If you’re looking at this gorgeous cover, you’re likely feeling the dark academia vibes for autumn. The Library of Shadows is a YA contemporary with magical vibes. I am happy to report that the library wasn’t just a bait and switch, it did play a big part in this story. There were ghosts, one of whom is our “hot” love interest. And the story itself is fast paced! That being said, I found myself zoning out a lot. I think the characterizations just didn’t do much for me. Truth be told, I would have DNF’d this around 40% if it wasn’t a book I’d gotten on NetGalley.

The perfect autumnal, dark academia-esque, spooky read to cosy up next to a fire & read.

It had ghosts, 100 year old mysteries & is set in an extremely old school building. Despite the creepy atmosphere, this was a really easy read with no overly intricate descriptions clouding the overall vibe. However the overall mood was still set with mentions of temperature & dust & so on.

Este is your run-of-the-mill grieving teenager, and I’ll admit can sometimes be mildly annoying…and yet, I still found myself wanting her to succeed and find her place in this weird spooky setting. Then you have the eccentric roommate, Posey; once again, annoying at first, however you had to give this girl some credit for being so bold and out there with her beliefs and creating a whole club. The true favourite character in all of this.

Overall, this was a brilliant atmospheric read perfect for the chilly months ahead. I found myself whizzing through this in just over 24 hours. Definitely recommend if you love spooky, that feels slightly cosy in the process and has some rough subjects beneath. Not forgetting if you’re into libraries this one’s for you!

I ended up not finishing this book. I have enjoyed this authors previous books, but I ended up not wanting to finish this one.

I enjoyed this. I did think it was going to be a little more dark academia and have those vibes, but it was more kind of cozy haunting.
I did figure out who the bad guy was pretty early on, but overall it was a good read!

2.5 Stars.
Lightly dipping a toe into dark academia, The Library of Shadows is a YA spooky season read.
The plot had me really excited, the whole idea of 'the fades' and ghost hunting fits the autumnal months really well and this book does achieve a light spooky vibe with a gothic setting, teeming library with hundreds of years of history in a creepy Manor House, the atmosphere was well set but the story didn't quite land for me.

To begin with the main character wasn't likeable and I couldn't get behind her actions, Im all for her reasoning but her past had too much influence on her behaviours and it soured her character. She had the nicest friendship group and she didn't treat them well at all so the development in their friendships was stilted. Considering we spend the whole book in her head she begins to feel very self pitying and self isolating to the point it really stunts her growth.

The romance although sweet with a nice love interest, took some suspension of reality to get on board with and went from nothing (other than comments about his looks) in the first half of the book to all encompassing head over heels love in the last 30%, I didn't feel any development between the two, no build up and little to make me really feel invested in their relationship and feelings.

The plot itself was ok but follows a familiar narrative you would expect and doesn't take any major twists or turns, you can see the storyline for miles ahead so it doesn't leave much to the imagination and therefore doesn't make it a gripping read.

I think if your looking for an introduction to dark academia as a teen or pre teen this could be a good start but I would love for the author to work more on character and relationship developments in place of over detailing events in the plot. For a character loving reader I found too much text of things that needed no explanation over feelings that very much needed exploring.

As always Im forever grateful to Harper 360 for providing me with arcs to read and review, whilst this wasn't an instant hit for me, Im still pleased I have it in my arsenal to recommend to the right readers.

Seeing as this is an author's debut book, it makes sense. Unfortunately, the book started off in way that immediately made me want to DNF. It felt too rushed for a beginning of a young adult book. I'm not sure of another way to explain it except that I feel like the beginning needed more of a beginning. It felt like I skipped 40 pages of build up and of the main character investigating her dads time at the school.

I dnf'd the book at about 40%. The plot wasn't catching me and the writing was too clunky to keep me engaged. I think if the book had more world-building and the plot was more involved, it would've been a better read than what it is now. And I wasn't the biggest fan of how the characters in the beginning. It almost read like bad fanfic, like we were already supposed to know about the characters and how they were going to react to certain things...

But anyways. I would recommend this to middle schoolers and high schoolers, but it definitely does read on the younger side of YA. even though it wants to be on the older side.

Happy Reading!!

Adored this cozy and emotional debut by Rachel Moore! It's got supernatural elements, romance, hot ghosts, haunted libraries, and academia—this book is perfect for fall and capturing those autumnal vibes.

Thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins Children's Books for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

A cozy spooky YA romance read with mystery elements.

