I tried… And tried. Just couldn’t get into this one. I will give it another go later, but I had to move on. The cover is amazing though.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in return for an honest review.
This book follows the year in the life of Mortimer an editor at a failing publishing house through his diary entries. I found this book to be very well written with descriptive and detailed prose and beautiful metaphors throughout. I enjoyed the setting of the publishing house and the range of eclectic characters who were entertaining. However I struggled with the overall plot and did not feel gripped by this book so it took me quite a long time to finish.
Despite this I enjoyed reading something outside my usual style and I would recommend to someone looking for a quirky, slow paced read.

I'm sure this will be the right book for many readers, but I just couldn't get into it. Because I received it as an ARC (thank you, NetGalley and Fairlight Books), I didn't DNF it, but it was a real slog to get to the end. This is a light and funny book set in a struggling little publishing company in London, told through the diary entries of 30-year-old employee Mortimer over the course of one year. Despite lots of things happening throughout that year, it felt like nothing really happened in this book. I can tell that it's well done and humorous, but it wasn't the right fit for me. To quote the great W.H. Auden and his five possible verdicts on books: "I can see this is good but I don’t like it."

There were pros and cons to this book. At first I thought it would be an interesting premise, any book about books is a winner for me. I did enjoy the diary writing style as it gave it a more personal touch. I also thought the metaphors Fiona used to describe even the most mundane things painted a picture, they were lyrical in their beauty, however, I found it slow and a bit repetitive without a real hook to grab me. It took a real effort to get to the end which was sad as I thought I’d like it due to the premise.

A rather rambling story, at times I struggled to imagine where the book was going.

The writing was, at times, charming, and, in places, funny, but I think the book was overly long. Mortimer, despite being the central character, remained an elusive character. I did not feel I knew him much better at the end of the book than at the beginning.

And too many convenient chance happenings to be believable, I'm afraid. How did Hugo get from Calais to meet Mortimer, by chance, in the Canaries? What exactly was the relationship with Hugo?

Lots of unanswered questions, but a conveniently happy ending - didn't quite work for me.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

(2.5 stars)
I'm sorry to say I had to DNF this book. I think it just isn't for me.

I'm starting with one of the few things that I truly liked, thus seeing how the work in a publishing house is done, how they work and decide which books to pick. And also how the main character and his boss are clearly very fond of books and seldom quote them or nominate them in their conversations. I think that people who have similar jobs (or would like to have them) might enjoy this book.

But for me it wasn't a strong enough charcacteristic why to keep reading it (at the moment).

The story is narrated as if we are the secret diary of the protagonist, a thirty-year-old man who is unsatisfied with the current situation of his life. This is the reason why we don't have a general explanation of the situation already presented, but a on-going gathering of informations that the protagonist leaves every now and then while writing almost daily in his diary. Despite this having sense - since it is HIS diary and all - it gave me a sense of confusion and made it hard for me to keep focusing on the general plot and the lives of the characters, if not the protagonist's too.

In the first pages, then, the narrative style was almost pompous, but not in a negative way: it seemed in character with the protagonist, him working in a library, being fond of several novels, and (as we find out later) wanting to get a poetry book of his published. But then this characteristic left almost suddenly, the style became normal and kind of fragmentary, and it kinda disappointed me.
The main character was going through what he called a possible depressive episode (I'm saying "what he called" because we have no confirmation it was a real/diagnosticate one or a joke) so it would make sense he wasn't feeling as before, but being this a secret diary and a part of him aspiring to write poetry and all, he could have either expressed in a more in depth and poetic way his emotions in the pages or not written anything at all if he didn't have the strenght to do it, instend of writing one phrase every now and then just to fill one or two days between weeks.
So the pace too didn't impressed me that much.

Then we know by the plot and some of the first pages that the library risks closing since they don't have enough money, and I couldn't understand what his psoition was. He was sad at first, then in some parts uninterested, then made a colloquy with another publishing house calmly revealing the next works of his current work, the colloquy didn't go well and he is disappointed, but then the new house had stole the possible new authors of his current one (since he let them slip out of his mouth) and feels guilty and sad...

I read almost half of the book and still didn't get a general idea of it, or the plot and subplot, I have clear only three or four characters and I'm still confused about the others... I can't make myself follow the story or enjoy it as much as I would have.
I decided to stop reading for now, because a part of me is still interested in knowing where the story will go and how the problem will be solved (if they will solve it)
I sincerly hope I'll be in the right mood to pick this book up again in the future and maybe like it more

