Readers Guide to Alchemy of Secrets
My Readers Guide to Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber is here! What is this new “adult” book by a beloved YA author, what did I think and what is even happening. I was SO confused, so let’s figure it out together!
Readers Guide to Alchemy of Secrets
Table of Contents:
My Review of Alchemy of Secrets
Main Characters in Alchemy of Secrets
Plot Summary and Spoilers for Alchemy of Secrets
My Review of Alchemy of Secrets
I had planned to review Alchemy of Secrets on my adult mystery and suspense website, but now that I’ve read it, I feel like the DNA of this book is rooted in:
The 2010s YA Paranormal Romance!
- We have a heroine who is tragic and super-special
- Holland switches between being smart and incredibly impulsive and ruled by emotion
- She is pursued by two hot guys, then a third (plus a fourth nice guy with a crush)
- She has a posse of best friends who play a supporting role, showing up conveniently when needed
- There’s a hand-wavey paranormal grounding, with magical objects, secret powers, and the like. Nothing is really explained.
- It’s a series with a cliffhanger ending
All in all, this just wasn’t a book for me, but because I’d already taken notes, I decided to put them in as readable format as I could.
If you have questions, let’s figure them out. I’m confused about SO MUCH.
Main Characters in Alchemy of Secrets
- Holland St. James: student at UC Berkeley
- Jake: guy Holland is dating
- Professor Adam Bishop: new faculty in the UCB Folklore program
- Mason Bishop: Adam’s brother
- Professor Madeline Kim: Holland’s faculty advisor
- Charlotte “Cat” Davis: friend of Holland and actress
- Chance Garcia: friend and former child actor
- Eileen Cheng: friend who works as a celebrity personal assistant
- Manual Vargas: mysterious bank employee
- Isla Saint: actress
- Benjamin James Tierney: director
- Jessica Travers: actress
- January: Holland’s twin, mysterious world traveler
- Gabe Cabral: hot guy with secrets
- Padme: bank employee
Plot Summary and Spoilers for Alchemy of Secrets
California student Holland takes her boyfriend Jake on a hunt for the Watch Man, a creature of urban legend who tells you when you’ll die. (I thought this guy was a watchman, but if you’re listening, he’s a Watch Man.)
A woman in a small mysterious shop asks them if they’re sure they want to ask the Watch Man what time it is.
Holland gets a phone reminder of her meeting with Professor Adam Bishop. Holland has a twin sister named January who travels the world as she works for a rare book collector.
An old man rings Holland’s doorbell and hands her package that he says was on her doorstep. His name is Mr. Vargas, he works at a bank, and he says there’s a safe deposit box that needs to be claimed by Holland in the next 24 hours.
Holland‘s parents died 15 years ago and after that she changed her name. Interesting.
Folklore Class
There is a haunted hotel where the devil likes drinking a sidecar. If you can find the devil and buy you a drink, he’ll give you a business card that can be used for an appointment during which he will make a deal for whatever you want.
It’s the day before Halloween and Holland is now on her way to meet Adam Bishop. There’s a hot young guy in Bishop‘s office and they joke that Bishop must be in a pretentious asshole. Holland getsa nosebleed and of course the hot young guy is actually Adam Bishop himself.
Bishop claims to be her new faculty advisor, saying that Holland’s former advisor, Professor Kim, is a liar and a fraud. He also tells her she needs to come up with a new topic. Her topic that famous Hollywood murders were committed by the devil won’t do.
Holland tries to call Professor Kim, but gets no answer so she decides to call the number on business card that Mr. Vargas give her about the safe deposit box
Folklore Class
The class is held in the Hollywood cemetery at the graves of Isla Saint and Benjamin James Tierney, who were Hollywood royalty.
He was a director and she was an actress. They started a film trilogy which people said was cursed. Then one night Isla murdered her husband and then shot herself. Rumors were that Benjamin was having an affair with an actress named Jessica Travers, who took her own life that night. The professor says all of it is misdirection.