A pretty decent book--it doesn't really challenge anything or do anything unique. I mean, making out with a ghost is pretty...wild...but it's been done in YA. It's weirdly a cozy read but many of the characters in this book kept driving me up the wall. Definitely had to suspend my belief way too many times to really enjoy the book to its fullest.

Este was a horrible person but Posy for some reason liked her. Mateo was the highlight of the book but even then he didn't make sense being a 100-year-old ghost and talking in modern times. Again, definitely would be a more fun read if you just pretend these things aren't annoying and enjoy the ride.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books, Katherine Tegen Books, and Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for honest review. The library of shadows was such an enjoyable book.

I very much enjoyed Library of Shadows! With it's dark spooky atmosphere and dark academia vibes it's the perfect spooky season read. The main character, Este, is strong and resourceful, a perfect main character. With lots of paranormal elements and a good mystery there's a lot to love here.

Library of Shadows is by far one of my favorite books that I’ve read this year. I’m a sucker for a spooky atmospheric book with a mystery and exciting plot and Library of Shadows delivered exactly that. Our main character Este is such a strong and smart character who holds everyone at an arms length and goes on a journey of meeting ghosts, scary encounters with the supernatural, all while piecing together clues to figure out what’s going on while navigating possibly having feelings for the handsome ghost names Mateo who has made it his mission to help her solve this mystery. This book left you on the edge of your seat winding what the clues meant and how they would later come into play. I flew through this book it was well written, engaging, and was wonderfully mysterious, atmospheric, and romantic.

I read just over 50% but sadly this was a DNF for me. I think perhaps I'm not in the right mood for YA at the moment. I just couldn't seem to become invested in the plot or characters.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the eARC for review.

If you want an easy to read book for spooky season with creepy vibes that doesn't veer into full-blown horror, this is for you!

The Library of Shadows is a YA paranormal fantasy that gives us:
- elite boarding school
- mystery around disappearing students
- haunted libraries
- ancient tomes
- hot ghost boys and
- dark academia vibes

Este Logano made it into Radcliffe prep, one of the most elite boarding schools and also one of the most haunted ones. Radcliffe is Este's dream because her late father also studied there, but when she arrives, she learns that are disappearing from school grounds regularly. Walking in her father's footsteps turns out to be that more dangerous when Este finds out he was in contact with the deadly Book of Fades and the resident ghosts of Radcliffe. One of those ghosts, Mateo - who may or may not be very cute - ropes Este into helping him to solve the mystery around the disappearances and bring the ghosts back to life.

Overall, the book had an engaging plot with Este solving the mystery around the disappearing students and Radcliffe's ghosts. The fall / spooky vibes were immaculte and the author's prose flowed nicely despite its simplicity. The library with ancient tomes, the hidden passageways and the haunted schoolgrounds all added to a gothic and dark academia atmosphere that was chef's kiss and I honestly think this is a great read for October and Halloween. Also, can we talk about the cover art? Stunning!

With that being said, my main gripe with this book was its main character. Este is very much a lone wolf type of character and quite rude at that. Having lost her father and moving around the country with her mother has made her closed off and wanting to keep people at arms length. Despite the fact that I understood where she was coming from, I found her quite insufferable. Wanting to protect people doesn't make up for being an absolute asshole to everyone around you. I don't need the protagonists I read about to be perfect, quite the contrary, but if Este were a real person, I'd punch her in the face. The contempt that she held for her bubbly, paranormal investigator roommate Posy was hard to stomach. Este judged and envied every little aspect of Posy, to the point where she's even jealous that Posy has a happy, intact family. Yeah, fuck her for having parents that are still alive and siblings that she loves! How could she! (This is sarcasm.)

Este would act so condescending towards her, Posy was a literal angel for still giving her the time of day after the shit she pulled. It becomes even more ironic considering everything Posy assumes about the ghosts at Radcliffe ends up being correct and Este was just being a jerk. In fact, Este was so much of an asshole, the fact that anyone even liked her took me out of the story. Even when Este made jokes, it just always came off as being judgy. There was a bit of a fight between the girls at the climax of the story, but Posy was still being too nice, in my opinion. The poor girl deserves so much better.

Morever, Este's entire inner monolgue was very "not like other girls" coded and filled with internalized misogyny, she could have been in a 2010s YA fantasy. There was one specific paragraph describing the ghosts of girls who died in the 2000s and thus we wearing like, pink velours tracksutis and Este goes on to say what a horror that is and how sorority girls are the biggest scare she can think off. Now, personal opinions towards Y2k clothing and sororities aside, it just reeked of misogyny and "I hate those ~girly girls~, thank God I'm not like that".

