I really enjoyed this story. It's refreshing to read a well-researched historical fiction that also has an intriguing plot-line and real, relatable characters.

The story jumps between three narratives, each around 200 years apart. We have Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen in the mid 1600s, then Lavinia Flyte, the courtesan in 1801, and finally Holly Ansell, who is in modern times. The story is mainly in the present day, with about a third being devoted to the Winter Queen. Lavinia's point of view is rather small, despite her large impact on the story, but her part is woven into the present-day narrative via a journal. Juggling three timelines can be tricky, but Cornick pulls it off with finesse and grace. I felt like we got the exact right amount in each story line, nor was it confusing to follow along when the story jumped. I also enjoyed getting to read more about the Winter Queen, a point in history that I don't know that much about.

The setting plays a huge part of the story, and is based on real-life Ashdown House. After some quick googling, I found that the real Ashdown House didn't actually burn to the ground, like it did in the story, and the author actually works there doing tours! I love that she brought such an amazing narrative to a place for which she obviously has a passion. The descriptions of the park surrounding the house made me want to go on holiday to England and wander around the countryside!

Cornick's writing is evocative and smooth and gently pulls you deeper into the story. I loved little details she sprinkled in, little actions that just made the picture even more vivid in my mind, such as walking the dog or drinking hot chocolate. Cornick reveals the mystery little by little and we see the threads come together at the right pace. The mirror and the pearl guide the character's actions and add a fantastical element that enhances what would otherwise still be an interesting story about relationships.

The characters, as I said, felt very real and genuine. With the real-life historical figures, like Elizabeth Stuart, Cornick breathed life back into them, helped them be seen as people with emotions and faults and not just a name in a history book. The other two main characters, Holly and Lavinia, felt just as warm and alive. The secondary characters, like Mark, Fran, and Holly's grandparents, were also very well-written. I loved Bonnie (the dog). The romance was also paced well, and the emotions of the characters were written in such a way that I could feel the intensity.

All in all, a well-written, captivating tale of magic, history, and passion.

Romantic, fascinating, and exceptionally absorbing!

In Cornick's latest novel, House of Shadows, she immerses us in an incredibly intriguing historical time-slip tale of love, life, duty, honour, friendship, family, passion, desire, and mystery.

The writing is fluid and vividly descriptive. The characters, in all time periods, are complex, independent, and strong. And the blended plot is a captivating, sometimes dangerous journey, from the Winter Queen's exiled court in The Hague to the beautiful, wooded countryside of Sussex, England.

Overall, House of Shadows is a well written, exceptionally researched, entertaining novel that highlights Cornick's knowledge and passion for history in a tale that interweaves historical facts, compelling fiction, suspense, and romance effortlessly and I can't wait to read what she publishes next.

House of Shadows is a hard book to pin down to just a single genre. There is history, suspense, murder, romance and so much more. I have only started reading historical fiction the last few years so I am no expert, but this is a really good multilayer story involving three strong women from three different time periods.
Of the three women I think that I liked Holly the best but Lavinia is a close second. Elizabeth is a good character but she seemed very selfish and shallow to me. Holly and Lavinia were characters that I could root for and I was very intrigued by their stories and very curious as to where the story would take them. All three women are embroiled in controversy involving a secret society, a bejeweled mirror, a giant pearl with rumored magical powers, and love that seems destined to fail.
There were times in all the periods that some inconsistencies popped up but never really over anything major. Mostly it was small things that didn't really make sense or seemed out of place but I am not too nit-picky about small things so I was fine with it. I think if you are looking for a good historical fiction book to curl up with this winter in front of the fire, House of Shadows would be an excellent choice.

Buy This Book
I’m a huge fan of two-stranded stories; what author Michael White describes as “novels that involve interweaving plots – one strand in the present day and the other set in the past.” So, when I saw the description of House of Shadows with its entwined tales of Stuart England and modern day Oxfordshire I was anxious to review it. I found it a flawed but interesting read.

Our story starts with a series of vignettes. The first takes place in London, 1662. As Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, lies dying she calls for William Craven. She had previously had her servants bar the door to him but in the last moments of her life she is frantic for his presence. Once he arrives, she gives him the Sistrin Pearl she wears about her neck and begs him to hide it until the crystal mirror can be destroyed. The two speak of meeting in another life and the scene closes as the queen fades away.

