# The Vanishing Bookstore by Helen Phifer Review

CW: Violence, suggestive content, any triggers surrounding the Salem Witch Trials.

My Rating: 3

*I was given a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review*

So I’m gonna change up my usual style of review and break this into impressions by section

**First 25%**

Here’s the thing.

This section of the book isn’t awful, or the worst, but it just didn’t feel like it knew what it was doing. It didn’t feel like it knew it’s setting, nor did it feel like it knew it’s audience. All the characters are adults, but the writing is very Middle Grade/YA to me. In addition, the book just comes off as overly simplistic and not complex.

The characters don’t really stick out for me, I just didn’t get a lot from this book to be honest. I didn’t think this book was the worst, but I expected more out of it. I expected the characters to be a little better formed, they weren’t, they just weren’t.

The writing style wasn’t super complex, or pretty, or evocative, or fast paced. I really just didn’t find this book to be terribly remarkable. It wasn’t especially bad, but it wasn’t especially good. It was terribly *meh*.

For the setting, it just felt bland. Nothing about the setting stood out, the plot felt like it was dragging, and the setting dragged with it. There wasn’t anything that felt distinguishable about the setting, which I get isn’t always a focus but I like there being something to hold onto in the world building. I got the impression that the author didn’t know a lot about the states, and it seemed that she could’ve (should’ve) done more research into the place she was setting her novel.

I do think the George and Dora story line had potential, I did think the way I felt about Katie was substantive. I actually cared about her and her well being, and I disliked George almost immediately upon his introduction, which raised my star rating for sure-being able to communicate a character without writing much about him deserves praise. I just wish she’d done that for her protagonists.

And some of it is just cringy, there’s a line that a character “like pink only second to black” and would’ve painted her house black if she could. It just came off cringy and like the author was trying to have this gothic character who was into death and darkness, and it didn’t feel natural.

**25 to 33%**

This is where I felt it began to pick up a bit, the language and writing was still clunky, but the plot got a bit better for sure.

The characters seemed to be a bit more fully realized, I got the impression that Dora was more of a person than she was in the first fourth of the book. I think that’s a disservice, Dora should’ve been fully realized, or at least somewhat realized, from the get-go, but she took way too long to get there. Sephy and Lucine were overly bland too. I get that they’re supposed to have lived for a long time, and were brought up in a puritan household when they were initially born (they’re immortal, I think, or at least close to it). I did mix up Lenny and Lucine

The world building and setting still felt a bit cluttered, it was more realized but it wasn’t completely clear how things worked. I was still confused at that point on what was going on with Ambrose and Isadora. I think maybe there was reincarnation, or some kind of descendant, but it’s not well done, I think there could’ve been a better way for the author to lay out the plot and leave hints. This jsut felt like it was confusingly leading with the twist.

At this point, I surmised George was the man “chasing across lifetimes” and that Dora and Ambrose were a separate couple away from George. But if George was the bad guy, and Lenny knew that, then why did she allow Katie to run the shop and possibly be a victim? Why not close the shop and say “we’re out for the month” or something? That just felt felt reckless with an innocent woman’s life. And I wouldn’t think Lenny would do that as a character we’re supposed to root for.

**34% to 60%**

This is where things finally started to make actual sense.

Thank god.

This is also where Dora actually shows concern for Katie, which no one else has by this point, and it’s unclear why. Like, did they not think George would come for Katie? Dora still only worries about Katie being in the shop, and handling it on her own, but that’s okay because she *doesn’t know anything*. Once she does, she wants to go to London to help Katie, she wants to protect Katie, but her aunts are perfectly willing to allow Katie to possibly die.

So, the explanation seems to be that they’re immortals, and they’re all reborn over and over again, and dies over and over, because of a curse. Which I think honestly should’ve been revealed earlier on in the book rather than a third of the way in, but whatever.

I also did actually start to want to pick up the book at this point. Just to see what happens, the setting is a bit more realized and made the book more readable. But I still found that the book felt like it was written like a YA novel, or maybe even a mid fanfiction. It was just so simplistic that it felt like it was the author’s first novel, which it wasn’t. She didn’t seem to know where her setting was (with how the characters from the US talked, in particular).

**60% to End**

Things did pick up more, but all the problems were still present.

And I really didn’t believe in Ambrose and Dora’s relationship, I mean they had their cute moments, for sure, but it just wasn’t that great or that convincing. Everything just felt as hollow as the rest of it did.

In the end, it just felt like the premise promised wasn’t really delivered on. The reason I picked up the book was not the real and true plot and I felt a bit cheated.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by the premise but I ended really disliking the writing style. It is too much exposition and the pacing is all over the place.

