ARC Review: Murder Will Out by Jennifer K. Breedlove

Murder Will Out
Author: Jennifer K. Breedlove
Publication: Minotaur Books (February 17, 2026)

Description: Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award winner Jennifer K. Breedlove brings coastal Maine to life in Murder Will Out, a lighter, modern gothic mystery that's as atmospheric as it is heart-warming.

Come for the memories. Stay for the murder...

Little North Island, off the coast of Maine, is so beautiful it could be a postcard. Organist Willow Stone cherishes her memories of childhood summers spent on the island with her godmother Sue... even though her visits ended abruptly, and she hasn't seen or heard from her godmother in over fifteen years. Until a letter from Sue―and word of Sue’s death―brings Willow back to the picturesque island.

The islanders rarely mention Sue without also bringing up Cameron House, and the controversy around Sue’s unexpected inheritance of the sprawling mansion. When Willow overhears someone threatening the next heir to the property, she starts to question whether Sue’s death was really an accident, and can’t help but wonder whether someone on this sleepy island is willing to stop at nothing―even murder―to claim Cameron House for their own.

Through Willow’s eyes, as well as those of others on the island, a mystery unfolds that keeps drawing Willow back to Cameron House and the very real ghosts that walk its corridors.

My Thoughts: Graduate student and organist Willow Stone receives a letter from her godmother Sue which calls her back to Little North Island off the coast in Maine. Willow hasn't seen Sue since her parents took her away when she was thirteen. She never knew why she no longer spent summers on the island. Unfortunately, the letter was delayed, and Willow arrives just in time to play at Sue's memorial. 

She interacts with Sue's friends on the island including her fiancé Rina. Mostly she interacts with Cameron House, a haunted mansion on the island. There have been some suspicious deaths centered around Cameron House including Sue's. Sue's letter indicated that there was something she wanted Willow to find. 

Willow has to discover a bunch of secrets and find out who is killing the heirs to Cameron House. The island is populated with a number of interesting people. Many of Sue's friends came there after living different lives Away.

I liked Willow who was a young woman who was introverted and needed a lot of quiet time. She was curious and brave. She gradually makes a place for herself on the island. And she could see many of the Cameron House ghosts who tried to help her with discovering what she needed to find.

I enjoyed this debut mystery and will be looking for more from the author. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Storm by Rachel Hawkins

The Storm
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publication: St. Martin's Press (January 6, 2026)

Description: New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins is back with a thrilling new gothic suspense set in a Gulf Coast beach motel where hurricane season can be murder.

St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.

When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears a writer is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s less interested in solving a whodunnit than in how a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn’s bottom line. But to her surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. With him is none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name once and for all, but the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores.

As the summer heats up and another monster storm begins twisting its way towards St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva learns that some people can be just as destructive―and as deadly―as any hurricane, and that the truth of what happened to Landon Fitzroy may not be the only secret Lo is keeping…

My Thoughts: This suspense novel was a compelling read. Composed of excerpts from books, magazines, tabloids, and other sources, the story of what happened in 1984 in St. Medard's Bay, Alabama, when Hurricane Marie whipped threw and left Landon, the scion of the wealthy Fitzoy, dead. 

Pressure from the governor who happened to be Landon's father caused Landon's local lover Lo Bailey to be accused and tried for his murder. There was a hung jury but that didn't mean the Lo wasn't convicted by the court of public opinion. 

Now, it is 2025 and Lo has come back to St. Medard's Bay to stay at the Rosalie Inn along with the man who is writing the book about what happened all those years ago. Geneva Corlis is the current owner of the inn. Her mother who was one of Lo's best friends suffers from early-onset Alzheimer's and is in a nursing home. 

Geneva is struggling to hold on to the inn. Every guest is a blessing and will help with her maxed out credit cards. A writer who wants to stay for at least a month and is willing to pay double her normal rates seems like a gift from heaven. 

Flashbacks fill in the reader on what happened in the past and Geneva learns all sorts of family secrets through the course of the story. And a new hurricane has St. Medard's Bay in its sights just as the most damning secrets are set to be revealed. 

