Maulever Hall - Jane Aiken Hodge

Maulever Hall by Jane Aiken Hodge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I mostly enjoyed this old-school gothic romance. It has so many classic elements - old house, the moors, hostile servants, sinister woods in the fog, mysterious murder attempts, and questions of identity and intent.

If only there hadn't been so much plot driven by lack of communication! Even though I realize that this happens in real life, I usually just want to scream at characters to talk to each other.

Still, I think it's actually my favorite Hodge so far. She actually gives more to the romance than stating a happily ever after in this one.

This is lighter gothic fare, and I wouldn't go into it expecting anything unfamiliar or earth-shattering. Although I do enjoy the familiarity of a classic gothic atmosphere, myself. There's something cozy about it.

The Midnight Rose - Lucinda Riley

The Midnight Rose: A Novel by Lucinda Riley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Midnight Rose was completely absorbing. I love these gothic novels with rich atmosphere and dual timelines, although I sometimes have to take more tragedy and bleakness than I would like along with them. I've read one novel by Lucinda Riley before, and loved how her story included exotic locations as well as England. But it was so sad that I couldn't bring myself to read another of her books for several years.

This time I was braced for tragedy at least in the earlier timeline, and ended up cursing myself for still getting attached to the characters. There's no doubt that Riley can suck you in and make you dread what's going to happen to them. The haunting sadness of their story clung to me for several days after I finished reading.

The thing that disappointed me about this one is the modern timeline. I was really hoping it would make up for the tragedy of the past. It did offer a bit of redemption, but it was not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. The romance was underdeveloped, and materialized almost out of nowhere. I didn't have the chance to become invested enough in it. That dissatisfaction also lingered with me for several days, making me waver between 3 and 4 stars on my rating.

Still, the haunting nature of both books I've now read by Riley tells me that I will be back for more in the future. Like a moth to a flame.

Season of Storms - Susanna Kearsley

Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a bit different from Kearsley's other books, but I still enjoyed it once it got going. I could tell it's one of her earlier works. The past timeline doesn't mesh with the modern one very much. It's not well developed at all, but is presented just through occasional flashbacks. These answer questions for the reader rather than driving towards something that needs to be discovered in the present.

The mystery and all the drama are in the modern time, so this reads more like a contemporary romance (but light on the romance) with a bit of a ghost story. It doesn't really seem to matter what happened to the other actress 70 years ago. It seems like just a backdrop or a side note.

Fans looking for Kearsley's distinctive flavor may find yourselves disappointed unless you alter your expectations beforehand.

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The atmosphere in this book is so thick. The descriptions are evocative, with nature mirroring all the tensions, and with a broody mansion, musty and closed up with secrets.

At first, I was impatient with the heroine's spinelessness. Rebecca, her dead predecessor, sounded much more interesting to me. But as time went on and it - slowly - built in intensity, that mattered much less. Then I was afraid of the creepy Mrs. Danvers and what havoc she could wreak on an impressionable mind, and the benign facades all started falling apart deliciously. What a great story of misdirection and twisted minds, of leaping to conclusions and faulty assumptions. When I turned the last page and realized that was the end, I really expected more. There should be more! Yet it was completely fitting. I can see why this is a classic.

I'm toying around with a 5 star rating after seeing the whole picture, but for now it's 4.5 rounded down instead of up. Just because it took so long to get going, and the heroine did annoy me for quite a while.

Be Buried in the Rain - Barbara Michaels

Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Michaels

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really enjoyed this Gothic suspense novel. I was afraid it might be cheesy, especially since it was published in the 1980s, but it wasn't. I also didn't know what I would think of a Gothic novel set in contemporary Virginia, but the old manor house, its occupants, and the surrounding woods were broken down, overgrown, and eerie enough for a mystery of old bones.

The atmosphere was all you could wish for in this kind of book. It reminded me of Susanna Kearsley without the dual time periods, except this was more creepy (I think it was the bones). It was creepy enough to disturb me in the dark the last couple of nights - not that that's saying much, since I am easily affected by such things and avoid horror like the plague.

Also, I really enjoyed the dog.

I'll definitely be reading more of this author's work. I'm glad to see there's plenty to choose from.

Review: Mariana

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Susanna Kearsley is becoming my go-to for light Gothic dual-time historical fiction / romance. I don't read this type of book often, but when I need something a little different from my usual fare, I find that Kearsley's books hit the spot. There's just the right mix of history, romance, mysterious ghostliness, and an ephemeral sense of times past and present.