In this magical and unique dual-timeline historical fiction novel, readers discover a bookstore on the outskirts of Salem in 1692 that is somehow connected to Dora (a florist in twenty-first century England), her family’s mysterious past, and the mother she thought had died. As she discovers their family’s secrets and the stranger who appeared at her flower shop and seems to be stalking her, Dora must use these family secrets to find this hidden bookstore and the tool that can save her family. Unique in its premise and magical system, this novel is a complex, thrilling new book that weaves in elements of many genres into a seamless and intriguing narrative. The characters are the stars of this brilliant novel and alternate timelines between each chapter, and the female friendships and family ties are really well-written and drive the novel’s events forward in some exciting ways. With their brilliant characters and excellent dynamics between friends and family members, these characters are really intense, exciting, and interesting. With its high stakes, incredible historical setting, and dynamic characters, this is a unique historical fiction book that readers will struggle to put down because Dora’s family secrets are empowering, exciting, and complex since the truth really is stranger than fiction.

Dora lives with her Aunt Lenny in London. She runs a flower shop and often wonders about her family as Lenny is very reluctant to talk about them. One day a man comes into the shop and there is something about him that troubles her. Lenny's reaction when she tells seems strange. Suddenly she decides that she needs to go back to Salem in the USA. She is also insistent that Dora goes with her.

Unsurprisingly Salem thrives on its history of the Witch Trials in the sixteen hundreds. Here Dora meets the mother she never knew & another aunt. Their family can be traced back to the infamous witch trials. They are caught in a cycle that can't be broken unless a certain book can be found. The book is in a bookstore but no-one can find it. Can Dora save her family from this never ending fate?

Told from two timelines this story works very well. I enjoyed both of them. Often when a story is told this way you want to stay in one timeline but I enjoyed both. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I so enjoyed this book. I love to read a book with magic in it. The characters were so fun and man it brought my one visits a couple of years ago to Salem back to life for me. This author has quickly become a favorite of mine.

For those who have a love of witches that are fun and a book with magic and history and mystery. Read this!

It was just an okay book. I really don't feel like you get a lot of every characters' background and personality because it's just kind of supposed to be known with the different incarnated lives they've all lived. The pacing felt very quick but slow at the same time.

This book was so different to the usual books I read, but I really enjoyed it!!

The concept was super interesting, and I loved all the twists and turns. I did find a couple of bits confusing and felt parts needed extra details or explanation, and I also would’ve loved more of a history on the witch hunts in Salem. However, overall I did learn a lot and enjoyed the book overall!

4 stars out of 5 ⭐️

Helen Phifer has been one my favourite authors after I read her Maria Miller detective series because her word building and the plot was so unique that I was drawn to it. But didn’t know she’ll be this good in the vanishing bookstore. Here, she crafted a magical tale about a family of women accused of being witches during the Salem Witch Trials. These women have been cursed to live their lives repeatedly while being hunted by the same evil.

The story has been told in two different time lines as in Salem and present day. In 1692 Salem, A woman accused of being a witch hides a journal in a vine covered bookstore and runs. The bookstore mysteriously vanishes and is never seen again.

I enjoyed the writing, the dual timelines, the search for a missing bookstore. But sometimes I felt the plot has few plot holes and the 30ish something fmc is kind of annoying thing and it took long time to meet her mother as well but other than that I enjoyed it.

The English sisters were hanged in Salem in the 1600s, but have been cursed and are reborn into continuous lifetimes, along with their niece, Dora, her great love, Ambrose, and an evil witch hunter. Dora, with no memories from her previous lives, now works in a flower shop in London. She must remember in order to find the key to breaking the curse.

The premise of this book was promising. The first two chapters - a prologue in the witches' original lives in Salem, and an introduction to Dora and her shop in modern-day Long, had great potential. Unfortunately, once past those two sections, the book went drastically downhill. It was poorly written, had gaping plot holes, poor dialogue (real people do not speak in dramatic paragraphs), no stakes, and zero depth.

The magic system makes little to no sense, with the author glossing over any hole in the story with the fact that the witches "don't worry our pretty little heads about it" (Yes, that is LITERALLY a quote when a plot hole is brought to light). Dora is written as if she is a teenager/young adult, but is in fact a staggering thirty-three. She is spoken about constantly as "so young", referred to as "the girl" and generally treated like a child rather than a grown woman. She also speaks and acts in a juvenile way. Ambrose, who is also her age, is exactly the same, referred to as "just a child". I was shocked the first time their ages were mentioned, and their infantilisation continued to be off-putting throughout.

