The setting is descriptive without being boring. I love the house and its antics. It gets endearing once we realize the source. Myra Haigh, the director of BIKER (Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms) vanished and some not-very-straight-forward people came from LINKER (London Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms) to investigate and assign a new director. The antagonist was dangerous but this character’s potential wasn’t used to the extent possible. There could have been so much more danger added to this arc, especially during the finale. (He still creeped me out though!)

He hadn’t come with his family, of course. He hadn’t spoken to them in a decade. Hadn’t been allowed to. There were letters in the beginning, all from him—the start of his writing career, in a melancholy sort of way, but melancholy things always made for great fiction. The coddled and content seldom told good stories. And though he was thirty-one years of age as of last March, he had yet to start a family of his own, for various reasons he could get into but never did.She tugged a few times before the latch gave and the door swung in, and then she returned the crowbar to her bag. At first, I was a bit confused about where the story was heading, but once I became familiar with the main characters, I was hooked. The big picture soon emerged, and I found myself fully engaged until the very end. Now, I am left with a sense of curiosity and a desire to know what happens next. The open ending left me with so many questions that I hope will be answered in future installments. Now, Merritt did not hate noise. He’d been raised in a sizable town and lived in a bustling city for over a decade. He was used to it. It was familiar. But the only time cities got quiet was during heavy snowfall. So it was strange for a place to be both quiet and warm. There was something about the hush that made him realize he was completely alone, on an island that may have been untouched by humankind for ... years. A century, even. But it didn’t bother him, not precisely. After all, Merritt had been alone a long time.

It was perfectly fine. In fantastic condition, at least from the outside. No weathering, no missing shingles, no broken windows. The nature around it was wild, but surely someone lived here for the place to be so pristine. It could almost be brand new, though the style was certainly colonial. Dizziness engulfed him. A blow to the head. Silas didn’t remember falling to his knees. His skull radiated pain. Had he been hit with the bottle, or a kinetic pulse? This was a buddy read with Srivalli. Did she also love this as much as the first book? Read her review to find out. ;) While the pacing of the book ranged between medium to slow, I never felt tempted to speed-read. The writing isn’t decorative but is charming enough to appeal with its simplistic style. Hulda’s “dictionary-style” language is written and utilised wonderfully in the plot without making it seem odd.He will be more or less swallowed by an evil enchanted house, the lavatory nearly skewers him, real rats and rains fake blood... Some things are left hinted at but unexplained. Though these don’t affect the comprehension per se, they did leave me a curious cat.

Not all of her genres are my favorite, but this book falls into a category I adore - magical fiction. If, like me, you loved the Paper Magician series - this book is for you. Here in a fictional Boston, Holmberg has created yet another magical universe with its own rules and attributes, in 1800s America.Her latest assignment, Whimbrel House, is a remote estate set on a small island. And the house refuses to let its newest owner, writer Merritt Fernsby, ever leave. Hulda has to find the house’s source of magic, which means she needs to move in as well. BIKER, LIKER, and Myra’s character keep one involved in a kind of trance and curiosity for what will happen next with Hulda. The story has a detective touch which with romance is the strength of Heir of Uncertain Magic. It’s a happy ending for almost every character involved specifically Merritt and Hulda. Everything begins to sit perfectly in its place as the story reaches its end. The proposal, in the end, is a beautiful exit to the story by Charlie. Thanks to house tamer Hulda Larkin, the mischief infesting Whimbrel House has calmed. But if Hulda’s job is done, what does that mean for Merritt Fernsby, inheritor of the remote Narragansett Bay estate, who’s only now coming to terms with his enchanted place in the world?