The next scene takes place in Scotland, 1596 where King James is desperate to get rid of the baptismal gift given to his daughter Elizabeth (the woman dying in the paragraph above) by Elizabeth the First, the great Queen of England. The gift is actually a legacy left by Mary, Queen of Scots, and is made up of a jeweled mirror and the Sistrin Pearl. It is said that together the items can foretell the future but James considers them cursed and thrusts them at the one of his daughter’s nurses. When she holds them, she claims to see buildings eaten by flame and gunpowder and a child with a cream-colored gown and a crown of gold. James calls this superstitious nonsense and leaves, but he has the disturbing feeling that rather than passing a gift on to his daughter he has given her the instruments of her ruin.

In 1631, Elizabeth Stuart and her husband Fredrick are a King and Queen in exile. Elizabeth watches from the window of her boudoir as the Knights of the Rosy Cross gather for a meeting. She knows they will be using her pearl and her mirror to attempt to see the future. Both she and Fredrick had been avid members of the order at one point but she now considers such things a folly, although Frederick does not. She leaves her rooms to spy on the gathering and is caught sneaking in by William Craven, the knight set to guard the door. While they get off on the wrong foot, they soon set things right and the scene closes with Elizabeth asking Craven to watch over Frederick in the coming battles to win back their kingdom.

Then we jump to the present day where Holly Ansell receives a late-night call from her six-year old niece Flo, advising Holly that her father – Holly’s brother Ben – is missing and that she is all alone. Knowing that Flo’s mother is overseas, Holly leaves London and races to Ashdown Mill, the family holiday cottage, to be with the her. Ben remains missing over the next few days and when Holly’s sister-in-law returns she angrily informsHolly that this ‘stunt’ will likely mean the end of her and Ben’s marriage. Flo and her mum go home to Bristol but Holly leaves London and her dead-beat boyfriend and moves to the Mill, determined to find her missing brother. His disappearance is in no way typical behavior for him and intuition tells her that whatever has happened must be linked to the family history in which he recently expressed an interest. The Mill, however, seems to be having an odd effect on both siblings’ behavior since Holly soon finds herself involved in an unprecedented one-night stand with handsome stranger Mark Warner. Naturally it ends awkwardly and of course they will find themselves in the position of working together to solve Ben’s disappearance in the coming weeks.

Most of the time when I review a book, I have to sift through a lot of different pieces to determine what made it a good or bad read. In this case, this process was far easier than normal. On the positive side, the author has a decent prose style, weaves interesting and unique history throughout her tale, and the story fed into my own penchant for dual timeline novels. But on the negative, the initial vignettes assumed a knowledge of Elizabeth Stuart and William Craven which I personally didn’t have. I was unfamiliar with the characters and their history and I was equally unfamiliar with the Knights of the Rosy Cross, and I had to stop and do a Wikipedia hunt to gather enough information to figure out what was going on, which I consider a flaw in the writing. The reader shouldn’t have to go to an outside source in order to be able to follow what is happening in the novel.

That problem pales into insignificance, however, beside what I consider to be the book’s fatal flaw. The impetus of the story revolves around Ben’s disappearance, but that event only serves as a prop to explain why Holly grows interested in the history of the Mill and her family genealogy. Holly connects with none of Ben’s friends, she doesn’t talk to his co-workers, doesn’t question her niece or sister-in-law extensively and rarely talks to the police. Her ‘search’ primarily involves reading a dairy written by notorious courtesan Lavinia Flyte that her brother left behind, and reading it VERY SLOWLY. Lavinia lived at the Mill during the Regency era and Holly is convinced Ben learned something from the journal that caused him to vanish. The rest of her time is spent walking her dog, visiting friends, working and cavorting with Mark. I don’t know if I have words to communicate just how jarring I found this. The entire time I was reading, a litany of ‘Where is Ben?’ was running through my mind but Holly seemed far more concerned with the right of 19th century courtesans to be treated with decency. That may be a valid point but a missing relative would seem to me an issue of greater urgency.

