One star for the setting, one for the library of forgotten books. It's kind of a messy jumble after that. I'm generally wary of rave recommendations depending on who is doing the recommending but... Barcelona! Books! Intrigue! Romance! What could go wrong? The writing, for starters. Or maybe it's the translation that's responsible for the mixed metaphors and florid prose. And the plot...I was on board for the first 100 pages or so and love a little magical realism in the right hands but this isn't the first book in which an author starts with an interesting premise and then seems to feel the need to up the ante, getting more and more frantic and melodramatic while hurtling toward a cymbals-crashing (speaking of metaphors) denouement. Maybe if you're writing almost 600 pages of what might have been a decent 300-page story that's what you need to hold the reader's interest. It didn't hold mine. (less)