8. The GIlded Cage by Luisa A. Jones

listened on Audible

2023
332 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 1/26/24
Goodreads rating: 4.23
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Very beginning of the 20th century, England

My comments: The Goodreads synopsis gives a taste for the story, which was actually quite mesmerizing, so I won't mention here.  I used to, years ago, love the "gothic" novels of Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt, which this reminded me of -- EXCEPT there was a little bit more description of the sexy parts.  There was a lot of physical abuse, mainly referred to but not described much (a good thing?), and plenty of psychological abuse, which was not glossed over.  Other than feeling depressed and frantic for the things that were happening to the protagonist at the hands of a husband she did not speak up against, I looked forward to returning to this narration as frequently as I could.  

Goodreads synopsis:  1897. Rosamund bows her head and steps slowly down the aisle. The satin of her gown whispers against the stone floor and a single tear falls into the bunch of yellow roses twisted in her trembling hands. Despite rumours of his cruelty, Rosamund has no choice but to become this man’s second wife. After her wedding, Rosamund finds herself trapped in Sir Lucien Fitznorton’s lonely country estate. As she wanders the chilly halls, made shadowy by drapes of heavy velvet, she longs for the lost comforts of her childhood home, where she was the beloved only daughter to a doting father, now buried miles away. As a young woman with no fortune of her own, only death can release her from this misery. Until she meets Joseph , her husband’s gruffly handsome new chauffeur. With his mop of salt-and-pepper hair and lilting accent, Joseph is from another world. One of clambering children and tea at scrubbed kitchen tables, the hollow scratch of hunger and long hours of hard work. Despite their differences, they find themselves increasingly drawn to one other. But Sir Lucien is not only cruel, he’s devious too, and soon Rosamund finds herself caught in a dangerous web of secrets and lies. Is Rosamund’s fragile marriage nothing but a golden cage, trapping her between two men who desire her… and to what end? One holds her captive and the other offers a hope of escape… but who really holds the key to Rosamund’s gilded prison? A gripping and emotional historical novel, fans of Lucinda Riley and Tracy Rees won’t be able to put this book down.

131. The Darkling Bride by Laura Anderson

listened to eAudio/Chirp
narrated  by Sarah-Jane Drummey
Unabridged audio (12:02)
2018
369 pgs.
Adult Mystery in two time periods
Finished 12/28/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 2253 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:

First line/s:  "Twenty miles south of Dublin, Deeprath Castle brooded in its shallow valley scooped out of the Wicklow Mountains."

My comments: A gothic mystery, taking place in Deeprath Castle in Ireland, where a young woman goes to catalog the huge library.  Once she gets there, she discovers a family enmeshed with the mystery of a murder twenty years previously, of the parents of the two current owners.  Hopping back-and-forth between the late 1800s and present day, an interesting mystery is solved.  Not sure I liked many of the characters, but I guess I wasn't really supposed to.  Interesting, but for some reason I couldn't really relate to any of them, particularly the protagonists.

Goodreads synopsis:  Three generations of Irish nobles face their family secrets in this spellbinding novel from the award-winning author of the Boleyn King trilogy.
          The Gallagher family has called Deeprath Castle home for seven hundred years. Nestled in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, the estate is now slated to become a public trust, and book lover and scholar Carragh Ryan is hired to take inventory of its historic library. But after meeting Aidan, the current Viscount Gallagher, and his enigmatic family, Carragh knows that her task will be more challenging than she’d thought.
          Two decades before, Aidan’s parents died violently at Deeprath. The case, which was never closed, has recently been taken up by a new detective determined to find the truth. The couple’s unusual deaths harken back a century, when twenty-three-year-old Lady Jenny Gallagher also died at Deeprath under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind an infant son and her husband, a renowned writer who never published again. These incidents only fueled fantastical theories about the Darkling Bride, a local legend of a sultry and dangerous woman from long ago whose wrath continues to haunt the castle.
          The past catches up to the present, and odd clues in the house soon have Carragh wondering if there are unseen forces stalking the Gallagher family. As secrets emerge from the shadows and Carragh gets closer to answers—and to Aidan—could she be the Darkling Bride’s next victim?