I didn’t really care for the romance. Mark misleads Holly with a whopper of a lie by omission and essentially blames her by stating that she had not been ready to hear some unpleasant facts about her brother. Other than this giant negative, the only thing I can say conclusively about him is that he had a sexy smile. The author doesn’t build their relationship so much as rely on a vaguely alluded to idea of destiny/reincarnation to explain their attraction.

While Cornick does a decent job of creating a coherent theme for her complex, history laden story, she fails to provide any heart or heat that would serve to draw the reader into it. As a result, House of Shadows is a mildly entertaining but easily set down tale about people you will never think of again.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but the beautiful cover of House of Shadows immediately caught my attention, making me want this book in my hands. The image alone could sell the book without the interesting blurb or story inside! Upon flipping this book over, readers will learn it is set throughout the hills of Oxfordshire and partially in London, England. I don’t know about you, but I was sold! Since airfare is quite pricey to hop across the pond, I have to settle for being taken there by the hands of authors. Luckily, Nicola Cornick was up for the challenge and created stunning imagery through her writing, easily transporting me not only to another country, but to multiple time periods.

Woven through three separate centuries, this tale begins with Elizabeth Stuart, The Winter Queen, warning her lover, William Craven, to destroy an ornate mirror which brings doom to greedy men. Her life has turned to shambles, she believes, due to the power the mirror possesses. A power many underestimate.

In the present day, Holly learns of the disappearance of her brother, Ben. She decides to leave her cozy life in London and help in the hunt to discover what could have possibly happened to her brother. Upon arriving, she learns Ben was researching the family line at their old Mill house in Ashdown, something he didn’t seem particularly interested in prior in his life – a mystery in itself. Holly soon discovers the handwritten journal of Latvinia Flyte among Ben’s things, telling of her scandalous 19th century life. Shortly thereafter, Holly acquires a mysterious looking-glass deeply connected to the past and expanding the history Holly must sort through.

The story takes readers through time and history, connecting three different women’s lives in the modern era. One of my favorite things about Historical Fiction is being able to absorb the facts through an interesting tale, mixed with just enough fiction to keep the story exciting. This is one of my favorite ways to learn of the past because it keeps my interest, rather than the dull monotone life stories we often get through Non-Fiction. I had no knowledge of the life of Elizabeth Stuart, also known as The Queen of Bohemia prior to reading this novel which alternates between time periods. I was eager to fact check which parts of this story were real with the fiction within the pages, allowing me to further my knowledge of an incredibly interesting historical woman. I enjoyed being able to get to know Elizabeth as a living, breathing woman, rather than a fancy queen in a big dress, painted as a work of art.

Another great aspect of this tale was being able to learn of Latvinia through Holly’s reading of her diary. It added the third perspective in a unique way, allowing readers to experience both Holly in the present and Lavinia in the past simultaneously. Like Holly, I couldn’t help rooting for Lavinia and hoping her trials in life would turn into success. I was constantly on the edge of my seat hoping to learn more about her mysterious life and how she could possibly be connected to the story.

I found all three time periods within the pages to feature quite interesting storylines. When the setting would switch between chapters I was often so caught up in one perspective, I would be disappointed with the change and wanted to continue reading about the characters I was with at the moment. The changing perspectives were done so well by the author and was a great tactic in keeping the reader’s interest throughout the book. Only occasionally would I find the present storyline with Holly to be dragging and not quite as exciting as the past perspectives of Elizabeth and Lavinia. This was the sole reason I knocked a star off of my final rating, giving four stars instead of the full five. However, the addition of a love interest for Holly and being able to experience the unexpected tidbits of romance within her story was a pleasant surprise, allowing her viewpoint to be more of an experience, rather than the search for her brother being the only aspect of her story.

House of Shadows was an interesting story across the board — full of romance, mystery, history, superstition, and heartbreak. I highly recommend this unique and fully immersing novel. This will be one I reflect on for months to come.

The release date is set for October 17th, however, pre-ordering is available with the links below. This book will not only look lovely on your shelf, but will keep you captivated until the very end.

Lovely, often sad story. The mix of past and present worked very well. Kept me hooked until the end.

