Tess Matheson only wants three things: time to practice her cello, for her sister to be happy, and for everyone else to leave her alone.

Instead, Tess finds herself working all summer at her boarding school library, shelving books and dealing with the intolerable patrons. The worst of them is Eliot Birch: snide, privileged, and constantly requesting forbidden grimoires. After a bargain with Eliot leads to the discovery of an ancient book in the library's grimoire collection, the pair accidentally unleash a book-bound demon.

The demon will stop at nothing to stay free, manipulating ink to threaten those Tess loves and dismantling Eliot’s strange magic. Tess is plagued by terrible dreams of the devil and haunting memories of a boy who wears Eliot's face. All she knows is to stay free, the demon needs her... and he'll have her, dead or alive.

I expected a dark academia horror story set in an eerie library, but it didn’t have that atmosphere at all. If I had gone into this book expecting a paranormal romance set in a school I wouldn’t have been disappointed, but alas.
The few horror elements were great, but there were some cliches that made me roll my eyes.. Tess is not like other school girls. Eliot is not like other rich boys. She is poor in a rich people’s school and students and teachers are mean to her. He has a terrible father who doesn’t approve of him. They dislike each other. They are attracted to each other.
There is nothing wring with the writing, the concept or the setting, it was just not what I expected at all. ( )

Overall I enjoyed the book but there were parts that just didn’t come together for me and I did start to lose a bit of interest at points. And while I liked the characters I did not love them. The relationship between Tess and Elliot was very slow and awkward but in a cute way, which works for their age and experience. I also liked that there were chapters giving the devil’s perspective, that was a nice touch.

While it had its flaws it was still a solid enjoyable read and was a decent YA horror/thriller with a smattering of romance. ( )

A slower read than many I've read this year. That said, it's what I'd call a subtle blend of horror, family dysfunction, and romance that ends up working quite nicely. ( )