In a house as old as Byrne Hall, there are certain to be secrets hidden behind the locked doors. Freya Lyell’s life had felt as if it had been on hold since her sister, Stella, committed suicide five years ago by throwing herself off the cliffs near Byrne Hall, a stately manor on the English coast. When Freya has way too much to drink at her cousin’s wedding held on the estate’s grounds, she finds a portrait that eerily resembles her dead sister. unable to get this portrait out of her mind, she leaves her life in London and heads back to Byrne Hall to try to find the answers. What she’s finds instead is not answers but an almost instantaneous happiness that she feels there is something wrong with considering the issues that brought her back here...her sister’s suicide, her mother’s death when she was 5, and her troubled childhood. Along with this strange feeling of happiness is her whirlwind romance with would-be portrait artist Cory Byrne, who lives in Byrne Hall. The Hall is his family estate that he shares with his ailing mother. In spite of this overwhelming happiness Freya feels the weight of a darkness...almost a morbid sense lingering uncomfortably close: “In every version I kiss him right back, and it’s almost like the last scene in the movie, except that there’s an old woman curled up on the bed, and her fingers are twitching restlessly on top of the sheets.” When the author suddenly shifts the narrative back in time to when Stella was alive, the darkness bubbling beneath creaky floorboards begins to boil over. Elizabeth Brooks’ elegant prose and artfully written protagonist keep this somewhat predictable thriller from feeling formulaic. I found this to be a good chilling, ghostly story and look forward to more books by this author. ( )

This is one of those novels where you roll your eyes at the stupidity of the main character. After the death of her sister, the main character goes to the area where she died and falls for the man who killed her. It is painfully obvious to the reader that she is making a huge mistake long before she realizes it. ( )

Ugh. This was recommended to me and seemed a good fit. I like a good gothic, haunted house story. Good being the operative word. I'm sorry to say this is not that. There's not a likable character in the bunch...and I'm including both sisters and their dad in that.

The first 10-15% or so is flat and boring.The middle 70% is atmospheric and does a good job building tension. The reader knows something is terribly wrong, but not exactly what. The final 10-15% is overwrought. There's no making sense of the plot, hints dangles are never tied rogether or there's not even a cursory attempt to explain. In the end, the only thing haunted by this book was me for having invested a couple days of reading time. ( )

Claustrophobic, that’s the word that pops to mind immediately with this book. Freya stumbles upon a painting of her dead sister in a big old Gothic house. She’s desperate for a change from her grief-stricken life and falls into the oppressive world of Byrne Hall. The story feels very similar to Mexican Gothic. It was wonderfully atmospheric, but the plot dragged and the character choices were infuriating at times.

“I kept waiting for him to ask me what was up, but he never did. Sometimes I think he’s so comfortable with silences that he doesn’t realize how much their quality can vary.” ( )

I did it again. Will I never learn? I chose this book based on the creepy cover. I was lucky that the story was okay…but it was so S –L-O- W …painfully so… and it unfolds using flashbacks and other wanderings. The author did do a marvelous job on description and atmosphere so 3 stars for that. I can’t give it anything higher because I could not connect with the characters. Frya didn’t get her act together until the book was nearly finished. We only learn what happened to Stella in very broad terms and Freya’s actions made no real sense at the end. ( )