**3.5 stars**

I’ve read the author’s books Dope and Come Closer and loved them both so I was intrigued by this one. I love the idea of a rare book dealer on the hunt for a book of the occult with unique spells and powers. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Ninth Gate, this book has a similar vibe though with more sex. I will admit once I found out what the most previous substance is I went “huh” internally. If you’re a prude don’t read this and it’s definitely not for kids probably younger than 16, in my opinion.

Overall the mystery was good. I’d love to discuss the ending with someone who’s read it! Was she wrong from the start? Did what happen change him? Very intriguing!

Though I did get a ARC from NetGalley (thanks to the author and publisher) I also listened to the audiobook from Audible. This was a fast read/listen for me and I liked the narrator as well.

This was quite the wild ride. I've been getting more into horror lately and this book felt like not only jumping in with both feet, but jumping in and learning that the water's actually up to my neck.

This isn't the classic horror style that I'm used to, but Sara Gran's writing is wonderful, descriptive, and downright creepy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran is a new thriller that combines elements of horror, fantasy, and erotica. It follows the story of Lily Albrecht, a former novelist who becomes a rare book dealer after a tragedy. She gets involved in a quest to find a mysterious book that promises unlimited power and sexual pleasure, but also has a dark and dangerous side.

The book is well-written and engaging, with vivid descriptions and twists that keep the reader hooked. The author creates a rich and immersive world of antiquarian bookselling, where magic and sex are intertwined. The characters are complex and flawed, each with their own motivations and secrets. The plot is fast-paced and suspenseful, with plenty of surprises and shocks along the way.

However, the book also has some drawbacks that might affect some readers. The book contains graphic scenes of violence, torture, and sexual abuse that might be disturbing or triggering for some people. The book also explores themes of grief, loss, addiction, and obsession that might be too heavy or depressing for some readers. The book does not shy away from showing the dark side of human nature and the consequences of playing with forces beyond one's control.

Overall, The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a thrilling and captivating read that will appeal to fans of horror, fantasy, and erotica genres. It is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended, but for those who enjoy a good dose of adrenaline and mystery.

Not my cup of tea, as I enjoy mysteries, not books with descriptive explicit content.

This book had a good plot line and kept me guessing. It got a bit convoluted towards the end and made a few jumps that were a bit unbelievable but I could see how the author got there.

I really enjoyed this title! The mix of realism, occultism, sex, etc. kept my attention throughout and kept me attached to the characters enough to want to know how the story was going to end. Thank you to all for the opportunity to read this eARC!

The Book of the Most Precious Substance is the story about the sexual obsessions of rare book sellers and the quest to find The Book because the sex acts it guides participants through may allegedly lead to power. The most interesting aspect of the story is the character Lily Albrecht, a young woman woman, once a successful novelist, who turns to rare book selling to earn enough money to care for her husband, the love of her life, who is diagnosed with early dementia and requires twenty-four-hour nursing care. When Lily begins her quest for The Book and the million dollar profit from from its sale, she also begins her own sexual quest to complete the acts described in The Book. Overall, The Book of the Most Precious Substance is an intriguing look at what a character will do for money.

I loved Come Closer and this book from Gran reminded me of it sometimes in terms of style. I loved the storyline with the MCs husband but lost interest about halfway in. I finished out the book and wanted some more explanation at the end. Other reader friends have loved this, but it didn’t click the same way with me. Recommend picking it up so you can see where you fall.

I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but it wasn't this! I read this quickly so that certainly counts for something, but I found the twist ending really unbelievable and the writing itself not terribly engaging. Also, for being so much about sex, I found this book decidedly unsexy—which maybe is the point, but it made for a very meh read. Overall I found it repetitive and disappointing.

TW: Murder, cheating, drinking, language, marriage problems, cancer, sex

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:A mysterious book that promises unlimited power and unrivaled sexual pleasure. A down-on-her-luck book dealer hoping for the sale of a lifetime. And a twist so shocking, no one will come out unscathed.After a tragedy too painful to bear, former novelist Lily Albrecht has resigned herself to a dull, sexless life as a rare book dealer. Until she gets a lead on a book that just might turn everything around. The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a 17th century manual on sex magic, rumored to be the most powerful occult book ever written—if it really exists at all. And some of the wealthiest people in the world are willing to pay Lily a fortune to find it—if she can. Her search for the book takes her from New York to New Orleans to Munich to Paris, searching the dark corners of power where the world’s wealthiest people use black magic to fulfill their desires. Will Lily fulfill her own desires, and join them? Or will she lose it all searching for a ghost? The Book of the Most Precious Substance is an addictive erotic thriller about the lengths we’ll go to get what we need—and what we want.
Release Date: February 8th, 2022
Genre: Horror
Pages: 319
Rating: ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Love Sara Gran's writing
2. The plot sounded interesting

What I Didn't Like:
1. This book drags
2. The plot gets old

Overall Thoughts:I never knew that different book collectors would have a "different" look.

