Cute story
I like this series
( )

3.5 stars--rating shown may vary depending on whether site shows half star ratings.

I felt lost at the beginning of this book. Despite reading them in what I thought was publishing order, I didn't remember Edwin being missing or the twins kidnapping from previous book(s).

I did like that part of the book took us to Biltmore. Having visited there once years ago, it was nice to remember some of the day spent there with my mom.

The titular murder doesn't take place at Storyton Hall which is different than previous books. ( )

Clever, ties up loose ends. ( )

I can't believe I finished this. It got a star for the plot's premise, half a star for being relatively well edited and a half star as a bonus because I didn't DNF it.

Where to start...

I liked the series premise, about a secret library that holds the rarest, secret or unknown manuscripts from around the world, but as the series progresses, the author falls into the common trap of writing herself into corners from which she can't escape without abusing a reader's ability to suspend disbelief. This book has the manager of the Storyton Inn haring off to the Biltmore Estate to rescue her lover from a dungeon. Where he's being held by a renegade faction of the Templars. Along side her, her long-thought dead (9 years) husband, who's being held in the dungeon next door. Give. me. a. break. I hate this trope so much, I almost DNF'd it on the spot.

Then I had to endure constant philosophical musings about love, the power of love, the power of family, more crap about love. And the villain was supposed to be super evil, but I just didn't feel it. I mean, he was definitely without redeeming qualities, but evil? Eh.

The ending ... was eye-rolling. I'm sorry, but it involved blow darts, and the most insanely insincere scene where the MC confronts her ignorance about cultural insensitivity that I've ever read. Honestly, it's so badly done I'm tempted to quote it, but to do that I'd have to read it again.

The author would have gotten a tiny bonus for not taking that spoiler above to the most nauseating conclusion possible, or stringing it painfully over several books, but by the time it was resolved I'd lost the will to give any bonus points.

What kept me reading this farce was the idea of Hemingway's lost suitcase being hidden in the Inn and the search through letters and correspondence for clues to find it. And that 10% of the book was kind of good, though the eventual conclusion was a bit deflating as it was so predictable. ( )

4 stars
This latest book in the series addresses to problems I had with the series and also includes a decent mystery and a bookish treasure hunt. The problems I had with the series were twofold first any good reader would want as many people as possible to have the opportunity to read the rare and secret treasures that are contained in the secret library. For Jane to hold the scret library isn’t really much different from what the evil Templar Order is doing, hoarding books and knowledge for them selves. Look at the library of Alexandria, when it burned the world lost countless books many one of a kind that we’ll never see again. So when Jane decides to open up the secret to a few and divest it solves my objection to the secret library, and my wish for the world to see the texts. It also deals with the second problem, if the rare books are gone to museums and libraries it takes away the danger to Jane’s family and her guests. The only problem I see is that now the Finns have no reason to guard the hall, and I’ll miss the characters, as they are some of my favorite in the books.

Well now I have to wait till 2020 to see what effect this book has on the series and my favorite characters. ( )