A little pretentiousness in dark academia is to be expected, I would even say it's a genre convention, but Este was so far up her own ass I couldn't take it seriously. Like her being sporadically homeschooled and teaching herself about the classics to the point where she was able to get into an extremely elite boarding school because she's just ~that smart~. There are people that read classics without acting like a morally superior snob, but Este wasn't one of them. The author made it worse by having Este figure out not very complicated information and having the other characters go "Wow! You're so smart!" The instances where this happend almost made me DNF the book. Since this is a debut, the author also falls into the trap of over-explaining every little detail and spoon-feeding the reader information. As this is a common pitfall in YA fantasy books, I didn't mind too much. However, other readers might have more of a problem with it.

While the romance was cute and I enjoyed it overall, it was a little undercooked. For Este to be so in love with Mateo by the end of the book, there should have been more bonding moments between them. As it was, their romantic scenes were few and far between, and their relationship pretty much jumped from physical attraction to being in love in an instant. As for the other characters, they were there, I guess? There really wasn't much substance to them, but the snippets we got of them I did find interesting.

I know all of this sounds quite negative, but I did actually have a good time reading it. Like if you want a fast-paced, spooky mystery with a dash of dark academia, this will be right up your alley. It really depends on whether you like Este or not, I suppose. So for the overall plot and atmosphere, I gave The Library of Shadows 2/5 stars.

Library Of Shadows by Rachel Moore is a fun supernatural, dark academia read perfect for spooky season. Fans of library based stories will devour this haunted library and mysterious disappearances fueled by “Something ancient, evil and out for blood.”

Este has been invited to attend the highly prestigious and affluent Radcliffe Prep on scholarship, partially due to her dead father’s experiences there. Used to being alone, Este has trouble connecting with her new roommate, Posy, whose entire focus is on ghost busting, and discovering the supernatural secrets of Radcliffe. Invited to be an overnight archivist at the Lilith Library, Este discovers ghosts, secrets, danger and romance hidden among the stacks.

As an adult reader, I would have liked more development of the side characters and some of the decision making felt immature. But the intended YA audience will not care and thoroughly enjoy this fun, ghostly story perfect for those who want a seasonal creepy read but don’t want horror.

Thanks to #Netgalley and @harperkids for the opportunity to review an eARC of this book

This book had me HOOKED!
From page one i felt all the spooky paranormal vibes.
It definitely had me feeling a little like 'Wednesday' Vibes.
The characters were strong and solid(Even the ghosts) ha
I loved the side characters almost more than Este and Mateo.
and the sense of adventure had me unable to put this book down.
There was so many fantastic elements to this book.
The mystery, the paranormal, the right place wrong time, even the banter was good!




Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins for this ARC

A big thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollin's for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yes! A new title to add to my spooky re-reads list!

The Library of Shadows by Rachel Moore is a paranormal YA romcom novel that follows Este, who wants nothing more than to find out what happened to her father. To do this, she goes back to his old stomping grounds of his university, which is super haunted, including the mischievous ghost named Mateo. When Mateo frames Este for the theft of a rare book from the library’s secret spire and then vanishes, Este will have to track him down or risk being expelled and leaving Radcliffe early just like her father did. Except following her father’s footsteps might be more dangerous than Este ever anticipated. As she investigates the library with its secret passageways, hidden tunnels, and haunted halls, she learns that the student disappearances aren’t just myth. And if she isn’t careful, she’ll be next.

I feel like this book the perfect embodiment of a cup of tea to drink in Autumn. It has paranormal (ghosts), a soft mystery vibe, and a sprinkling of academia. And I did easily read this book in one sitting. I have a feeling I will be come back to this one whenever I'm in need of a cozy read.

This is a spellbinding debut; it’s fast-paced with dark academia vibes and supernatural elements, and such an addictive read! It’s a story cloaked in secrets where nothing is as it seems and magical mysteries weave through the chapters sparking our, and the characters’, curiosity. Although as we know curiosity can be a dangerous thing…

Este is bold, determined and full of heart. She follows in her late Father’s footsteps attending the prestigious Radcliffe Prep, she gets off to a rocky start with her scholarship hanging in the balance.

There are myths circulating about disappearing students and the terrifying Fades creeping the halls. As Este finds a secret key she’s propelled into a world of ghosts, intrigue, and ancient books where danger lurks in the shadows. I loved the haunted library setting which worked perfectly.