Holland is at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, hoping to buy the devil a drink. The theory of her thesis was in a series of murders happened because Hollywood stars made deal with the devil and never paid him back.
She’s met there by her friends Cat, Chance, and Eileen. She gets a phone message that she has a 9:45 a.m. appointment at the bank tomorrow and she’ll be able to open her father’s safe deposit box.
Folklore class
A class about a bank that’s the most secure in the world
Holland is leaving her sister a message about the safe deposit box when a panicked Jake calls and says the Watch Man contacted him and told him he would die tonight unless he does something. They have to meet in person. They only have an hour left.
The group in the bar sees a man in a white dinner jacket. Holland’s friends want to buy a drink for him, but Holland says no. She has a terrible feeling about him. She rushes out to meet Jake.
When Holland gets to Jake’s apartment, he’s not there. She calls him and he tells her that The Watch Man told him can only postpone his death by killing Holland tonight.
Holland calls Chance. Due to his dark past as Hollywood child star she thinks he’s the only one who could understand this. She’s on the phone with him she finds Jake’s body.
She tells Chance she’s going into Jake’s apartment. There she learns that Jake’s real name is Axel Jorgensen.
She finds a glossy black folder and takes it. The folder contains a picture of Holland and all sorts of information about her life. It explains the fake “Jake” persona and his goal: to find out as much as he can about Holland’s family.
Just then the Watch Man calls Holland. He denies killing Jake. Tell her that she will die on Halloween at 11:59 PM. The only way to live past that time is to find the Alchemical Heart. The phone goes dead. Holland realizes that she will probably be a suspect in Jake’s murder so she leaves.
Holland rushes to her car, but it doesn’t start. A “mysterious man with tortured eyes” pops up and tells her to come with him. He says that he can she can choose between the cops or him.
I would obviously choose the cops if I were innocent, but of course she chooses him and he says HE’S RUNNING OUT OF TIME. But then she notices that he has the same tin and sulfur tattoos as her sister January so she decides can trust him.
Folklore Class
The class gets a mysterious clue about where classes being held, and the professor asked if they have ever heard of the Chained Library at the Hereford Cathedral. The most powerful objects in the world!!
The mystery man’s name is Gabe Cabral. He lets her use his phone to call her sister.
Gabe claims January met a guy on a recent trip and they got engaged. Gabe thought the guy was a scammer. Then January left him a note that said “keep my sister safe.”
Gabe keeps calling Holland sweetheart, which is annoying. She tells him she needs to find the Alchemical Heart and he’s like “who doesn’t?”
Holland tries to weasel info out of Gabe. What is the deal with the Alchemical Heart? She’s only familiar with The Order of the Solar Temple and The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Well once upon a time, there was a secret society. One member died and was brought back to life. In that time, they brought back a sacred object called the Alchemical Heart that gives people magical powers.
Gabe and Holland go to Professor Kim’s house, hoping for some answers! She doesn’t seem to be home.
Folklore Class
The class meets at the Zoo. A weird woman shows up and says classes are suspended.
Professor Kim’s house is trashed and she is missing. January’s business card is by the professor’s phone. Adam Bishop shows up.
Adam also claims January asked him to look out for Holland. Adam also has the secret tattoo. He says she can’t trust Gabe, then shoots Gabe.
Gabe and Holland get away and head to her house to get a package that the professor sent her: it’s the professor’s most important notebook. Now Holland believes that 15 years ago her father found the Alchemical Heart. Chance shows up. Is this a love rectangle?
Gabe pretends to be Holland’s boyfriend and Chance is upset. Holland finds a backpack that January left at her place.
Again, Gabe says she can’t trust Chance. Or Adam. He tells her the First Bank of Centennial City (where her father has his safe deposit box) is evil.
Now Gabe says they have to go. Where? Who knows. Gabe might be magical but doesn’t want to talk about it. He takes Holland to some Airbnb/safe house situation.
She tells Gabe about the banker who visited and he’s alarmed. The Sacred order of the Parallel Dawn (HUH?) split up. One faction wanted to destroy the heart, the other wanted to use it for magic. The professor’s book says that the bank has more magical objects THAN ANY OTHER PLACE? Huh?