This was a twisty story the was the ultimate page-turner. I couldn't put it down.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Devil in Oxford by Jess Armstrong

The Devil in Oxford
Author: Jess Armstrong
Series: Ruby Vaughn Mysteries (Book 3)
Publication: Minotaur (November 4, 2025)

Description: Set after the Great War, Jess Armstrong’s USA Today bestselling and award-winning series is historical gothic murder mystery at its best, and Ruby Vaughn returns in The Devil in Oxford.

If someone were to ask American heiress Ruby Vaughn how exactly the occult came to play such a large role in her life, she would immediately point to her octogenarian housemate and employer, Mr. Owen. Together, the pair run a rare book shop in Exeter. Mr. Owen’s penchant for arcane, unusual—and occasionally illegal—books has been known to get Ruby into her fair share of trouble. And after the last year, she is looking forward to spending a quiet holiday in picturesque Oxford while Mr. Owen attends the annual meeting of his antiquarian society. Secretly, Ruby is also looking for a holiday from her confounding feelings for Ruan Kivell, the intriguing folk healer Pellar that she met in Cornwall.

When Mr. Owen secures two tickets to an upcoming exhibition of artifacts amassed by disgraced scholar Julius Harker, Ruby reluctantly agrees to attend. The evening turns out to be more eventful than either of them bargained for. Harker’s dead body is discovered amongst the collection, his business partner is hastily arrested, and Ruan arrives…wanting to speak with Ruby. It seems both the arcane and her Pellar have followed Ruby to Oxford.

The murder case is suspicious at best, but the last thing Ruby wants is another investigation. That is, until an old friend comes begging for Ruby’s help. It soon becomes painfully clear that there is more going on in Oxford than meets the eye. Ruby and Ruan will have to uncover the dark secrets of the competitive world of antiquities while trying to understand the peculiar force that keeps drawing them back together.

My Thoughts: It is 1922 and Christmas time. Ruby Vaughn and Mr. Owens are spending time in Oxford where Mr. Owens is attending an Antiquarian Society annual meeting. Ruby is hoping for a quiet time free from the occult and murder investigations where she can consider her relationship with Ruam Kivell. 

However, an invitation to an exhibition of artifacts leads to a dead body stuffed into an airtight container. Ruby could consider it not her problem until a friend comes to her begging for her help solving the crime. 

When Ruan also arrives in Oxford, he and Ruby find themselves trying to discover just what is going on. Ruan was a student at Oxford and has a number of acquaintances including the father of his bewst friend who died duting the war. 

With missing artifacts, a missing book from the Bodleian, and possible drug smuggling, Ruby would have enough to deal with. But piling on is the appearance of another imposter claiming to be her mother who was lost along with her father and sister on the Lusitania. 

When Ruby starts seeing things and having flashbacks to her time as an ambulance driver during the First World War, she fears that she is losing her mind and becomes plagued with even more disturbing dreams. Fighting to determine what is real becomes a large part of this story. 

I enjoyed the setting and the characters in this third Ruby Vaughn mystery. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

The Stranger Diaries
Author: Elly Griffiths
Narrator(s): Andrew Wincott, Esther Wane, Sarah Feathers, and 2 more
Series: Harbinder Kaur (Book 1)
Publication: Recorded Books (March 5, 2019)
Length: 10 hours and 32 minutes

Description: Death lies between the lines when the events of a dark story start coming true in this haunting modern Gothic mystery, perfect for fans of Magpie Murders and The Lake House.

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she even teaches a course on him. But when one of Clare’s colleagues is found dead, with a line from Holland’s iconic story “The Stranger” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with her favorite literature.

The police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her diary, the only outlet for her suspicions and fears. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary:

Hallo Clare. You don’t know me.

Clare becomes more certain than ever: “The Stranger” has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?

My Thoughts: This was an excellent modern Gothic thriller. Framed around a creepy story by Victorian writer R. M. Hubbard, English teacher Clare Cassidy, her daughter Georgia, and Detective Inspector Harbinder Kaur find themselves trying to track down a killer before the killer completes his horrible agenda.

Clare is disturbed to learn that a fellow English teacher has been murdered in her home and a quotation from R. M. Hubbard is left by the body. When the police come to talk to her, she is reluctant to share what happened at a workshop/conference they both attended the past summer. She doesn't want to spread gossip. 

