Audiobook Review: Thornyhold by Mary Stewart

Thornyhold
Author: Mary Stewart
Narrator: Jilly Bond
Publication: Hodder & Stoughton (November 7, 2019)
Length: 7 hours and 16 minutes

Description: Mary Stewart's storytelling is as spellbinding as ever in her 12th novel, a Gothic romance featuring sparkling prose, delightful characterization and classic intrigue.

The rambling house called Thornyhold is like something out of a fairy tale. Left to Gilly Ramsey by the cousin whose occasional visits brightened her childhood, the cottage, set deep in a wild wood, has come just in time to save her from a bleak future. With its reputation for magic and its resident black cat, Thornyhold offers Gilly more than just a new home. It offers her a chance to start over.

The old house, with its tufts of rosy houseleek and the spreading gilt of the lichens, was beautiful. Even the prisoning hedges were beautiful, protective with their rusty thorns, their bastions of holly and juniper, and at the corners, like towers, their thick columns of yews.

My Thoughts: This romance takes place in England around the time of World War II. Gilly Ramsey is a preacher's daughter raised in coal towns of England. It is a dreary life brightened only by a few brief visits from her mother's cousin Geillis. Geillis teaches her about nature and magic and pays for her schooling. Geillis is a herbalist who can also see a bit into the future.

When Gilly grows up and after she nurses her parents through their last illnesses, she received word that her cousin has died leaving her a house named Thornyhold. Having no home now that her father - a minister - has died, she travels to her new home.

Thornyhold is a lovely old house with a reputation for being the home of a long line of witches. Gilly feels at home immediately despite her interfering neighbor Mrs. Trapp who apparently wants something from the house and keeps dropping in. 

Gilly also meets a young boy named William who was used to helping her cousin with many things including tending to her garden. And through William, she meets and instantly falls in love with his widowed father John Christopher. But Mrs. Trapp has also set her eye on John Christopher and is willing to use her magic to try to claim him. 

The story was filled with lush descriptions of the land and plants of that part of England. It was also infused with magic. The language was lush and lyrical. The narration by Jilly Bond was excellent.

I bought this one at Chirp. You can buy your copy here.