Holland has another nose bleed which must mean something. She finds a magical hotel key in her shoe (WHAT?) The key is to the Regal Hotel, a place that “exists out of time.” She practically sleeps with Gabe and then dreams about Adam.
Holland gets all dressed up go to the magical bank. Gabe tells her she only has 20 minutes there and gives her a watch and one of his burner phones. She calls her sister who, predictably never answers. (I feel like maybe she’s one of these characters who’s dead??) The next morning Gabe teaches Holland how to sense magical objects. By a “change in the air.”
Folklore class
Class topic: Benjamin James Tierney. His missing screenplay was the third in a movie trilogy was thought to be cursed. When you research it your laptop dies…
They arrive at the bank, and Gabe tells her to stay away from the manager. And kisses her.
In the bank Holland someone named Padme (Padme like Star Wars? YES.) tells Holland she has to see the manager. Padme also seems to know January. Holland wonders why January isn’t answering any of her messages. In the bank is… Professor Kim.
The Professor orders tea, which is annoying because Holland knows she’s in a hurry. The Professor says no worries she can stop time so they can drink their tea. The Professor wants Holland to work for her. She also wants Holland to give her the contents of the safe deposit box. The Professor says Gabe is a very dangerous man who killed his wife.
Holland is shocked! Hot Gabe killed his wife? Apparently his wife had magic and she murdered him.
Strange things start to happen and Holland is finally allowed to go to the safe deposit box. Inside is a leather satchel. She doesn’t feel anything magical. But inside is her father’s missing screenplay: Alchemy of Secrets.
Holland reads some of the screenplay, something about the Watch Man and bringing someone’s daughter back from the dead, which makes me wonder yet again if January is not alive. These pages are a clue!
Suddenly, the lights go out in the vault. Holland grabs the screen play and tries to get out of the bank. A red car pulls up with Eileen in it.
Holland is shocked. Does Eileen work for the bank? She has a tattoo just like January, Gabe, and Adam. (Uh, how did Holland not notice this?) Holland gets a text that says WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
Eileen is shocked that they can see the Regal hotel which means the Holland must have a key.
Adam Bishop is in the hotel bar. He asks Holland to dance and then orders a sidecar. Is Adam the devil? The hotel wants to kick her out, but Adam says she’s his guest.
Adam is clearly hot and rich. In his huge suite is a photo of his brother Mason, who Holland saw at the hotel. She tells him she has to find the Alchemical Heart or she will die.
Adam has a magic popcorn machine and is so rich and hot. They go see the Watch Man at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
The Watch Man makes them all tea and tells Holland that her father was born into a magical family. He was supposed to die young so the Watch Man advised him to get the Alchemical Heart and give it to one of the devils.
Now we’re getting somewhere, but the Watch Man has drugged Adam with tea. He tells Holland that the devil is two brothers. He gives her an envelope that her father said to give to one of his daughters.
Adam wakes up and has MANY QUESTIONS for Holland.
He also calls her Bright Eyes. (As in Total Eclipse of the Alchemical Heart..)
Holland confronts Adam about being the devil and he says he used to be. There’s some long story about Adam’s father wanting to make one of them the devil, but Mason convinced Adam to share the job. Then Mason killed their father and became the devil.
Even though the Watch Man said not to let Adam look at the document, Holland does. It’s more pages from the screenplay.
There are clues and Holland decides they need to go find Holland’s father’s old bungalow at the movie studio. But first she has to make out with Adam. Which makes her nose bleed.
By total coincidence, Cat works at the movie studio. Chance is there too and Holland finally tells him about her parents.
In her father’s bungalow, Holland finds a clue: a “hold slip” inside for the property department.
Director Victoria” “Vic Van Vleet shows up. A guy named Tom in the prop room is going to help them. But the item is gone. Tom says it was an old medieval book with chains on it.
They go to stage 10, where her father filmed his series. Holland feels magic. She finally finds the book. Gabe shows up. The book is fake and has a secret compartment.