Clare has enough to deal with in her life with a fifteen-year-old daughter who is dating a twenty-one-year-old "older man." She has also been working on a book about Hubbard along with her duties as a teacher which have grown exponentially since her colleague's murder. 

Meanwhile, Georgia is keeping a whole secret life from her mother. She is a talented young writer who is taking classes at a local college while feigning disinterest in her current schooling and complete lack of interest in her future education. 

Harbinder Kaur is a Hindi, gay police inspector who has mentioned her sexuality to her parents yet. Nor is she interested in revisiting her past as a student at the school where Clare currently teaches or her own past encounter with the tutor who is coaching Georgia.

Kaur is certain that the killer is someone close to Clare. She becomes even more certain when Clare discovers that someone has been adding comments to her private diary. 

I enjoyed that the story was woven between the three main characters. I was also more than a little creeped out by the male narrator of R. M. Hubbard's famous short story which begins and ends this book.

I bought the Kindle January 2, 2025, and added the Audible Plus copy. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

"If you'll permit me," said the Stranger, "I'd like to tell you a story. After all, it's a long journey and, bu the look of those skies, we're not going to be leaving this carriage for some time. So, why not pass the hours with some story-telling? The perfect thing for a late October evening."

Friday 56:

There are no photos of Hythe and I don't know how to scroll back as far as July on her timeline. Where did Harbinger find the comments she was mentioning?

This week I am spotlighting The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths. I added the Kindle and Audible Plus editions in January. I see that it has won an Edgar Award, but I chose it because I've enjoyed other books by the author. Here's the description from Amazon:

Death lies between the lines when the events of a dark story start coming true in this haunting modern Gothic mystery, perfect for fans of Magpie Murders and The Lake House.

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she even teaches a course on him. But when one of Clare’s colleagues is found dead, with a line from Holland’s iconic story “The Stranger” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with her favorite literature.

The police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her diary, the only outlet for her suspicions and fears. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary:

Hallo Clare. You don’t know me.

Clare becomes more certain than ever: “The Stranger” has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?

ARC Review: The Secret of the Three Fates by Jess Armstrong

The Secret of the Three Fates
Author: Jess Armstrong
Series: Ruby Vaughn Mysteries (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (December 3, 2024)

Description: Following the atmospheric and award-winning gothic historical mystery debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall, USA Today bestselling author Jess Armstrong's heroine, Ruby Vaughn, returns in The Secret of the Three Fates, where the Scottish Hills hold ghosts of the past that threaten Ruby’s present.

American heiress Ruby Vaughn still hasn't entirely forgiven her octogenarian employer and housemate Mr. Owen for bringing the occult into their lives during her recent trip to Cornwall. He claims their journey to Manhurst Castle in the Scottish Borders is simply to appraise and acquire illuminated manuscripts for their rare books shop, however when Ruby discovers there are no manuscripts and receives news of a séance to be held that very night, she begins to grow suspicious about the true reason why they have come.

The Great War left grieving families willing to sacrifice anything for the chance to say goodbye to a lost loved one. Mr. Owen is no exception. He is desperate to speak to his son, but he doesn’t want to face the spirits alone. When the séance―hosted by a trio of mediums billing themselves as The Three Fates―goes awry, Mr. Owen’s secrets begin to unravel, threatening to reveal a history that he has been running from for half his life. Something Ruby knows all too well how to do.

When Ruby finds one of the Three Fates murdered the night of the seance, she and Mr. Owen quickly become the prime suspects. To clear their names, Ruby enlists the help of Ruan Kivell, the folk healer Pellar who helped her weeks before in Cornwall. As their investigation progresses Ruby and Ruan realize someone is determined to prevent them from uncovering the truth about what happened to the dead medium.

My Thoughts: The second Ruby Vaughn historical mystery moves her to the hills of Scotland. She is traveling with her octogenarian boss Mr. Owen in search of rare illuminated manuscripts. However, when she arrives at Manhurst Castle and finds no manuscripts but rather a seance in the offing, she is angry at her boss. 

