prettylittlewriter

 A brilliantly atmospheric and eerie ghost story.

‘Alone in the world, Elspeth Swansome takes the position of nanny to a family on the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea.

Her charge, Mary, hasn't uttered a word since the sudden death of her twin, William - just days after their former nanny disappeared.

No one will speak of what happened to William. Just as no one can explain the hypnotic lullabies sung in empty corridors. Nor the strange dolls that appear in abandoned rooms. Nor the faint whistling that comes in the night . . .

As winter draws in and passage to the mainland becomes impossible, Elspeth finds herself trapped.

But is this house haunted by the ghosts of the past?

OR THE SECRETS OF THE LIVING . . . ?’

I was so incredibly excited when I got the email asking if I would like to participate in the book tour for this highly anticipated novel. I’d had my eye on it for some time, so I jumped at the chance to take part!

The novel starts out with our main character, Elspeth Swansome, arriving at the isolated island of Skelthsea (just off of Scotland) to start a new job as Nanny to a young girl called Mary.

Elspeth discovers upon her arrival that young Mary has been through a lot in recent months, firstly losing her mother, then her previous Nanny Hettie abandoned her and her brother, William, and then poor William also died under strange circumstances.

As Elspeth gets to know Mary, even though Mary is mute and they can only communicate through body language and facial expressions, Elspeth grows very fond of Mary and forms a close bond with her.

Elspeth herself has had loss in her life, after losing her younger sister Clara, whom Mary often reminds her of.

There are many tales from the residents of the island surrounding the house she is living in, and the possible ghosts that live within.

As time goes by, Elspeth starts hearing strange whistling sounds, and footsteps in empty corridors. All is not as it seems at Iskar, and Elspeth is determined to protect Mary at all costs.

This is a wonderful historic ghost story with so many creepy gothic elements that make it a perfect read for spooky season. There is also an element of whodunit, as it is not clear from the offset that the death of William was truly an accident.

I truly felt a connection to Elspeth and Mary, and I so desperately wanted them to both be okay, and for Mary to let Elspeth in so she could protect her. Their relationship was a sweet one, with a true bond between them both.

I was not expecting the twist at the end, I already had a character in mind for the ‘baddie’, but I was wrong.

It took me longer to read this book than I expected, mainly due to the fact I was reading it late at night for all the spooky vibes but ended up almost falling asleep each time!

Netley’s writing is beautiful; she creates vivid imagery of the island and its characters, and the story gives me ‘Haunting of Hill House’ vibes.

Overall, I would highly recommend this spooky tale to anyone who enjoys a slow burn spooky story.

Thanks again to Ella Watkins from Penguin Michael Joseph for allowing me to read early and participate in the tour!

5/5 stars

 This is such a beautiful love story, that once I started it, I couldn’t put it down.

Synopsis

I was hooked on this novel from the very beginning.

The fact that it had some paranormal elements to it drew me in, as I love a good supernatural story, but then when we get into the romance between Ash and Poppy, I just fell in love with their love.

Tanya has done an incredible job writing this beautiful, elegant and epic lesbian love story, and I genuinely think she is one of my new favourite authors.

Ash was such a relatable character, and I really felt a connection to her throughout the novel, with memories of my own teenage loves (albeit mine were not quite as epic as this). Poppy also seemed like such a lovely human being, never judging Ash for their difference in upbringing (Poppy has grown up very wealthy and Ash not so much) and she loves her for who she is completely.

I loved that Tanya separated the novel into two parts; Before, which allowed us to see the development of Ash and Poppy’s relationship, and then, After, which is once Ash has died, making the resulting grief all the more heart-breaking.

The supernatural side of things with the reapers was very clever, something I haven’t read before, and without going into too much detail as it would spoil it, there a certain aspects of being a reaper that create an edge of danger and uncertainty for Ash. The ending was very well established, and almost the perfect ending in my eyes.

The only negative thing I would say about this novel is that I would have liked to see more of Ash’s grief for her family and her best friend. She was very close with her parents and her sister, and we don't see a lot of grief displayed from Ash with the fact that she can never see them again. Obviously, as it’s a love story, the focus was on her relationship with Poppy, but it would have been nice to see more of a grieving process.