There’s a pencil in the book. She gets a voicemail from the bank: the professor wants a call back.
But wait her father left a CLUE: the pencil meant to look for the words that he wrote in pencil. It’s a clue about a movie called my neighbor next-door so they go to the set and they’re supposed to dig in the dirt.
Holland and Adam continue to look for the place they’re supposed to dig. She finds her parents’ initials carved into the base of a tree. There’s a jar with a note from her father and the last clue.
Gabe shows up and says he’ll take it. Holland goes into a yellow house on set and finds a trap door. She goes into a tunnel, but Gabe is there. He claims he didn’t murder his wife. Also, he doesn’t trust Adam. Gabe tells her she keeps making the same mistake and their eyes start bleeding.
Holland wakes up on the ground and discovers that Gabe has given back the pages he took she knows where to find the heart: a bowing alley at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Adam says his brother is trapped there and he’s dangerous.
As there’s a huge party going on, they put on costumes and head to the hotel. They don’t see Mason, but they know he’s there somewhere. The professor is there, dressed as Mary Poppins.
Chance shows up dressed as a pirate. He says he has something he wants to show her. He found dozens of pictures of Adam and he’s never any older.
Chance thinks Adam is the devil, but if he is, why does January trust Adam? She sees Mason Bishop who’s a colder version of Adam.
Mason says the heart isn’t at the hotel and that he knows why she keeps having nosebleeds
Me: What time it is? Isn’t Holland dying? What time is it anyway why is no one paying any attention to this?
Glad I asked: Mason tells her that she’s in some kind of a time loop where she dies right before midnight and then time turns back and the whole thing repeats. The nosebleeds are a side effect of the time loop.
Mason says if she does find that Alchemical Heart he wants her to bring him back to life and kill Adam. He says Adam is the one who murders her.
Holland doesn’t know what to do. Does she trust Gabe? Does she trust Adam? She suddenly finds a secret compartment in January’s backpack with cash and a fake passport and her sister‘s necklace. She puts the necklace on and both of them turn burning hot. The charm on the necklace turns into an Alchemical Heart.
Adam shows up angry and says all she needs is him and kisses her. He tries to tear off the necklace, then he stabs her.
Holland realizes that maybe Mason was right. Was she wrong about the necklace? She pulls out the professor‘s journal and feels full body tingles. Is it the Alchemical Heart? Mason shows up and says she needs to use the heart. She needs to tell the book to keep her heart beating.
Holland asks the journal to stop time.
Mason asks her to tell the Alchemical Heart to swap the brothers
The old Alchemical Heart is now an hourglass. Holland wishes Adam can’t hurt anyone, that Adam takes Mason’s place, that Adam is a ghost haunting the hotel.
Mason tells her to get out of there
Manuel Vargas shows up and WHAT EVEN: He’s the Alchemical Heart???? She asked him if he can bring her parents back and he says yes, but at cost: forgetting the last 15 years of her life.
In her father’s screenplay there’s a line about leaving the dead, so she thinks that’s what her father wants.
Holland decides she wants an ability. Manuel tells her she can’t choose her ability. He can only activate within her and she’ll have to figure out what it is.
She tells Manuel to go to the future to someone who needs him, but someone who doesn’t really want him. Someone kind who will only use him once and never again.
Holland tells the Professor that she doesn’t have the heart. The professor says the heart goes into hiding.
Epilogue
Holland is running by the beach. She feels like someone is watching her. It’s Mason come to thank her. Then her phone rings: it’s her sister. Mason leaves her a black business card.
Questions About Alchemy of Secrets:
I probably zoned out at some points so I am pretty confused.
- Does January exist? Is there any real evidence that she is alive?
- I guess we find out Holland’s power in book two?
- Are all the love interests out of the picture? Is Mason a new love interest?
- What happened to Gabe?
- How much time actually passed in this book? Did Halloween ever come? Did time ever get restarted after the Professor stopped it?
Can you answer any of these or do you have questions?