While Ruby wishes to put the past and the war behind her, she knows that many are willing to do anything for a last message from those they lost. Mr. Owen is no exception. He is desperately eager for a message from his son Ben. But the seance conducted by three women who call themselves the Three Fates goes awry when the oldest of the fates and the one who wrote to Mr. Owen to encourage his attendance dies. 

Gradually family secrets come out including some of Ruby's since the owner of the castle was once an acquaintance of hers from the time she caused a scandal in New York that forced her from her home at sixteen. 

But it is Mr. Owen's secrets that are the most devastating to Ruby since she had had no idea that he was keeping so much from her. However, once her love and loyalty are given, she'll do anything for the person who inspired those emotions. 

Ruby isn't alone in trying to figure out the mysteries of the past. Ruan Kivell has also been called to the castle. Ruby and Ruan have a complicated relationship which began in the first book. They are falling in love, but Ruby is terrified at the thought of loving someone again. She's rather face ghosts and murderers than her feelings. 

This was an engaging story. I like the 1922 time period where people are still dealing with the losses of World War I. I really enjoyed Ruby's complex relationship with both Mr. Owen and Ruan. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

The Heiress
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Publication: St. Martin's Press (January 9, 2024)

Description: New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins returns with a twisted new gothic suspense about an infamous heiress and the complicated inheritance she left behind.

THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money―and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.

And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

My Thoughts: This romantic Gothic suspense novel is told from two points of view (or maybe three). Jules tells about meeting and falling in love with Camden at a college bar in California. They have a nice life together for ten years. He's teaching English at a boys' school in Colorado and she's working at a living history museum. But things change when Cam gets an email from a cousin which pulls him back into the life he ran away from when he was twenty.

Camden has been successfully ignoring his past and his life with the infamous Ruby McTavish - a woman gone missing as a three-year-old and recovered some months later who grew up married four times, survived the deaths of her husbands, and inherited a massive fortune and a house filled with resentful relatives. 

Cam was her adopted son and never accepted as a real member of the McTavish family. He was casually bullied by his cousin Ben throughout his childhood and roundly ignored by his mother's sister Nelle. Tensions rise after Ruby commits suicide leaving Cam the only heir to her massive fortune causing him to flee to California.

Now, at Jules' urging, Cam and Jules are going back to North Carolina to deal with family and the house Cam owns. But both Cam and Jules are dealing with secrets that they have never shared with each other. Cam wants to clear things up and leave. But Jules wants to stay and make a life in the beautiful house. 

Additions of letters that Ruby wrote to someone telling her story which does include murdering her husbands for various reasons and using various means adds to the Gothic atmosphere of this contemporary story. 

I enjoyed all the twists and turns of the plot and the slow reveal of the various secrets held by the main characters. 

Favorite Quote:

I don't know why I'm telling you this part now. I mean, it probably doesn't even seem all that romantic to you. Cheap college bar, my heart won forever by a free beer and a cute smile, sex on a mattress I'd gotten from Goodwill and suspected someone dies on.

But it was romantic. More than that, it was real.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong

The Curse of Penryth Hall
Author: Jess Armstrong
Publication: Minotaur Books (December 5, 2023)

Description: An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.

After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.

A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses―or Pellars―but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.

To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.

My Thoughts: It's 1922 and book seller Ruby Vaughn has been sent by her octogenarian employer and housemate to Cornwall to deliver a box of books to Ruan Kivell. She's reluctant because she hasn't been to that village since her former best friend Tamsyn married the local baronet Sir Edward Chenowyth. Ruby was in love with Tamsyn and feels betrayed that she threw her over for Sir Edward.

After meeting Ruan and dropping off the books, she proceeds to Penryth Hall where she encounters a decidedly gothic atmosphere. Tamsyn has changed a lot becoming much more withdrawn and is clearly unhappy. Ruby takes a strong dislike to Sir Edward who proves to be a philandering bully. But she wasn't expecting anyone to murder him the night she arrives. Nor was she expecting his death to be attributed to a curse that had previously taken his uncle and his uncle's wife.

Ruby had weird dreams of the death the night of Sir Edward's death and she was attacked in her bedroom. She even believes for a while that she might have been the one to kill Sir Edward. Ruan is called in to investigate since he is the Pellar - a witch who is believed to be able to break curses. 