26. In the Shadow of Lakecrest by Elizabeth Blackwell

read on my iPhone
2017 Lake Union Publishing
282 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction - gothic
Finished 4/27/17
Goodreads rating: 3.64 - 4763 ratings
My rating: 1
Setting: 1928 Chicago area/ on Lake Michigan

First line/s:  "Last night I dreamed Lakecrest was on fire."

My comments:  Bleh.  From slow, plodding, and boring to rushed and ridiculous at the end, I found nothing to like in this novel - not one of the characters, not the setting, and certainly not the mood.  It was supposed to have a Gothic feel, I'm sure, but it was just too ridiculous and ... off.  Nothing worked for me.  The plot was disjointed and choppy, and the characters didn't seem the least bit real.  I can't believe I didn't quit before the end..... (I always hate to give a negative review because I don't want to hurt the author's feelings, but I have to be honest, so apologies to the author, who spent a lot of time and energy, I'm sure, writing this book.)

Goodreads synopsis:  The year is 1928. Kate Moore is looking for a way out of the poverty and violence of her childhood. When a chance encounter on a transatlantic ocean liner brings her face-to-face with the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, she thinks she may have found her escape—as long as she can keep her past concealed.
          After exchanging wedding vows, Kate quickly discovers that something isn’t quite right with her husband—or her new family. As Mrs. Matthew Lemont, she must contend with her husband’s disturbing past, his domineering mother, and his overly close sister. Isolated at Lakecrest, the sprawling, secluded Lemont estate, she searches desperately for clues to Matthew’s terrors, which she suspects stem from the mysterious disappearance of his aunt years before. As Kate stumbles deeper into a maze of family secrets, she begins to question everyone’s sanity—especially her own. But just how far will she go to break free of this family’s twisted past? 

10. Heroes Are My Weakness - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2014, William Morrow

364 pgs.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Finished 1/28/2015

Goodreads rating: 3.68

My rating:   5-Really, really liked it

TPPL

Setting:  Isolated Maine island, Contemporary winter

1st sentence/s: "She didn't usually talk to her suitcase, but she wasn't exactly herself these days."

My comments:   I really enjoyed this book.  I remember eating up all sorts of English manor/stern male/savvy governess stories when I was a young adult and for some reason this reminded me of them - even though it took place in contemporary Maine!  The setting....an island way off the coast of Maine, only visited by a ferry once every six weeks, AND in the middle of winter, are all things that are either very familiar or somewhat familiar. I loved the characters, and I loved the puppets.  Puppets?  In our heroine's head the voices of her five "dummies" occasionally pop up.  At first I thought it would be irritating, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying the way that Annie's thoughts were shown through those puppet's voices.  And the relationship between Annie and Theo?  DELIGHTFUL!  Funny, thoughtful....real.  The two of them had me giggling over and over again.  Yup, I had a blast with this story. (But I really don't like the cover.  It looks like a nonfiction.  It could have been SO much better.)

Goodreads book summary:  The dead of winter.

An isolated island off the coast of Maine.

A man.

A woman.

A sinister house looming over the sea ...

He's a reclusive writer whose macabre imagination creates chilling horror novels. She's a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids' puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill with laughs.

But she's not laughing now. When she was a teenager, he terrified her. Now they're trapped together on a snowy island off the coast of Maine. Is he the villain she remembers or has he changed? Her head says no. Her heart says yes.

It's going to be a long, hot winter. 

72. The Tale of Halcyon Crane - Wendy Webb

read on my phone through Kindle
2010, Henry Holt & Co.
352 pages
written for adults
Rating:  It was okay
Some reviewers called this an "eerie gothic mystery." It was a ghost story, but I didn't find it particularly eerie, or even too mysterious.

Setting:  Contemporary Grand Manitou Island in Michigan
OSS:  After receiving a letter from the mother Hallie has always thought was dead, she travels to her ancestral home to be accosted by a group of ghosts and memories of her NOW dead mother.  Fast, implausbile love interest as well.