Even though the format of Kearsley's books remain similar to each other with the time-slip discovery narrative, the situations that are explored in both time periods are still unique. The similarity is familiar and comforting enough that I'm actually hoping for it when I pick one up, but I also wouldn't recommend reading them back-to-back.

Mariana was the book that launched Kearsley's career, so it wasn't as good as the later ones I've read, but still very good for a debut novel. The time-slip aspect is almost exactly like the one in A Winter Sea, but this was not as polished or satisfying. Both time periods could have used - something - more to make them more compelling. And the present-day romance was not as good as it could have been, and not well tied into the earlier timeline.

Still, it did hit that spot with the dreamy, ghostly echoes of the past trying to make itself heard in the present.



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Review: The House at Riverton

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’m rating this book low not because it’s not good, but because it’s not the kind of book I enjoy. It’s actually quite well done for a first novel, but I definitely like Morton's later books better. I enjoyed the Downton Abbey-esque atmosphere of the servant’s point of view before it all starts going to hell (which is worth giving it an extra star I suppose).

What I didn’t like about it is the pervasive sense of impending doom. You know that disaster is its way, just not exactly how it comes about, and it takes its time getting there (I was impatient with the pacing at times). You see the lives of all the characters disintegrating, you know nothing can be changed and want to make different decisions for them, and finally you find that no one gets a happy ending, not even Grace, the maid who is now telling the story in her old age. It’s a story of hopelessness and being trapped in roles dictated by society that end up ruining everyone’s lives. Not my cuppa tea.

I was especially frustrated with Grace in the past. She is completely unable to go outside of the mindset that she’s not to get personal with her employers, even when she’s explicitly invited to do so. She longs to be seen as a friend by her mistress, but doesn’t return any of Hannah's confidences.

***Spoilers follow***

In fact, she hides silly things like the fact that she isn’t learning to read shorthand - was merely smuggling a fiction book into the house, a much lesser crime. She allows Hannah to think she is her friend and confidant while holding back from her. This ends up having a huge impact on the outcome, and I just want to go back and tell her not to be so stupid.

***End of spoilers***

It was just too bleak for me, and I hated how it ended even though I knew some kind of terrible doom was coming. I did not relish the feeling I had at the end when I learned the twist, and felt like I needed to wash the bitter taste out of my mouth. I haven’t felt like that about a book since reading Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the quintessential tragic train wreck of a story. The difference here is, there were so many small tragedies all the way through that added up to one big tragedy, while Tess was only tragic towards the end.

But because it wasn’t for me doesn’t mean others won’t enjoy it. If you like a good gothic tragedy and historical fiction set around World War I, you might like this.


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Review: Midnight on Julia Street

Midnight on Julia Street by Ciji Ware

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This is another of those books that I probably wouldn't have picked up if it hadn't been on sale - and had a lovely cover, which doesn't match the book at all. (I know I'm not supposed to judge books by their covers, but sometimes they do catch my eye and the synopsis sounds good!) But at 475 pages, I think this might be the longest contemporary romance novel I've read, and I just don't like them that much.

I know, it was also about historical preservation in New Orleans, and there were flashbacks to a previous time period - something that either works or it doesn't. Unfortunately the time-slip aspect was choppy, and it took forever for the earlier timeline to capture my interest.

On top of that, the modern reporter storyline felt exactly like a romance novel even though it was also heavily invested in a battle over some historic buildings. Sometimes I'll read this kind of romance for a change of pace, but I expect them to be quick - especially if they're in contemporary settings. This one dragged on until the last hundred pages, when I did finally get more interested in the whole preservation showdown. It just took too long to get there.



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Review: Bellman & Black: A Ghost Story

Bellman & Black: A Ghost Story by Diane Setterfield

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



I got about a third of the way through, and it was just too much of a struggle to carry on. I struggled to get through the Thirteenth Tale when I read it as well, but I thought it was maybe just my frame of mind while I was reading it. I don't think so - I think I'm just not a fan. And I liked the Thirteenth Tale better than this one so far.

The thing is, Setterfield's books sound like ones that I would like. Some historical fiction with family secrets, mysteries, and a bit of the paranormal. But something in the way they're written - they're actually not my sort of book. I can't put my finger on what it is. For this one in particular, there are too many people who have died already, and I don't believe the 'tragic' events from the synopsis have properly started yet. The overall feel is going from bad to worse. All the while I'm actually kind of bored. And I don't want to stay with it.

I have too many other books on my to-read list to get stuck in one that I have to force myself to read. So I'm not. I'm sure there are lots of other people who will love this book for the same reasons I don't.

