Title: The Vanishing Bookstore
Author: Helen Phifer
Published: January 7, 2025
Format: e-ARC
My Rating: 3 stars/5
Synopsis: 1692. On the outskirts of Salem, a bookstore stands covered in overgrown vines. Inside, a young woman hides a linen-wrapped journal under a loose floorboard and runs away, panicked by the sound of hounds barking in the distance. The bookstore vanishes into thin air…
Present day. Stepping inside a pale-pink house on one of the oldest streets in Salem, Dora can’t believe she’s about to finally meet the mother she thought died tragically when she was just a child. But the excitement is short-lived. Dora’s mother has fear in her eyes, and with a trembling voice she ‘my life is in danger, and now so is yours…’
Desperate not to lose her mother all over again, Dora digs into her family’s mysterious past, and stumbles upon a seemingly impossible secret: the key to their survival is hidden in a bookstore that no one has seen for generations.
Losing herself amongst thorny brackens and twisted ferns, Dora eventually finds the path that leads to the bookstore. But someone is watching her. They’ve been waiting for her.
As she pushes open the beautiful blue door hidden amongst the sharp brambles, and stands in front of rows of crumbling leatherbound books with faded pages, she has no idea of the secrets she is about to uncover. Or that her life is in more danger than ever before…
My thoughts from the Vault
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book. I chose to review it and this in no way impacts my opinion of it.
I was randomly browsing Netgalley one day when the title and cover of this novel caught my eye. I was hoping to find a new audiobook to listen to so when I saw The Vanishing Bookstore, I requested it immediately.
I found this to be quite the fun listen. The narrator did a fantastic job and I found her pleasant to listen to. The novel progresses at a great pace and I never found I was bored or that the story was lacking.
I will state for the record that the “vanishing bookshop” that the book is named after makes very little appearance in this novel. Based on the title, I thought it would have more space in the story, but that it did not.
I also wasn’t really on the Dora and Ambrose romance train. I didn’t really feel sparks or fireworks between the two of them despite their romance being “one for the ages”.
I did, however, enjoy the flashbacks to the Salem Witch Trials and the history behind it all. If you enjoy witches, magic, and history, this novel is for you.
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