2.5/5

Housed in a derelict library that has seen better times, The House of Marvellous Books is a publishing house on the verge of financial ruin. £1 million debt, a leaking roof, rodent infestation (despite the faithful library cat Moriarty patrolling the premises), outstanding payments to writers and the competition trying to poach their more popular writers are just a few of the problems The House is facing. There is a rumor of the library having in its possession a valuable medieval manuscript that even has the Vatican willing to pay a handsome amount, which would help save the establishment if only it were to be found. A new hire expected to save the day turns out to add to the mess and eventually, a dubious Russian company takes over, promising to turn the business around which raises more suspicion than confidence. Will the publishing house be saved or will the changes being introduced prove to be a final nail in the coffin for The House of Marvellous Books? The narrative takes us through the daily workings of the publishing house - the editorial meetings, difficult authors and internal staff with all their camaraderie and internal spats and rivalries - from the perspective of Mortimer Blakeley-Smith, the junior editor who is also secretly working on his own novel, We are also given a glimpse into his personal life especially his friendship with Hugo Castle, serving a six-year jail term for theft of valuable books from libraries across Europe.

I adore stories set in bookstores and libraries. Given that this story was set in a publishing house operating in an old library, I was naturally interested in Fiona Vigo Marshall's The House of Marvellous Books. The narrative is presented through a series of journal entries logged in over the course of a year by the main character, Mortimer Blakeley-Smith, which I felt is unique. The cast of characters is quirky and their interactions are quite entertaining with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. Unfortunately though, this was not enough to hold the narrative together. There is not much movement in the story (for the first 3/4 of the novel) and what starts with an interesting premise and potentially entertaining narrative soon becomes slow and rambling and falls flat in the middle with a rush of things happening at the end. The narrative felt unnecessarily stretched and much of the details about Mortimer’s life outside the publishing house served no purpose. Add to this an overall weak plot with not much development in the story or its characters and the end result is a book that had potential but is sadly disappointing in execution. I also felt that a single PoV reporting all that was happening with the library and publishing house soon became monotonous and perhaps introducing another PoV could have rendered the narrative a tad more engaging. Overall , this novel did not hold my interest and I had to struggle to finish.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I just couldn’t get into this book. The writing style is set out like a diary, which normally I have no issue with, but it read like any old person’s diary and was rather flat on the page, with nothing to catch the readers attention and make them want to continue. The story is about a publishing house in hard times and the people that work there, and although the characters seem a bit eccentric, they’re just not interesting with it. Sadly due to these reasons I gave up reading part way through as I was having to force myself to read rather than enjoying it

The House of Marvellous Books is a very different book from the ones I am used to reading. While reading it, it seemed to me that the plot and its development weren’t exactly the main thing to focus on. It wasn’t like I needed to keep reading it in order to find out what was going to happen next. To me, this book is more like a portrait of a group of colleagues, a detailed description of how a publishing company works and struggle to stay afloat during hard times. Not my usual cup of tea... but still an enjoyable story to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for a copy of this ebook!
An interesting insight into the year of an editor within a quirky publishing company.
This certainly threw you into the deep end without much explanation. I struggled at the beginning to wrap my head around what was happening.
After a while though, I got into the groove and had a few giggles.
It definitely displayed the stresses of a dysfunctional company, and had many cringeworthy moments. The main character didn't have a lot of character development, however I was happy with the outcome for him in the end.
It certainly wasn't a favourite read, but still enjoyable all the same.

This book was hilarious and quirky! The eccentric characters were fun to follow along with. The pace of everything was well timed, and kept interesting throughout!

Unfortunately I could not get into this book at all, I tried 3 times. Just lots of sentences which didn’t seem to make any sense, I couldn’t see how on Earth a story or plot would develop so I gave up.

What an incredibly odd duck of a book. Chock full of meandering prose, wry insight and left of field tenderness - I absolutely loved it.
The House of Marvellous books follows a year in the life of Mortimer, a commissioning editor for a publishing house that’s seen better days. Manned by an eccentric cast and written in diary format, you get a real sense of the feeling and family of the publishing house, as Mortimer and his work colleagues navigate unruly authors, sassy editors and a ditzy receptionist who is in search of a missing and very valuable manuscript.
Packed full of literary references and generous of cake, The House of Marvellous books will appeal to bibliophiles everywhere. An off kilter read that really appeals

This book was sent to me electronically for review from Netgalley. This is a quick fun read with quirky characters. However, the story does move somewhat slowly at times. All in all enjoy.

A relatively easy read but the plot never seemed to really develop, it’s not a book that I would particularly recommend to friends but would read if passed on to me if I’m honest

This is such an odd meandering book. The main plot is the publishing house/library being in dire straights financially and needing to find a lost and incredibly valuable book that is supposed to be somewhere in their collections.

However the book is very much stream of conscious with little attention to the main plot points and a lot to random books, quotes and weird things going on in the lives of the characters.

Honestly this description sounds like something very much up my alley, but it was not.

This was a really enjoyable read. It was well written with good charcater development with a well executed and humourous storyline. I enjoyed the pacing and it was a lot funnier than I expected it to be. I will definitely be looking for more from this author.