**Received free arc for review.

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Review: A Cottage by the Sea

A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is closer to 3.5 stars. It's a good time-slip romance / historical fiction set in Cornwall, with smugglers' caves and secret passageways in the background and a lot of drama in the foreground. There's a messy, public divorce, family conflicts, dealing with the death of loved ones, child-rearing philosophy, cultural differences between modern Americans and Brits, career upheaval, tea drinking, gardening, and crystal ball hypnosis. A strange mix of 90s psycho-babble and historical romance / tragedy.

It's also very long for this kind of story, and felt like it at times. My favorite time-slips so far are by Susanna Kearsley, and hers feel much less weighted down and less all over the place with romance novel themes. Still, I did like it even though the drama got to be a bit much at times. I do wish there was more time spent in the tunnels and caves, and by the sea, but in spite of the setting, the sea was just a backdrop, and the smuggler aspect was definitely not the focus.



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Review: The Secret Keeper: A Novel

The Secret Keeper: A Novel by Kate Morton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



The Secret Keeper is my favorite of Kate Morton's so far. There is much here that is familiar from her other work - family secrets, switching time between generations to reveal those secrets gradually, and unexpected twists.

What is different about this novel is that it is more nostalgic than gothic in tone, which gives it a completely fresh feeling even though it also still feels like Kate Morton in style. The feeling of hope and anticipation of each character in their youth is both tangible and bittersweet, as if you already know the loss of that feeling even while you're closing your eyes and savoring it. If you have any memories of being a child playing outside on a hot summer day without a care in the world, your own memory enhances the nostalgia.

Whether it's the anticipation of youth, the tempered weight of regret later in life, or the 'seize the day' spirit of the Blitz in World War II London, Morton made me feel the hopes and losses of each character in each generation. She made me care what happened to them from the start so that the unfolding secrets mattered to me. And the twists were brilliant in this one. Loved it.



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Review: The Rose Garden

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I read the Winter Sea first, and at the beginning of this book was afraid it was going to be the same story with different people. Some aspects are indeed similar, including the Jacobite setting in the past, but Kearsley pulls it off again. I loved the mix of contemporary Cornwall and its smuggling past. The language is atmospheric and pulls you under almost immediately. And the love story is wonderful.



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Review: The Distant Hours

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



An intriguing gothic tale of family secrets... intriguing after the first 300 pages, that is. The pieces of the story built so slowly, switching points of view and jumping back and forth through time so often, that it took 300 pages for me to begin to care or develop an attachment to any of the characters. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood - I've enjoyed similar books, but for some reason this one didn't grab me. It was still good enough that I persevered, and I was finally rewarded. The last 200 pages were haunting.



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Review: Lost - Gregory Maguire

 

Lost is a somewhat postmodern work. The main character is a writer who travels between Boston and London, so there were lots of cultural references for me to recognize and smile at, as well as many literary references (especially Dickens, etc). So from that standpoint, I definitely enjoyed it. I appreciated the craftsmanship of it, and even liked the philosophizing... and yet somehow it simultaneously left me feeling incredibly dissatisfied.

I've figured out that it's not because I'm not postmodern myself, but because I am, that I don't want to immerse myself in the chaotic craziness of the world when I step into a book. 'Lost' itself even confirmed and solidified this same idea that I've had for a while now. Here's a lengthy quote about Alice in Wonderland that I can't trim down any further because it just says it all:

A reading child back in those early days, corseted, even strait-jacketed by Victorian certainties, could delight in a story stuffed with nonsense. Time was malleable during a mad tea party in which there could be jam yesterday and jam tomorrow, but never jam today. Creatures could shift shapes, a sheep into an old lady, a baby into a pig. Fury could win out over reason. In the nineteenth century, reading Alice was refreshing because it was an escape from strict convictions about reality.

But now? Now? Children... hated the Alice books, couldn't read them, and why should they? Their world had strayed into madness long ago. Look at the planet. Rain is acid, poisonous. Sun causes cancer. Sex = death. Children murder each other. Parents lie, leaders lie, the churches have less moral credibility than Benetton ads...

No wonder Wonderland isn't funny to read anymore: We live there full-time. We need a break from it.
So Victorian kids turned to madness to escape the strict stuffiness of their world, and I turn to the Victorian times or other fantasy worlds to escape the madness of my own. The wheel of time turns...

Escape. It's great. But, if it doesn't trouble you to read postmodern works... try this one. You'll probably love it.