Gothic Suspense at its Best!!

 

Image copied from NetGalley

Oh my! Where to begin with this novel? The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen is one of the best gothic suspense novels I think I’ve read in sometime. It is set in 1830s England at a time when women had no rights and were considered abnormal for living alone or not following the rigid rules set for them by society. In addition to the gothic elements and the mysteries surrounding Harriet, it also weaves in elements of magical realism for both Harriet’s garden and the house she lives in. I won’t say her home, because Sunnyside is not and has never been a home for Harriet.

The story begins slowly, but builds quickly in its suspenseful elements. When we first meet Harriet, she is alone in a house that echoes it’s so empty. Her father has disappeared and left her with a mountain of debt that she must pawn most of her household goods to pay off. We immediately sympathize with her as in moving about the dark, gloomy interior of Sunnyside, we realize that despite its name it has been anything but sunny. In fact, Harriet’s neglect and abuse at the hands of her father and his housekeeper are reminiscent of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. While in her garden, Harriet is confronted by a police inspector named Stokes, who seems to suspect that Harriet had something to do with her father’s disappearance. He implies that she is unnatural for living alone and not seeming to miss her father, making her afraid that if she cannot prove her father left of his own volition, she might find herself committed to the insane asylum. During their conversation, Harriet watches the plants in her garden, trying desperately to keep her emotions under control. It seems that once Harriet lost control, causing her garden to do something horrible as a result in its attempt to protect her. Because of this, Harriet is convinced that even if her father never returns, she cannot leave Sunnyside, or the garden could run wild and cause others harm. This encounter with Stokes and Harriet's fear of what her garden might do, becomes the the catalyst for all of Harriet’s decisions for the rest of the novel.

What follows are more and more mysteries to be unspooled as Harriet begins her own search into what happened to her father. We learn that Harriet is not considered beautiful because of a terrible scar she bears on one side of her face. In reflecting on her life up to this point, we also find out that Harriet’s mother died when she was very young  in some terrible way that Harriet blames herself for. At the same time, a man named Davies begins sending Harriet intriguing and ominous sounding missives, stating that he has crucial information about her family that he must share with her urgently. But in trying to reply to him, setting a time and a place for them to meet, Harriet encounters a handsome and earnest young man named Christian Comstock who seems to find her charming and fascinating. Comstock begins avidly pursuing her and all too soon convinces Harriet to marry him. She believes this will solve all of her problems by giving her a measure of respectability and protection from Stokes and his enquiries. However, rather than offering her the peace, freedom and companionship she was hoping for, Harriet finds in her marriage to Comstock, that she has traded one controlling abusive man in her life for another. 

In reading this, as things went from bad to worse for Harriet, I found myself unable to put this novel down. I wanted to follow each thread in the story to find out why Harriet feels her garden could be such a danger to others, what happened to her when she was younger that caused her to have that mysterious scar, who is Davies and what does he know about Harriet and her family, what happened to Harriet’s father really and finally but certainly not least, why is Comstock so cruel to Harriet and whatever made someone who only seems interested in money and status decide she was worth tricking into marriage? All of these mysteries on top of Harriet’s more and more tenuous situation with Comstock made for a fast-paced and ultimately satisfying read. In the end, not only does Harriet learn to survive, she bravely faces down her personal demons from her past that haunt her and eventually learns to appreciate herself for who she is flaws and all, allowing Harriet to finally step into her own power to save herself. While many of the themes explored in this book are very dark, such as child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual assault, and discrimination, other more positive themes are given equal weight as well. Those include themes of friendship, loyalty, female empowerment, found family and learning to stay true to yourself in the face of great adversity. I give this book five stars and would happily read it again. However, I would warn anyone who finds some of the darker themes handled in this tale triggering to keep that in mind before reading it. I am very grateful to both NetGalley and Sourcebooks for giving me the opportunity to read a free ebook ARC of this novel in exchange for this honest review. For anyone who loves well-written gothic suspense, The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt will be available anywhere books are sold in early December 2024.

Stayed tuned for my upcoming reviews for December which will be a young adult fantasy, The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie and my next NetGalley read, the young adult romance First Love Language by Stefany Valentine. Book covers and blurbs below copied from Goodreads and NetGalley, respectively.

Where fairy tales come to life with dark, deadly twists...

"Tell me again, Grandmère, the story of how I die."

The Midnight Forest. The Fanged Creature. Two fortune-telling cards that spell an untimely death for 17-year-old Clara. Despite the ever-present warning from her fortune-teller grandmother, Clara embarks on a dangerous journey into the deadly Forest Grimm to procure a magical book - Sortes Fortunae , the Book of Fortunes - with the power to reverse the curse on her village and save her mother.

Years ago, when the villagers whispered their deepest desires to the book, its pages revealed how to obtain them. All was well until someone used the book for an evil purpose―to kill another person. Afterward, the branches of the Forest Grimm snatched the book away, the well water in Grimm’s Hollow turned rancid, and the crops died from disease. The villagers tried to make amends with the forest, but every time someone crossed its border, they never returned.

Now, left with no alternative, Clara and her close friend, Axel―who is fated never to be with her―have set their minds to defying fate and daring to accomplish what no one else has been able to before. But the forest―alive with dark, deadly twists on some of our most well-known fairy tales―has a mind of its own.

