jacey | Booklog 95/2025: Sarah Painter: The Book Keeper – Unholy Island #2

Audiobook read by Katie Villa.

Luke Taylor has been accepted by the mysterious Unholy Island and the islanders, and has become the keeper of the island’s only bookshop, a position he’s inherited. The bookshop itself seems sentient, not revealing all it’s secrets until it trusts Luke. He’s just setting in when a box of books arrives from a bookshop in York. It contains a curse which strikes at Luke, and he’s only saved by the intervention of one of the three (scary) witch sisters who love on the island. He discovers that the York bookshop has since burnt down, killing the owner. And then he finds another cursed book in an Edinburgh bookshop. Who is sending the cursed objects and why? Luke’s feelings for Esme, the island’s B&B host, are deepening, but a newcomer to the island is determined to muscle in. More magical goings-on. Expect peril, magic and a touch of romance. Katie Villa reads well.