The Vanishing Bookstore 

• Author: Helen Phifer
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: January 7, 2025
• Publisher: Bookouture Audio

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

‘Every story needs a happy ending. And you can’t have yours until you find the bookstore.’

1692. On the outskirts of Salem, a bookstore stands covered in overgrown vines. Inside, a young woman hides a linen-wrapped journal under a loose floorboard and runs away, panicked by the sound of hounds barking in the distance. The bookstore vanishes into thin air…

Present day. Stepping inside a pale-pink house on one of the oldest streets in Salem, Dora can’t believe she’s about to finally meet the mother she thought died tragically when she was just a child. But the excitement is short-lived. Dora’s mother has fear in her eyes, and with a trembling voice she whispers ‘my life is in danger, and now so is yours…’

Desperate not to lose her mother all over again, Dora digs into her family’s mysterious past, and stumbles upon a seemingly impossible the key to their survival is hidden in a bookstore that no one has seen for generations.

Losing herself amongst thorny brackens and twisted ferns, Dora eventually finds the path that leads to the bookstore. But someone is watching her. They’ve been waiting for her.

As she pushes open the beautiful blue door hidden amongst the sharp brambles, and stands in front of rows of crumbling leatherbound books with faded pages, she has no idea of the secrets she is about to uncover. Or that her life is in more danger than ever before…

This sounded like such a fascinating read, and I loved that I got to read this in audiobook form. It was narrated by Stephanie Cannon. She’s new to me, but was wonderful with this story, adding just the right touch of emotions to make this a believable story, despite it involving elements of fantasy or magical realism.

I was captivated by the story instantly. I was already prepared to love it, but the writing and characters sold me on this book, as if I needed more to be sold on. The idea of a vanishing bookstore and a family of witches with a hidden past was already appealing to me, but how Phifer wrote the story sucked me in from the start to the end.

The story is told in two timelines—the present day focusing on Dora and her journey, and a historical timeline that takes place just outside Salem in 1692 and focuses on a family of witches. Both timelines were equally appealing, which I don’t find often. I tend to enjoy one or the other more, but in this book, I couldn’t find one that I enjoyed a bit more. I loved the historical aspect of the past timeline, and watching how the story unfolded. I also loved how the present-day timeline incorporated elements from the 17th century yet made them thoroughly modern. 

Dora was one of my favorite characters. Her ability to just accept strange things as normal was impressive, as she learned more about her family and who she is. I enjoyed watching her get to know her mother for the first time, and seeing her aunts interact with each other, showing how much alike the sisters are. Her aunts are wonderful as well, although we don’t really get to know her mother very much. 

Basically, the main conflict in the book is women who very much love living together, and don’t want to do anything that will cause them to lose their autonomy. In today’s world, a woman who works and lives independently is an accepted thing in America and England, while in the 17th century, especially in Salem, it could get you labeled as a witch, with disastrous consequences. And that’s exactly what happens—a woman retaining control over her own life turns down a man who is smitten with her and won’t accept no for an answer. 

There’s a lot of tensions in the story and it made this a fast-paced, exciting read. I finished it in less than 24 hours, and you know it’s a knockout read when I don’t even get distracted while listening to an audiobook for long periods of time. The story flows so smoothly it felt like I was experiencing it with the characters, and my heart was pounding by the end of the book. 

Overall, I have so many positives listed, and I’m sure I forgot a few because that’s what always happens when I have to write a review for a book I loved. But the important thing here is that I didn’t notice any negatives. Everything about this story was wonderful, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. You might like this book if you like stories about witches, Salem, the witch trials, learning more about witch finders, books featuring  a historical mystery, and stories with a touch of romance.

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