This book tells the story of three women from different time periods centered around a mirror and a pearl that may have magical properties. Their lives and loves are all connected in a story that spans almost 400 years.

Elizabeth of Bohemia was given the mirror and pearl as Christening gifts by Elizabeth I of England in 1596. She is married to Frederick of Bohemia. Elizabeth is in The Hague, a court in exile, since Frederick has lost his throne. They attempt to use the mirror and pearl to regain it. Elizabeth's romance is with William Craven, a commoner and soldier, who is her devoted courtier.

The second story is a modern day one. Holly Ansell is called to Ashdown Mill by her 6-year-old niece who tells her that her father, Holly's brother Ben, is missing. When she arrives Ben is still gone and she finds herself in a mystery. Apparently Ben was researching the mirror and the pearl. An art dealer gives her the mirror and she discovers a diary written in 1801.

The diary is written by Lavinia Flyte who is a courtesan living at Ashdown with William Craven's descendant who is searching for the pearl. (Elizabeth had entrusted it to William when she died.) Her lover hires a surveyor to help map the land and hopefully find out where the Earl of Craven hid the pearl. Unknown to him, Robert Verity, is a descendant of William Craven's lover who got pregnant by Craven but went back home to her husband to have the child taking Elizabeth's mirror with her. Lavinia falls in love with Robert.

The three stories are all interwoven telling about the history of the magical objects and the women whose lives were entwined in the story. I enjoyed the story, the characters, and the historical detail.

House of Shadows is part historical fiction, part mystery, part romance. The novel follows three women from three parallel timelines. Cornick’s writing is descriptive, intriguing and strong. The book has great pace and depth. I would recommend for fans of Kate Riordan or Katherine Webb.

House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick is a story of three women in three different time periods: 1600’s, 1800’s and present day whom are all connected by a crystal mirror and a pearl. The story kicks off with mystery and intrigue as we are introduced to Holly (present day) and her missing brother Ben. In Holly’s search for Ben, you are immersed the intrigue of why the mirror and the pearl are important and how each of these women are connected not only by location, possession of these items but their lineage.
I found myself just as invested as Holly was in Lavinia’s story. As small as her part was throughout, whenever I got to the diary entries I found myself excited. I wanted to know as much as I could about Lavinia and her life.
The amount of detail written put you in each of the time periods. Cornick made you want to know more and to keep reading. Cornick made these three women relatable. They all found themselves at odds with the rules placed on them by society and by their own personal tragedies but they kept going.
I did feel as though there were parts missing. I felt like there could have been a little more explanation to the mirror and the pearl. Ben was talked about so much but nothing really came of him in a way that felt meaningful. You only get a glimpse in the single moment and you haven’t much background to understand why Holly does what she does. And Lavinia’s story cut off so abruptly I was disappointed with how everything ended.
Would I recommend this to friends? Eh, Maybe.
I may have forced myself to finish this and ended up liking it more than I thought but it still wasn’t 4-5 star worthy.

I'm sorry but I could not get interested in this book. I've made several attempts to read it. I will not give the book a bad review as the book seems well-written. For whatever reason it could not keep my interest.

The House of Shadows is a story connecting 3 women from 3 completely different times through an antique mirror. The Winter Queen in 1662, Lavinia in the 19th century and Holly in the present day all have something in common and Holly seeks to find what it is in order to try to find her brother Ben who disappeared doing exactly that. She seeks to find the truth at Ashdown House in Oxfordshire that was passed down through her family and finds the diary of Lavinia that she hopes will help shed some light on what strange happenings have caused her brother to disappear.
Nicola Cornick has written a compelling story and brought such realism and detail to every character and time period we visit throughout the book. The House of Shadows is a wonderfully written historical fiction novel weaving three very different women into one story in the most seamless and page turning way. No wonder this woman is an international best seller!