Ruby and Ruan develop an interesting relationship. He can read her thoughts which is something that Ruby is forced to believe despite her disbelief in anything supernatural. The two work together to try to determine who murdered Sir Edward since neither believe that it was a curse.

Ruby was a fascinating character. She is an heiress who was sent away from her home in New York when she was a teenager because of a scandal. She lost both her parents and sister when the Lusitania sank. She worked as an ambulance driver during World War I. She is determined to live in the present since the past held so much trauma for her. Tamsyn sees her as brave and daring, but Ruby feels that she has nothing left to lose. She tries to survive by drinking too much and doing dangerous things. 

I enjoyed the gothic atmosphere of this story with its curses and superstitions. I liked that Ruby who might have some supernatural powers of her own in the form of prophetic dreams is determined to find a rational explanation for all the various events. 

Fans of the gothic will enjoy this story filled with intriguing characters. 

Favorite Quote:

"You can't possibly believe in this nonsense. It's the twentieth century, Mr. Kivell. We have science. Logic. Mathematics! There's no room in the modern world for magic or curses." Even as I said the words, I saw how pathetic my reasoning was. The simple fact was I refused to believe. Couldn't even conceive of it. Because if such a thing were real, it opened up a box of questions about my own past that I wasn't ready to answer.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor

The Fiction Writer
Author: Jillian Cantor
Publication: Park Row (November 28, 2023)

Description: From USA Today-bestselling Jillian Cantor, The Fiction Writer follows a writer hired by a handsome billionaire to write about his family history with Daphne du Maurier and finds herself drawn into a tangled web of obsession, marital secrets, and stolen manuscripts.

The once-rising literary star Olivia Fitzgerald is down on her luck. Her most recent novel—a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca—was a flop, her boyfriend of nine years just dumped her and she’s battling a bad case of writer’s block. So when her agent calls her with a high-paying ghostwriting opportunity, Olivia is all too willing to sign the NDA.

At first, the write-for-hire job seems too good to be true. All she has to do is interview Henry “Ash” Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, who wants her help in writing a book that reveals a shocking secret about his late grandmother and Daphne du Maurier. But when Olivia arrives at his Malibu estate, nothing is as it seems. The more Olivia digs into his grandmother’s past, the more questions she has—and before she knows it, she’s trapped in a gothic mystery of her own.

With as many twists and turns as the California coast, The Fiction Writer is a page-turner that explores the boundaries of creative freedom and whose stories we have the right to tell.

My Thoughts: Failing author Olivia Fitzgerald jumps at the chance to be a ghost writer in this gothic story. Olivia's first novel was a success, her second sold barely a thousand copies, and her editor hasn't been able to sell her third book. And her boyfriend of nine years has just dumped her. When her agent calls her with a high-paying ghostwriting opportunity, Olivia quickly signs the NDA and heads off to LA. 

When she learns that Henry Asherwood III a.k.a. Ash wants her to write the story of his grandmother Emilia's life, she's intrigued but skeptical. Ash is convinced the Daphne du Maurier novel Rebecca was stolen from his grandmother since it is the story of her life. He says that he wants Olivia to write the story because he read her second novel Becky which was also a retelling of Rebecca.

Olivia soon finds herself in her own retelling of Rebecca complete with a mysterious hero who might or might not have murdered his wife and who is very reluctant to answer questions about his grandmother's life and why he thinks du Maurier stole her story. There is also a mysterious housekeeper who has an agenda of her own and who was Ash's deceased wife's cousin. 

This was one twisty sort of thriller that takes a woman from a very unhappy state and transforms her. Olivia, though initially dazzled by Ash, manages to regain her independence and confidence as this story advances. She's helped by old friend Noah who has loved her from afar since their college days. 

Fans of meta fiction would be the best audience for this one. 

Favorite Quote:

"This feels very meta, doesn't it? Gorgeous widower, big house on the water, rumors about his wife's death."

Is that what had been bothering me, what I couldn't quite put into words? I'd practically stepped inside my own personal retelling of Rebecca, hadn't I? And I was supposed to be writing some sort of story about Emilia Asherwood and Rebecca, after I'd written my own Rebecca retelling. Charley was right. Extremely meta.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.