I wanted to love this book since reading Sara Gran's other book but this book just dragged and dragged. It's a little over 300 pages. I was 50% into it before I just couldn't anymore. I found Lily and Lucas just such basic boring people. We listen to Lily talk about how poor she is on almost every page. We also get a rehashing of her sick husband on every other page. It gets to feel like nothing is happening. We are just stuck in this same day with Lily.

The turn of this book being about sex felt odd to me. I just kept thinking of Hellraiser (Hulu) version while reading this. I know this book was out before that but something about having to complete all these missions that made me feel bored. I think if there were more interesting characters to follow around then I would have loved this book.

This is such a slow slow book. Over 100 pages in and you're waiting waiting for SOMETHING to happen.

The ending was okay. Nothing ground breaking. She finally gets him back and he's different. We don't notice because there was very little character development to Abel from the beginning. We never built a relationship with them together so I couldn't feel sad that she went through all of this and it didn't work out.

Final Thoughts:I'll continue with the author's other books because I do like her writing style.

Recommend For:
• Slow burn plots
• Books about books

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sara Gran is perfect! I forgot to review this book before. I am a secreter of said substance, and it embarrasses me constantly. So that made this book harder to read than I wanted it to be. Gran is making big moves doing this publishing company thing on her own, hope it works out. The substance is not precious, it really makes me feel stupid when it happens to me. The book did not change my mind on that.

Like other Sara Gran books I’ve read, this was quick paced. A cadence I now come to expect from this author, in a good way. It isn't hard to read, and you connect to the characters and story. And I did so immediately with this novel.

But then things don't really develop. I found it lacking in substance once I was about 30% in. There wasn’t much action happening, though lots of talking, and many character motivations seemed redundant and simplistic. Mostly male characters wanting power and not being multi-dimensional enough for my liking. They just said outright they wanted power associated with owning the book. (The novel is about acquiring a very rare and powerful magical book.)

Eventually, I didn't want to pick this novel up. Connections and causation felt weak and forced. I would definitely read more of Gran’s work, but would not recommend this one.

This book was so smart and horny it's a little ridiculous. I loved it the way I love thinking about collecting books more than reading the actual books some days.

Book dealer Lily lives a chaste, boring life until she's tasked (along with her sexy friend and colleague Lucas) with procuring <i>The Book of Most Precious Substance</i>, an old ritual book of sex magick that would would be worth a substantial amount of money if found. Lily and Lucas must travel from city to city and even internationally to hunt down the book, despite the increasing number of murders that seem to suspiciously connected to the book and their search for it.

Gran's <i>Come Closer</i> is one of my favorite shorter horror novels, and was very excited to give this one a read. I was under the impression that <i>The Book of Most Precious Substance</i> was to be an erotic horror/thriller was and though there were some steamy bits, I was let down by the unfulfilled promise of either.

I could see certain similarities in the text with Come Closer, which may not have been the author's intent, but I appreciated all the same--the main character, a woman, whose behavior gradually changed; she becomes compelled by mysterious forces beyond her understanding. There was a lot I liked about this book, certainly, I Actually really enjoyed the ending, though it also seemed "off"-- like it was more literary than genre-- which is not a criticism in and of itself, but just that it seemed a bit out of place. It did feel overall like something was missing and I wasn't able to really connect to the plot. There was really no, in my reading, real sense of dread, suspense or despair, and that's the main criterion on which I judge thrillers.

A fantastic twisty erotic thriller by the one and only Sara Gran. I'd previously read Gran's "Come Closer," and while the content couldn't be more different, both waste no time. I admire this about Gran's writing-- she is terse and pithy, no filler.

In "The Book of the Most Precious Substance," Lily is married to a man with early onset dementia, so she starts selling their books to make money as a rare book dealer. When one of her clients asks for The Book of the Most Precious Substance, an occult sex manual, her and another book dealer set out to find it. Recommended for those who like sexy thriller adventures with supernatural elements, like The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

My first Sara Gran read, and man have I been sleeping on this author! She tells an engaging tale about an old and powerful book, and what we're willing to do to get the things we want. Heartbreaking, thrilling, wonderful.

