarky female-female antagonist device. It's de rigueur. That small quibble aside, the book is fun and well paced and plotted. The oogie space monsters from another dimension are satisfyingly oogie and scary (though happily not wet-your-pants-and-throw-the-book-across-the-room horrifying!).

The mystery part has a satisfying and well paced denouement in the last chapter. All around a fun read. Looking forward to the next book(s) in the series.

Four stars, entertaining and well written.

Info:
The Book of Secrets, book #1 in the Last Oracle series by Melissa McShane.
192 pages, published by Curiosity Quills press.
Released: 20 Feb, 2018 in ebook and paperback formats

Melissa McShane writes stories that really make it hard to put down my Kindle. This one follows a girl (and she felt like a girl) who inherits a magic bookstore that introduces her to a magical world. Throughout the book she has to deal with creatures trying to kill her and deciding whether she really wants to work in the bookstore. The magic world was interesting but there were times when there was too much information thrown at me. I liked most of the characters except her best friend Viv. She was too immature and made the main character too immature.