I must admit, I have never read a novel with any LGBTQ+ characters or relationships before, so I do not have anything to compare this novel to, except that I felt so much heartache and love for these characters, just as much as all the other love stories I have read before, so I think it is absolutely brilliant. I will definitely be looking to read more from Tanya!

5/5 stars 

An eerie, complex and brilliantly written historical ghost story.

Synopsis
Two years after the sinking of the titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism. In Belfast, Ireland, William Crawford is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sat around the circle of a séance, something happens that places doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind.

Are spirits really trying to communicate with him? Or is it just a load of parlour tricks?'

Only after I finished this novel did I realise that this was based on a true story! 

This novel had everything you could want in a ghost story, from terrifying descriptions of the ghosts (and the humans), to the uncertainty of whether Crawford was even really seeing these ghosts, if it was in his head, or if he was being hoaxed.

I was so impressed with AJ's writing, it was complex in places, but I could vividly picture each character and the places he described, and it was also incredibly intense in some places, especially in the third part of the novel. I also found it comedic in some places, with some brilliant one-liners from both Crawford himself, as well as other characters, such as Blithe.

I found that William was a very unlikeable character from the offset, he treats  both his wife and children unkindly, and sees himself higher up the social hierarchy than his peers, due to his engineering role and that he is a soon-to-be published author. My dislike of him took nothing away from the story however, it simply made it even more interesting to find out what would happen to Crawford.

Without going into too much detail as I do not wish to spoil the story, I was completely taken by surprise by the huge twist at the end. Awestruck and dumbfounded, I thought it was absolutely brilliant! Did not expect it all all, and thoroughly impressed!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I will recommend it to anyone that loves a a spooky story! 

5/5 stars

An incredibly interesting read with some well-developed characters.

 Synopsis
'Dear Reader-enclosed are all the documents you need to solve a case. It starts with the arrival of two mysterious newcomers to the small town of Lockwood, and ends with a tragic death.

Someone has already been convicted of this brutal murder and is currently in prison, but we suspect they are innocent. What's more, we believe far darker secrets have yet to be revealed.

Throughout the Fiaryway Players' staging of All My Sons and the charity appeal for little Poppy Reswick's life-saving medical treatment, the murderer hid in plain sight. Yet we believe they gave themselves away. In writing. The evidence is all here, between the lines, waiting to be discovered.'

I went into this novel so confident that I would solve it and it would be a piece of cake. Boy was I wrong!

Janice has written an incredibly clever novel, allowing us as the reader, to try and solve the murder of a resident in Lockwood. There are two characters within, Femi and Charlotte, that have been tasked with solving the murder themselves by their boss, the solicitor for the person that has been wrongly committed of said murder. Everything that we read, is the correspondence between residents of the town that Femi and Charlotte have been given, so we get to solve it alongside them.

The novel is well set out, with clear headers for whom the correspondence was from and to, along with dates. I also liked that we got little snippets of What's App conversations from Femi and Charlotte, as they discussed what they/we had read, as these conversations are what give you hints as to what to look for within the correspondence to solve it.

It is quite a complex plot, with numerous characters and timescales that you have to get used to as you read, and a lot of the characters are actually quite unlikeable. I took an immediate dislike to Isabel, as I found her annoying and self-absorbed. Constantly trying to force herself on others to create friendships, which they clearly didn't want.
It is incredibly well written, with interesting and well-developed characters, which is a feat in itself as it is all done via emails/texts.
I also found it very clever how there were certain characters that weren't who we believed them to be, or even be at all.

There were some very solemn parts within the novel, especially surrounding Poppy and her illness. Cancer is a tough subject under normal circumstances, never mind when fraud/family drama is also brought into it.

The novel clearly showcases the issues of social hierarchy and how in a lot of tight knit communities, there will be an 'alpha' family; one that the rest will do anything to please. 

Janice threw us some misdirection's within the book, which is why I found it difficult myself to actually figure out who had committed the crime. I ended up not trying to solve it myself, and just going with the flow of it, looking forward to seeing how Femi and Charlotte came to their conclusions.

Overall, I found this novel compelling, complex and highly original, something I haven't seen done before, so I am thoroughly impressed!

4/5 stars