The enigmatic Mateo wants to help and they will have to work together to find the answers they both seek. There’s more to Mateo than meets the eye, can they trust each other? They don’t have the best first impressions, it was entertaining seeing them get to know each other along the way as a connection grows.

Through the delightful Posy, Este learns what it is to be a friend and that she doesn’t have to do everything alone which is heartwarming to see. The book also explores the unparalleled power of love, even in the most extreme of circumstances.

This is a fun, cosy, atmospheric tale with enchanting characters and dazzling storytelling. The perfect autumnal read!

With thanks to @Harper360YA, @HarperTeen and @byrachelmoore for the ARC.

"There is life, there is death, and there is love - the greatest of these is love."

Este Logano, a homeschooled girl, is following in her late father's footsteps after being awarded a scholarship to attend his alma mater, Radcliffe Prep -- one of the most haunted schools in the country. Up until this point she's been traveling the country with her mom, never staying in one place for too long.

However, her first night at Radcliffe Prep almost ends her entire career there as she is framed by a boy named Mateo for stealing something that doesn't belong to her, The Book of Fades. She is able to make a convincing argument against her expulsion, promising to pick up shifts in the library after her classes and determined to find The Book of Fades and return it where it belongs.

This book perfect book for the spooky season gives Wednesday vibes with the parallel of Este to her roommate Posy. I did enjoy the way that this story was written, however I felt like there could have been deeper character development... but it was nice to follow our friends on their spooky journey, especially alongside Mateo!

Mateo is certainly on my list of book boyfriends - he was my favorite character throughout the novel and I appreciated the way the romance between he and Este unfolded.

"When you love someone, it's like building a library and filling the shelves. It doesn't matter how many years it's been since Austen wrote Emma or Fitzgerald wrote This Side of Paradis. We can still pull them from the bookcases and dive back into the words, the same as the day they were written. All the years and memories are still right here, cataloged inside us."

I loved the paranormal elements of this book and the great banter we had between characters. This book was addicting and challenging to put down because I wanted to know what was going to unfold next for our friends.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC - I definitely recommend this YA-TEEN read to those looking for something creepy and fun to read this season.

Este Logano enrolls at the third most haunted school in the country, Radcliffe Prep. She's more interested in learning more about her dead father than hunting ghosts, but her roommate knows all about the rumors of disappearing students and sinister happenings. During a tour of the esteemed library, Este meets Mateo, and he frames her for stealing a rare book. The librarian is furious and threatens to expel Este unless she can help find the book. This forces Este to take the night shift at the library, where sinister things happen in the shadows. Will she find the missing tome, or will she be the next student to disappear?

This book is fast-paced and so much fun! I could have read it faster if I hadn't kept picking it up before bed.

Books set in libraries are my weakness, and this one did not disappoint. It was nice to read something set in an academic library for a change, and I loved that Radcliffe Prep has a library science course!

The characters were well-written and had enough depth for a story like this. Each character's motivations made sense, and the setting was atmospheric and creepy. It's the perfect paranormal dark academia book to pick up on a chilly fall night. I also liked the lighter moments and banter between Este and Mateo, though I wish there had been more time to build up their relationship.

The mystery itself was fairly predictable. I knew which character would be the red herring and guessed about 70% of the ending before the conclusion. I will gladly pick up another book by Rachel Moore.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Library of Shadows is being billed as a spooky rom-com, and while there is some humor throughout, I wouldn’t exactly call it a comedy. The spooky romance stuff, though, is there.

The book is sort of hit-and-miss. Este is attending a prestigious prep school, but there’s almost no “school” in the book. It feels like the school is more of a prop or means to set up the story than anything else. Almost everything takes place in the library, leaving the book feeling very insular.

At the center of the story is Este, a homeschooled kid who, since her dad’s death, has never stayed in one place very long. She’s not used to making friends or attachments, so her connection to Mateo is unsettling. Also unsettling — Mateo’s a ghost. So are his friends. Este isn’t particularly gifted when it comes to school, and her academic standing isn’t great, but she doesn’t really care. Or, at least, she does when she gets into trouble and then promptly forgets. Her obsession with helping Mateo grows until that’s all she seemingly thinks about.

Este’s growth as a character is slow, and the ghosts feel rather one-note. This is a lost opportunity on the author’s part that could have made the story sing.

Overall, there was enough to the story to keep me reading, but probably not to return. I suggest The Library of Shadows as a library read first to see if it’s one you want to purchase.