Published by Mariner Books Genres: Fiction, Gothic, Mystery
Format: ARC, eBook
A towering home and two women decades apart set the stage in this Gothic book which touches on motherhood, tragedy, and imaginary friends.
Orla’s husband, Nick, decides that their small apartment in the city is now too small for them and purchases a Georgian house, The Reeve, on the Dorset cliffs. It is a good place to raise children, he says. It is HUGE, sits high and is away from the village. It needs work, lots of work but he knows they can make it work. But Nick will be spending the week in the city working, while Orla and their two children will live full-time in the home where she doesn’t feel comfortable. Orla is seeing and hearing things and her son Sam has an imaginary friend.
Lydia was a live-in nanny for a mother mourning the loss of her husband. The family moved into the grand Georgian house, The Reeve, on the Dorset cliffs decades before Orla and her family. Soon Lydia became concerned about the safety of the children in her care. She feels a presence in the home and the children seem to have imaginary friends.
No one believes either Lydia or Orla when the women report what they are experiencing. Both are considered tired and overworked women caring for young children. But those in the village know that something isn’t quite right in the home. There has been talk, but….
This was a great Gothic mystery about a grand home with a history. This book is told through the past and the present time as readers get to see what is occurring in both times and what each woman is facing. Is the house haunted? Just what is going on?
This was an absorbing read and I loved the creepiness of it. It is not scary but does have that chilling, spooky feel. I could see this book playing out like a movie in my mind. Great gothic feel. I could feel the isolation and the tension and mounting unease in each time period.
A great Gothic mystery.
#AGoodHouseforChildren #NetGalley #MarinerBooks
Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.