General inconsistencies also irritated me. For example, they're said explicitly to look different in each lifetime (apart from hair and eye colour), yet are also spoken as to look the same. Dora is called the "spitting image of her mother at her age" by someone who apparently hasn't seen her mother at all in the lifetime. A dress that Dora wore previously fits like a glove, without any discussion about potential size difference.

The entire plot is about a witch-hunter, yet there is no urgency whatsoever. The chapters ramble on about miscellaneous, irrelevant, mundane things. When the plot finally comes to fruition it is short-lived in a poorly written action sequence that's over quickly and easily. It's laughable that this battle has apparently waged lifetimes. Also, the titular bookstore appears briefly for a couple of scenes, with no explanation and nothing deeper than "it's a bookstore that they hid away".

The author's note at the end confirms that the novel includes inserts from the author's own life and interests that make little to no sense to a reader. Giles Corey was included in such a flippant manner, which is quite disrespectful to a real human being. His inclusion had no actual relevance to the plot. It existed only to tie in the reader's own interest in witch trials in Salem. To be relevant to the plot, his connection should have been explored properly. Perhaps he was a friend to the sisters. He existed as a minor, irrelevant character who was name-dropped unnecessarily.

Quite frankly, this book should not exist in its current form. It needed a great amount of editing and re-crafting that it didn't receive. I was very disappointed. I would have DNF'd it but I don't like doing that for NetGalley reviews and prefer to give a full chance to any book.
General inconsistencies also irritated me. For example, they're said explicitly to look different in each lifetime (apart from hair and eye colour), yet are also spoken as to look the same. Dora is called the "spitting image of her mother at her age" by someone who apparently hasn't seen her mother at all in the lifetime. A dress that Dora wore previously fits like a glove, without any discussion about potential size difference.

The entire plot is about a witch-hunter, yet there is no urgency whatsoever. The chapters ramble on about miscellaneous, irrelevant, mundane things. When the plot finally comes to fruition it is short-lived in a poorly written action sequence that's over quickly and easily. It's laughable that this battle has apparently waged lifetimes. Also, the titular bookstore appears briefly for a couple of scenes, with no explanation and nothing deeper than "it's a bookstore that they hid away".

The author's note at the end actually shocked me. I feel like this book is a vanity project, with inserts from the author's own life and interests that make little to no sense to a reader. Giles Corey was included in such a flippant manner, which is quite disrespectful to a real human being. His inclusion had no actual relevance to the plot. It existed only to tie in the reader's own interest in witch trials in Salem. To be relevant to the plot, his connection should have been explored properly. Perhaps he was a friend to the sisters. He existed as a minor, irrelevant character who was name-dropped unnecessarily.

Quite frankly, this book should not exist in its current form. It needed a great amount of editing and re-crafting that it didn't receive. I was very disappointed. I would have DNF'd it but I don't like doing that for NetGalley reviews and prefer to give a full chance to any book.

This was a cute story about witchcraft and a mysterious bookshop. Fans of Alice Hoffmann will probably like it a lot. I enjoyed it but would have wished for a bit more character depth.

I was looking forward to this book as the blurb hit all the things I love - witchcraft, bookshop, family secrets and Salem. It was a good story with plenty going on but it lacked the depth and connection I longed for to make it a book I would treasure and reread over and over (I think my high expectations may have affected how I read it).
I loved the reincarnation thread, how Salem was brought to life and the sisters. I also want to try the drink Black Magic

I already love Helen Phifer's Morgan Brookes series, and this stand alone novel from her caught my eye. Even before reading the plot, I noticed how absolutely gorgeous the cover is and that was enough to make me have to try it out.

This dual timeline story follows the English women, from Salem during the witch trials until the modern day. The secrets of their family are locked in an ancient book, that vanished with a bookstore in the 1600s, and only Dora, the youngest, might have the ability to find it and save her family once and for all.

This was definitely a new style of book compared to what I've previously read from the author, but it was so enjoyable. I always love a good dual timeline story, and the idea of witches throughout the century was intriguing. I do wish the story was a bit longer. I could easily have read another 100-200 pages delving into the Salem story or the current day hunt to learn more about the sisters and the book.

Cozy paranormal romance set in with witches and Salem. Cute story, for fans of romantic magical realism such as Joanne Harris and Practical Magic.

I wanted to enjoy this book but genuinely could not. While the general plot was an exciting idea (being resurrected and dying in a continuous cycle they were cursed to repeat) the way it unfolded for me was truly unsatisfying. I was either given too much information (usually from the aunties) or not enough (the flashbacks without enough context to be meaningful)

Very creative idea, I just didn’t personally enjoy how it unfolded.