Nicola Cornick entrances the reader with a thrilling story of the past and present with a Sistrin pearl and a crystal scrying glass mirror taking center stage. The book begins with the tale of Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, as she lies on her deathbed and gives the Sistrin pearl to William Craven, once a soldier and squire for her husband King Frederick. The pearl and the mirror are said to be insurgents for the Order of the Rosy Cross and hold the power to show the future to whoever looks into them. The book moves back and forth between three time periods telling the stories of Queen Elizabeth, Lavinia Flyte a contessa, and a modern woman Holly Ansell all who have a love story. When Holly goes in search of answers about her missing brother she finds a diary that is written by Lavinia Flyte. This book begins Holly’s search for the answer of the pearl and the mirror. Could her search also mean the rebirth of spirits in another time? This is an intriguing and well-written story which is sure to not disappoint.

When brother Ben goes missing, Holly uncovers a mystery that is 350 years in the making. A perfect time slip novel that follows 3 couples with intertwining tales and mysterious Rosecrution artifacts. Perfect mix of historical fiction, mystery, romance and a splash of the supernatural. I had to finish this to know how it ended and then I wanted more!

House of Shadows conjured up lush historical worlds, jumping between two historical periods as well as present day. While the modern day plot occasionally felt formulaic, the multiple perspectives made for a read that kept you moving along at a comfortable pace despite the political complications of the times and the numerous characters.

I'm a sucker for a good book cover and this one caught my attention. First glance showed that it was well put together and captured my interest in reading about the "House of Shadows"

I've never read Nicola Cornick and thought with it being a Harlequin book it would be good.

The story is about Ashdown House in England and within the walls contained three different stories of three different women. The first is the construction of Ashdown House to hide a magical pearl in the center of the home, then the next story is the courtesan who hears of the story of the pearl and is determined to find it. But, the house is burned down. Then we come to the third story and that is present day. Holly Answell is seeking her brother who has gone missing while researching the story about Ashdown House. In the meantime, she finds out the secrets of the house and the people who had ties to it.

I will admit, I didn't like the story. Started off with grand hopes and looked forward to starting it, but found myself flipping past the pages. For me, I didn't like the hopscotch between time periods. For my already befuddled mind it was just too much. Plus, I didn't find myself falling in love with the characters. When the times comes, I may take another shot at reading this book and if I change my mind, I'll repost my findings.

I downloaded this book from Netgalley, complimentary from the publisher.

I was a little hesitant to request House of Shadows. I actually debated, for a little while, on requesting this book. I haven’t read anything about Elizabeth Stuart or the Stuart Era (1603-1714). Also, I had a feeling that there would be many POV’s. Many POV’s, for the most part, annoy me. I can’t keep up with the story. What ended up making request this book from NetGalley was the storyline and, believe it or not, the cover. I thought the cover was beautiful and having read House of Shadows, I can say with confidence that this cover describes the book pretty well.

House of Shadows will sweep you away from the first chapter. You get sucked into the three storylines in the book. The book came alive for me, which thrilled me to no end. It has been a long time where I was engrossed in a book.

There were 3 main storylines. There were some minor sub storylines that were connected to each storyline. Those were wrapped up in each storyline and didn’t appear again in the book. I liked that while all the main storylines were connected. Like the Craven having an illegitimate child. We find out that he did with Lady Margaret. Back in present day (aka the next chapter), all Holly has is rumors to go on. It was those details that made this book a great read for me.

I thought the mirror and pearl being evil and reigning havoc in every storyline was great. You have inanimate objects that have the power to destroy kingdoms, houses and lives. What I enjoyed is that they were never together after Craven separated them. Even with them separated, the havoc they did was immense and spanned generations.

Going to be honest here, I wasn’t a huge fan of Elizabeth Stuart. Elizabeth bugged me because she kept Craven dangling on the end of a leash. She said she loved him but she refused to go public because she was a Queen and he was a commoner. That drove me nuts (as it did Craven). I thought, as he did, that he was kept around to clean up messes that her family made. But, this was also the beginning of the Stuart Era.Women in those days were viewed as property and treated as such.

Lavinia, oh Lavinia. I knew that she was going to show up in the story but I didn’t expect that she would show up as journal entries. I thought that was ingenious of the author because you read Lavinia’s story as Holly was reading it. Lavinia got herself in a lot of trouble with Lord Evershot. At first, he was a gentleman towards her but the more Holly read, the more twisted he was. I was a little shocked that the author chose to portray him as such but, looking back, I can understand why. He got corrupted by the thought of finding the pearl. That turned him into a person that Lavinia didn’t recognize. I do wish that her affair with Robert turned out better. But, as with Elizabeth, it wasn’t fated to be.