"Who could blame him? It was why so many of us were in this business. People had let us down. People had broken our hearts. We liked books and animals and messy rooms full of things that weren't people."

This whirlwind of a book feels a little like the Da Vinci Code, except with A LOT more sex, orgies, dominatrix witches, and details any book nerd / collector would love. I loved it. It's a little horror, a little adventure, a little mystery - I sped through it and found myself thinking back to the story in between when I was away from it, which is always the sign of a great book!

Lily and Lucas are the two main characters, and I found both of their depictions believably flawed and well-rounded, although a lot of their character history and information seemed to come in a way that occasionally felt a tiny bit too much like an info-dump. Still, when there were scenes with any kind of fast-paced action, the dialogue and writing were incredibly compelling and well done, and I couldn't wait to figure out what was going on throughout.

This was my second book by Sara Gran, and it's completely different from the possession story in the first - in a great way! I loved both and will definitely look for more.

As a small note: I received an ARC through NetGalley & there were A LOT of editing errors in the unfinished copy, but I didn't remove any stars for that - just making note of it because it was a little distracting at times. Some of the names were wrong (Awe was called Abel once, which didn't make sense since Abel wasn't in the room when he was supposed to have spoken - this is one I remember offhand, but it happened like 3-4 times throughout with different characters), there were some misspellings or words in the wrong places - I'm sure this will all be cleaned up before the official release, but since I'm being open about it being an ARC, I wanted to include it for honesty's sake.

To give you an immediate indication of just how good The Book of the Most Precious Substance is, I raced through it in two days, staying up way past my bedtime to finish it.

The plot of Precious Substance is absolutely bonkers. Rare book dealer, and former author Lily Albrecht leads a draining life. Juggling a physically demanding job, with a husband with early on-set dementia, Lily sees an opportunity for excitement, and financial relief, when she joins her attractive colleague, Lucas, on a hunt for a mysterious, infamous text. The Book of Most Precious Substance promises power to the reader who can successfully perform five acts of sex magic. But as their search begins, the body count racks up, and Lily finds herself in very strange situations.

To be honest, the synopsis of this book didn’t immediately grab my attention, but I love Sara Gran’s book Come Closer so much that I had to give it a try. And I’m so glad I did. This book is hugely entertaining. The central characters are absolutely marvellous, and the selection of oddballs Lily meets on her quest are incredibly entertaining. The book is sensual, but never schlocky. And the supernatural elements are genuinely unnerving. No spoilers, but this book has one of the saddest endings I’ve ever read.

I highly, highly recommend The Book of the Most Precious Substance to anyone who enjoys a well-written, supernatural, bookish romp.

Lily Albrecht is trying to offload British paperbacks for twenty bucks at a sale in a community college gymnasium near Gramercy Park when an acquaintance tells her he has a buyer ready to spend high six figures for a rare book. She’s more than intrigued. That kind of sale has never come her way and could change everything for Lily. As a young, fêted novelist, she had an exciting life full of celebrity and wit and a brilliant husband she loved deeply. Lily lost everything she had and clung to her one resource that held her life together: books.

As an introduction to the world of antiquarian book sellers, she surmises, “People had let us down. People had broken our hearts. We liked books and animals and messy rooms full of things that weren’t people.” The book she’s searching for is “The Book of the Most Precious Substance,” a seventeenth-century manual related to the alchemical experiments of the Renaissance with a mysterious and dangerous history.

With only six possible copies, Lily and her new partner, Lucas, rush to find a copy to satisfy their generous buyer, but also find themselves under the sway of the promise of the book. Whoever is able to complete the four steps described in the book—a series of sex magic acts—is said to be given whatever they desire. Lily and Lucas discover that some of the world’s most powerful political and financial leaders use that old black magic to retain their power and influence. “Once they start making money, they become scared of losing it. Once they get power, they’re even more scared of losing that. So they turn to anything—witches, astrologers, good luck charms. But there’s also quite a few who were in the Dark Arts when they were first starting out. Credit all their success to Pan or Lucifer or guardian angels.”

Lily and Lucas travel from New York to California to Munich and Paris trying to learn more about the book, track down any possible owners, and try out some of the sex magic for themselves along the way. Each time they accomplish a step, they each feel a queasy tremor and see fleeting and increasingly alarming images that let them know it’s working. Each wealthy potential owner or buyer of the book is such a horror of a human being they can’t imagine bestowing the book’s potential on them.