For fans of Frankly in Love and Tokyo Ever After comes a romantic dramedy about finding love and reconnecting with your culture in the most surprising ways.

Taiwanese American Catie Carlson has never fit in with her white family. As much as she loves her stepmom and stepsister, she yearns to understand more about her culture and find her biological mother. 

So Catie is shocked when an opportunity comes knocking on her door: Her summer spa coworker, Toby, says he’ll teach her Mandarin. In exchange, she needs to teach him how to date so he can finally work up the courage to ask out his crush. The only problem is that Catie doesn’t actually have any dating experience. But she can fake it.

With her late father’s copy of The Five Love Languages and all his annotated notes, Catie becomes the perfect dating coach. Or so she thinks. As she gets dangerously close to Toby and to finding out what really happened to her biological mom, she realizes that learning the language of love might be tougher than she thought.

Stefany Valentine’s debut novel is both a fresh, fun romance as well as a profound, luminous story about grief, family, transracial adoption, and what it means to truly follow your heart.

Fun, Witchy, Holiday Romance

 

Image copied from Goodreads

For this month, I'm going to start off my reviews with a fun and light-hearted paranormal holiday romance with Erin Sterling's The Wedding Witch. After the whirlwind of news and politics for this election season, I figured it was time to focus on something less serious in the realm of fiction. Also, The Wedding Witch starts off just before the winter holiday season, so November is a perfect time to review it as we are headed into that time of year. This book is the final one in Sterling's Graves Glen trilogy, but it could also definitely be read as a stand alone as it doesn't take place in Graves Glen as the first two books did. 

This adventure centers on the middle Penhallow brother, Bowen. I have long looked forward to reading Bowen Penhallow's story and it was worth the wait. All throughout the series Bowen has been the reclusive brother always off in the Welsh mountains alone, doing some sort of mysterious occult research. However, we finally find out why in this book. Bowen, it seems, blames himself for a terrible accident that harmed a friend and he has been searching for a way to fix it ever since. Part of his search has involved procuring magical items or artifacts to see if any of them might hold the key to saving his friend, Colin. That is where Tamsyn Bligh enters the picture. She has been helping Bowen for sometime now in his search for magical items. But one such item ends up bringing the two of them together for the first time face-to-face. It is after this encounter that the sparks begin to fly, for even though Tamsyn knew full well who Bowen was and that he was a witch, Bowen had no idea that Tamsyn was a beautiful, clever and fully human woman. Not only that, but she's a procurer who ran amok and caused some pretty serious mayhem back in Graves Glen for one of Bowen's brothers.

When the two end up at the same wedding at a grand Welsh estate though, chasing after the same magical object, things get even more complicated. Somehow they end up getting thrown back in time to Yuletide of 1958 and must solve the mystery of why they've been sent there in order to get back to their own timelines. I loved the fact that in this one we finally truly get to know and understand Bowen. I also enjoyed the fact that Tamsyn gets a redemption arc in this story. The intrigue of why they are suddenly thrust into 1958 was another fun element to the story. It seems the magical brooch they were both chasing after is somehow related to why Tywyll House is haunted in their own time. Even more surprising, one of the couples at this past Yuletide celebration happens to be Bowen's grandparents. So, not only do they have to come up with a quick explanation as to why they are there and a good cover story on who they are, they also have to be careful not to change anything in a way that could put Bowen's future existence in peril.

It is a fun holiday romp with some really nice twists and turns in addition to the romance between Tamsyn and Bowen. Reading this book was a little bittersweet for me as this was the last one in this series. But it provided a good resolution for the trilogy. If you like romantic mysteries with fantasy elements woven into the story, I recommend this book and the others in the series. I was very pleased to get to read an early ebook ARC of this novel thanks to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager. But if you would like to pick up a copy to read The Wedding Witch is currently available now anywhere books are sold and if you click on the title name it will take you to bookshop.org where you can order a copy online. Plus, all purchases made on bookshop.org can help you support local independent bookstores.

Stay tuned in a couple of weeks for my next book review of a gothic suspense that will be coming out in early December entitled, The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen. Check out the book cover and blurb below to find out more!

Image copied from Goodreads

True magic is found among the bluebells and brambles

Harriet Hunt is completely alone. Her father disappeared months ago, leaving her to wander the halls of Sunnyside house, dwelling on a past she'd rather keep buried. She doesn't often venture beyond her front gate, instead relishing the feel of dirt under her fingernails and of soft moss beneath her feet. Consequently, she's been deemed a little too peculiar for popular Victorian society. This solitary life suits her fine, though – because, outside, magic awaits.

Harriet's garden is special. It's a wild place full of twisting ivy, vibrant plums, and a quiet power that buzzes like bees. Caring for this place, and keeping it from running rampant through the streets of her London suburb, is Harriet's purpose. 

But a woman alone in the world is vulnerable. Soon, a sinister plot involving her father's disappearance begins to take shape, with Harriet herself at its center. Everything she holds dear – from the thorny roses she tends to her very freedom itself – is at stake. To save herself, Harriet will have to unearth her past, discover the secrets of her garden, and finally embrace the wild magic inside of her.

Book blurb provided courtesy of NetGalley.