How Holly felt after her beloved older brother, Ben, went missing was awful. She adored Ben, hero worshipped him to be honest. She decided to follow Ben’s steps to see if she could find out what happened to him. She ended up discovering what happened to Ben and Lavinia.

The end of the book was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I was very sad at parts and happy during others. I know this is very vague but you need to read the book to understand why I wrote that.

My Summary of House of Shadows: 5 stars

House of Shadows was a fantastic read for me. You are pulled into Stuart Era France and England, Regency England and present day England. With plots that are taken right out of history, characters that are flushed out and 3D, and romances that span lifetimes, this is a book that you need to read.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Older Teen

Why: Sexual situations (nothing graphic but characters do have sex), language and violence. There is a very graphic scene where a woman is beaten with a whip and then with stinging nettles.

I would like to thank Nicola Cornick, Harlequin, Graydon House and NetGalley for allowing me to review House of Shadows

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

This book for me was a perfect mixture of history, modern day mystery and romance. I really do not like sloppy romances, it just bores me to a degree that I just stop reading, give me murder mystery and adventure anyday, however, I am a fan of romance , so I am paradoxical. However, what that has to do with this review, I have no idea, I just go with the flow and type what flows from my fingers, so lets get on with the business at hand...

I had not long finished 'The Phantom Tree' by the same author and had enjoyed every minute I spent with my nose in the pages, hence the very reason why I wanted to read this too. Unlike the previous book, this is not a time slip, but it does sucessfully tell three differing storylines all interlaced together in perfect harmony, but seperated via thier timestamps, it is not complicated to read and it flows with the ease of a smooth river, but underneath has some undercurrent, which was exciting.
The writing style was the same, which was great, as I love Cornick's ease of reading, your mind can wonder off for a moment whilst reading, but you do not miss anything, as she packs her pages with just enough info to keep you reading and turning those pages, she keeps you ticking over, so that if you do, drift off - I mean, I am still reading but sometimes my mind just goes AFK for a moment - when I come back from my zone out, It is really easy to continue reading without having to backtrack; for me this is a good thing, as my brain goes off on tangents all the time! (Nicola Cornick, if you are reading this, IT'S A GOOD THING, TRUST ME!)

As I mentioned earlier, Cornick is very good at keeping the plot ticking over and placing clues in plain sight, but cleverly not emphasing them, as not to draw suspicion and ruining it for you upon conclusion of the book.

It is plain that she knows her stuff and that her research is well done, you can really tell. I love reading historical books, both fiction and non fiction and have read ALOT over the years, so it is really nice ( eugh ..that word..) to read a book that you know has a good historical foundation.

I totally recommend this book, go and read it NOW!
full review on blog :)

Word of warning before you dive into this book – be prepared to stay on your toes!

House of Shadows is really 3 stories told in parallel. The chapters flip between modern day and 17th century England, with an early 19th century story woven in via a diary.

The historical story focuses on Elizabeth, The exiled Queen of Bohemia (aka the Queen of Hearts) and her supposed lover/2nd husband William, the Lord Craven and follows them from their initial meeting through more than 30 years of interactions leading to a clandestine romance.

Our modern story focuses on Holly and begins when she receives a frantic phone call from her young niece saying that her brother is missing. While Holly’s story has a romantic element via her interludes with Marc, she is more the vehicle for the introduction of the diary and a paranormal/suspense element that reaches through history to impact events.

While I enjoyed the overall story, it felt like we spent a little too much time learning the minutia of Elizabeth and Craven’s story at the expense of Holly and Marc’s. The suspense portion of the story was well crafted and closure was brought to all of the story lines of the book, but I would have enjoyed a little more relationship building in the modern era. My only other complaint was that there were a couple of modern day characters that were seemingly brought to the forefront of the story, but then very little was done with them.

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Enjoyable read. Good storyline and likeable characters.

The outline sounded interesting but I couldn't stay interested enough to finish it.