Sara Gran, the author of this adventure, is a booklover’s writer who clearly revels in the book-within-a-book concept. She includes enough references to actual dark magic books and authors to accompany her fictionalized book to thrill her clever readers or send them happily off to their laptops for side explorations on everything from Aleister Crowley to—ahem—other sex-magic topics. Gran knows that book lovers love books about books, which is merely one of the reasons “The Book of the Most Precious Substance” works so well. Just as she did in her excellent Claire Dewitt detective series, Gran creates a book-within-a-book that we’d also like very much to read.

We bibliophiles know that books have the power to transform. They transport us. They change us. They surprise and delight us. Perhaps that’s why it’s easy for the reader to slip into the premise of the story. We already know that books are magic. Gran’s book feels like a much hipper (and sexier) version of “The Da Vinci Code.” While no one should pass on the opportunity to dunk on Dan Brown’s idiotic bestselling novel, even some eighteen years after publication, it’s worth remembering how that book captivated readers. Gran’s latest novel has the power to do just that.

“The Book of the Most Precious Substance”
By Sara Gran
Dreamland Books, 332 pages

Hooo boy! Where to begin with this one?

For starters, I need you to know that Come Closer is one of my all time favorite paranormal horror novels. And it makes me so happy to see soooo many people still discovering and reading it!

I also need you to know that I don't usually go in for books that contain a high ratio of the erotica. Full disclosure: when written on the page, sex scenes tend to have the opposite effect on me than the writer intends. Most of the time, I find the descriptions to be kind of cringe inducing. (Case in point - I will never EVER wipe the image of breasts that looked like "quivering puppies" from my mind, thanks to Charlaine Harris and her Sookie Stackhouse books. Those things scarred me for life).

That said, while the main focus of her latest novel surrounds a very rare handwritten manual on sex magic and the sexual acts many of the previous owners and current seekers of said manual have completed in an attempt to unlock that magic, I'm incredibly thankful that Gran doesn't spend a lot of energy describing all of it in great detail... trying to make us picture penises as stiff members (or pink cigars or heaven forbid mushroom headed f**k sticks), or vajayjay's as pink tacos (or cock pockets or ewwww fur burgers).

Because, ultimately at its core, The Book of the Most Precious Substance is just that... a book about sex. Well, in all fairness, it's a book about a very dark and powerful book that promises its readers that which they most desire if they sucessfully perform five very specific sexual acts, one of which is to generate "the most precious susbtance" (female ejaculate).

So you've got Lily and Lucas, two rare book dealers who stand to make a killing if they can locate it because some of the wealthiest people in the world are dying to get their hands on it. The hunt for the book leads them into the strange world of dark arts - witchcraft, dominatrix, creepy occult stuff - and just as they begin to find themselves falling under the book's spell, some of the highest bidders start turning up dead. Lily and Lucas aren't sure if the murders are meant to knock out the competition, but they know one thing for certain, they have to locate that book before the killer catches up to them.

Gran turns up the heat and keeps the suspense on a high simmer the whole way through. A thoroughly enjoyable, fast paced story with entertaining characters that is totally worth your while (if you can forgive a little erotica in your literary fiction).

I truly didn't know what I was expecting when I started this book. I felt fairly comfortable knowing I'd read the author before & liked them, so once an author gets a few books I've read and enjoyed I don't do much more than skim the description before I start the book.

Lily is an author, who met and married the love of her life, Abel. Then he starts having problems with memory and eventually is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's and their life drastically changes. All of Lily's focus and energy is spent trying to make a living & researching every nugget of information she can find on new treatments on the horizon for Abel. She is too exhausted mentally to try to be creative and write another book so she takes to finding and selling rare or odd books. Just like readers, this is a type of community and she develops relationships, at least superficially. One of these people comes to her hoping to find "The Book of the Most Precious Substance". It's supposedly a mix of magic, sex & power, as well as how to get it. She partners up with another bookseller/buyer named Lucas and off they go. They travel to LA, DC, New Orleans, Munich & Paris in search of the book. They've always had a mutual attraction but never acted on it until this trip. In addition, one of their sources describes the book to them as a series of steps which combine sex & the fluids that result with a magic symbol & a magic word. They decide since they are doing the deed they might as well try the steps.

My best description of this book is wonderfully weird. I love to read and am always amazed at the things authors can make up in their minds and tell in a way that I can picture it from their words. Awhile ago I read and enjoyed her Clare DeWitt series. This book, for me at least, was nothing like those but in a way that I am totally fine with.