Review: Phantom of the Library by Lidiya Foxglove

Posted September 2, 2020 by Lola in Fantasy, Review, Romance / 2 Comments

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Phantom of the LibraryPhantom of the Library (Paranormal House Flippers #3)
by Lidiya Foxglove

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: Reverse Harem

Blurb:
This is the most important house flip I’ve ever done. It’s a gorgeous California home by a known architect, it contains the final piece of the map we need to unite the magical realms, and the body of Byron, my demigod ghost, is supposedly here. That’s a lot on one girl’s plate.

Of course, no home renovation is without surprises. In this case we have a whole slew of nosy old wizard neighbors, a lonely undine who lives in the pool and won’t leave, 1970s decor worthy of the Brady Bunch, and my struggles not to get distracted by Byron, Graham, Jake and Jasper and get stuff done. But the biggest surprises come when we unite the magical realms for the first time in a thousand years and bring Byron to life…a begin to uncover a dark truth about wizard’s familiars.

We thought they were faithful companions, but it appears that part of the reason for breaking the realms apart was to bind them to our side. Now, they’re free and the wizard councils aren’t happy about it, to say the least. My cousin Piers is determined to undo my work, and my royal blood might be the only thing that can stop him—but at what cost?

My Review

I received a free copy of this book from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

Phantom of the Library is the third and last book in the Paranormal House Flippers series. I had a lot of fun reading this series and the paranormal house flipping theme is so fun and I liked how they have a new house to flip in each book. While this one wasn’t my favorite book in the series it was a solid ending to the series and I liked seeing how it all got wrapped up.

In Phantom of the Library Helena and her gang are flipping another house. They really are a tight group now, Helena and her four men as well as Billie and Gaston who are a couple. Except from having a house to flip they have to find the last piece of the map and figure out what this will all mean for the magical community.

There are some big events going on in this book and at times it felt the house flipping was a bit of an afterthought or a weirdly placed side quest in a way. With all the big stuff going on it was weird they sometimes just went back to flipping the house, but it also was a nice change of pace from the other stuff that was going on.

I had to say this book wasn’t what I had expected. There were some event that took place much earlier in the book than I had expected. And I wanted to know more about the way of paths and how it changed the world. There is a whole plot line surrounding familiars that was kinda interesting, but it felt like it came out of nowhere a bit as there wasn’t any of that in the first 2 books. And at the same time there wasn’t as much about the other changes it caused and mostly focused on the familiars and I wanted to know more about what all these big changes mean for the magical world.

There were a few scenes that felt a tad rushed or like they lacked some impact. The big show down at the end was interesting, but it also was a bit underwhelming somehow and I didn’t quite like how Helena handled part of it and the weird way the others helped. It sets up a possible spin-off series for a side character and I am curious how that will play out.

I liked seeing Helena tackle this latest house, the big changes in the magical world as well as managing her relationships. The romance really turns into a reverse harem in this book with them all finding a way how this works. There are scenes with each guy and also scenes with all of them working together in and out of the bedroom. I like we get to see more of all the guys in this one. Some stuff about Byron’s past gets revealed, there was a great development with Graham and the familiars and I liked seeing more of the Sullivan’s and even their family. It was great to see them all try and figure this thing out together and the epilogue was sweet.

I also liked the side characters Billie and Gaston, especially Billie could be fun to read about and I like seeing how she and Helena work together on the house.

It’s nice how this book mixed the house flipping with the paranormal themes. While here there is a bit more focus on the paranormal part, the house flipping is still there as well. I am still a bit confused about how the magic works exactly, but it doesn’t play that big of a role for most of the series.

To summarize: I liked how this book wrapped up the series with another house to flip as well as some big paranormal stuff that’s going down. While not my favorite book in the series I enjoyed it and this whole series has been fun to read. I really like the paranormal house flipper concept and how the author combines those elements. A few of the big story elements in this one felt a bit off, some taking place very differently or earlier than I had expected and with different focus than I had anticipated. There is a whole plot line about familiars that takes over a big part of the plot, while there wasn’t anything about that in the earlier books. And I would’ve liked to see more of the other changes in the paranormal world. The big show down felt a bit underwhelming and badly planned. I liked seeing Helena and her men figure things out in their romance and how the relationships worked and seeing a bit more of each of the guys and learning new things about them. I also liked Billie and Gaston as side characters and how they help out. All in all this was a fun series and I like the ending.

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Bookbub
Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.

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2 responses to “Review: Phantom of the Library by Lidiya Foxglove

  1. Sounds like a good solid series and ended well even with a few things you would have liked to see done differently like less of the houseflipping and her way of handling the big ending. Hopefully, you’ll get that spin off series like was being hinted at.
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