4.5 stars!

I received both audio and ebook advance copies from netgalley.

The Vanishing Bookstore by Helen Phifer is so amazing! The characters are so well written and I love their personalities. I want to know these women.

This was a fun book. Witches and Salem and past lives? Yes please.

This was an almost a DNF for me. It was an interesting concept but later on i got sooo bored that I picked this up several times just to finish it. Only to gave me a slump. The main character was already in her 30s but she sounded like a teen. 😭 The ending was like the "final battle" scene in The Sorcerer's Apprentice where that "apprentice" beat the main antagonist without the Merlin ring. IYKYK.

And yeah, it's like The Vanishing Bookstore only appeared twice in this book. It's misleading yah know. 😬

This was a lovely, atmospheric book. I knew from the premise that I would really enjoy this book. It was very fast paced in my opinion, however sometimes I wish it did slow down the pace a little to allow the story to really develop.

Loved the plot and the vibes, but at times struggled with the pace and also did not really connect to any of the characters. I didn’t dislike any, but also didn’t love any either.

I was really excited about The Vanishing Bookstore. The concept of a vanishing bookstore in Salem sounded like the perfect mix of mystery and magic. However, while the premise had so much potential, I found myself a bit disappointed with how it played out.

The vanishing bookstore, which felt like it should have been central to the story, ended up playing a much smaller role than I expected. Once Dora figured out what she needed to do, the resolution happened very quickly, without much tension or real obstacles.

I also struggled to connect with the characters and their unrealistic reactions. Dora’s belief in the strange events around her seemed to flip-flop constantly. The villain’s motivation felt underdeveloped—his actions stemming from an unrequited crush didn’t feel believable or strong enough to drive the story forward.

Overall, the story moved at a very fast pace, but this left it feeling a bit half-baked, as if there wasn’t enough time to fully explore the intriguing concept at its core.

Witches? Salem? Historical fiction? Magic? Familiars? Witchy cocktails called Black Magic?

Absolutely yes, I'm in.

This book was ultimately a really fun and atmospheric read. The story itself captivated me from start to finish. It was full of intrigue, amazing strong female characters, atmosphere, and a bit of suspense. I could barely put it down to be honest.

What I liked:
- Historical Elements - The first half of this book regularly goes back and forth between present day and Salem in the 1600s. It was really fun to read both of these narratives, and then see Salem in the present day compared with how it appeared in the past for these characters.
- Salem. The atmosphere of Salem is perfection, and it was the perfect setting for this book. The detail of the people around the town, the witchy-inspired shops, the description of the landscape - it all worked for me.
- Hades! A magical talking crow familiar? Need I say more?
- Fun witchy details like the black magic cocktail. There were little details like this scattered throughout that were really fun.
- The sisters - Lucine, Sephy, and Lenny. I love them all. I want to join their witchy sisterhood and drink black magic cocktails. Is that really too much to ask?

Didn't like:
- The dialogue felt very cheesy and awkward at times. It almost felt YA?
- The bookstore. The title of this book is quite misleading. I was expecting to see a bit more about the bookstore, but really it only had a few pages in the book. I was a bit confused by this.
- The writing was fairly repetitive at times.
- Unanswered questions. After reading this I still had some questions and there were definitely some logical gaps. At one point one character says that it would be too much for their pretty heads to understand the details of what was happening... but really after 400 years of going through something you'd think they would have figured out a few answers.

The vanishing bookstore by Helen phifer
Lot many times you feel that a book will be going to be a hit only to get disappointed. This book needs so many changes in my opinion.

First of all, the main character Dora doesn't sound or behave like a 30 something adult woman but rather a naive, teenager. There's not much character development, there's hardly any relationship or bond development in the book. These women who has been suffering and suffering and yet there was no emotional dilemma or turmoil throughout the book.

The two main characters specifically annoyed hell out of me. When you come to know something you believed whole your life wasn't really true, how would you react? The reactions the characters had for lifetime of shocks were like "ughhh okay so this happened." There is no fleshing out of characters or plot.

The villain, was unbelievable and the way characters behaved was too. Like some characters were introduced in the start and later they are shown to be in danger and then author almost totally forgets about them except for a mention towards the end. There are many loopholes in the story. The interactions between characters are done very poorly and unrealistically and totally emotionless.

There were points in the book when I was so annoyed with dumb reactions to a life changing altercation from characters. I feel that the subject that is Salem witch trials was a perfect setting but very poor execution.

Thank you Netgalley and bookouture for ARC in exchange of an honest review. I had so many expections but was very disappointed by this book.