Gothic Horror has a very specific "feel" and Wildfell by London Clarke nails it. Young protagonist on the run from her past, check. Creepy old mansion, check. Strange and untrustworthy neighbors, check. Mystery, a little romance, and tons of atmosphere, infinite check. Even though Wildfell is set in modern-day London, there were times when I was reminded of Guillermo del Toro's "Crimson Peak," with all the ghosts, spooky atmosphere, and strangeness. This is not a bad thing because I love GDT's "Crimson Peak" as a modern work of gothic horror and Wildfell will satisfy anyone who appreciates an excellent gothic ghost story.

I crave Gothic romantic suspense stories and I absolutely loved this one so much that I'm buying it to keep on my shelves. Now I need to check London Clarke's back catalogue to see what I've missed out on!

Unfortunately this book was not for me, it was a bit slower than I would like and it just didn't hold my attention. I am sure other people will love it!

I wound up loving this book. It was a little slow to start for me, but I wound up not wanting to put the phone down when I was reading it. I honestly didn’t think it was all that scary but there were some parts that definitely creeped me out, just a little too much. That said, I believe this would be a perfect book for someone whose a beginner to the horror genre. It was such a good read, and I would definitely recommend anyone who likes the paranormal or scary stuff to pick this book up !

Wildfell had a great premise but it didn't live up to it's potential for me. Still worth the read though.

At first this took a bit of getting into, but about a quarter of the way in I loved it, the creepy haunted house and strange people within had me gripped.
Will be looking forward to reading more of London Clarke books.
Thank you netgalley.

I could not finish this story. It started out interesting but just seem to go at a slow pace. I've tried a few times to pick it back up but can't seem to get into it.

I'm not entirely sure what I read here, the main character that falls in love so easily after being groomed?? No, that doesn't happen!! Unbelievable storyline and annoying main heroine.

This was definitely horror done right. This book nestled itself nicely into your head and let you do the rest. This Gothic house was the perfect setting for this story. I felt that the horror element wasn't too overdone and that I thought about these pages long after reading.

Wildfell is one of those books I chose to read simply because of its cover. I'm not typically a cover girl but I have to admit I have an addiction to covers (and stories) about big scary houses and stories about them - probably stems from my childhood and then my growing fascinating with Gothic fiction in my teens. Whatever the case, loved the house on the cover; however, the story, while somewhat interesting, didn't quite live up to that cover.

The main character, Anne Fleming, impulsively leaves her life behind after a traumatic experience with her college professor and heads to England, without a plan or a place to stay. I never really questioned her reasons for leaving as everyone has a reason to want to hide once in a while, but I did question the amount of money she had on her in which to survive. I've been to London and know how expensive that city is, and after all the purchases she made, what in the world did she live on? Anne was a bit naive when it came to living in London even though she'd been on her own in college which kind of surprised me. She was also very trusting, almost too much (part of the naivety I guess). She gets lucky when she is able to rent a room in a spooky old house at a very low fee. Then strange things start to happen around her and residents begin to disappear.

The actual plot line was very enjoyable and I liked the spookiness of the story. Even the background was interesting and left a lot to the imagination which is something I like. I hate it when the author goes on for pages explaining every little thing as if the readers can't figure things out for themselves. This one hinted quite a bit and when you got the story, you had to piece it together. Love that. And dang, I still love spooky old houses. It would have been nice to see Anne do some more of her own research as being a grad student you would have thought she'd be all over that so the author had to rely more on other characters to relate the information. While it was an interesting way for Anne to have conversations with other characters so we could get to know them, I also felt it did a disservice to Anne and made her seem lazy and unwilling to figure out the truth herself even when she is given information with which to work by others.

So while I did enjoy the fast plot and the interesting characters that were in this book, my main issue was with Anne herself. Like I'd already mentioned above, she did seem a bit selfish and naive throughout the book. And I just couldn't get past her leaving the U.S. without a plan, without lodgings, and without a lot of money. It is London after all. I also had a problem with the fact that we saw little character development in her character as a lot of her reflections were on her past and what sent her to London, including the way she left things there which didn't really help me like her a whole lot. Without giving away too many spoilers, I really had a hard time imagining that she would dump all of her belongings in a dumpster and head to London, during winter, without proper clothing and a proper coat forcing her to buy the stuff here, spending her meager amount of money. Makes no sense whatsoever. I also had a problem with her stay - immigration would definitely have given her a harder time than they did coming over from the U.S. without a return ticket. It would have been possible, but very difficult. And she would have had to prove she had the money to purchase a return ticket as well as afford to stay during the time period. And she definitely would not be able to work. Get where I'm going with this? I know I'm being fussy, but I've traveled extensively and I just couldn't get past it.

Wildfell could have been so much more than it was. I loved the setting, the house was really interesting and definitely spooky enough for me, with enough interesting moments to catch my attention. I really wish that some of the other characters and their stories had been explored a bit more as it would have added to the tension and drama; I could glimpse it but never really caught it. It would have been so fascinating to really involve the others, and how these characters with these issues, were all drawn together in this place. Anne's inner monologues really got on my nerves after a while, and I was drawn to the others for some relief so it would have been nice to really learn more about them. A good read, and basically a good story, I think those with an interest in Gothic fiction would be interested in this one, but for me, it left me somewhat dissatisfied.

Anne wants to escape from her life in America, so without much thought gets on a plane to London. She couldn't believe her luck when she was seated next to a handsome hunk who then helps her to get a rented room in the house he is living in - Wildfell, a large residence, holding many secrets. At first she is thrilled but then a sense of disquiet comes over her after a series of chilling events. Loved the cover which was very enticing and the fascinating snippets in the book were very interesting. Anne was naive and a bit odd behaving like someone a lot younger. She never seemed to make any sensible decisions! There were some creepy moments in this strange house with the weird owner but it also had its romantic moments too. So if this is your thing, then settle down in front of a proper fire on a gloomy, winter evening and enjoy!

This one was a true 3.5 stars. I was really excited to read this one - the whole concept of a ghost story that takes place in a creepy, old English house full of people keeping secrets sounded fantastic. And while it did live up to some of the hype, I feel like the ending left a little to be desired.

Anne decides to run away from her problems in America by hopping on a flight London, where she discovers that an old mansion named Wildfell rents rooms for cheap. But the landlady and her daughter, Alice, are extremely strange. And then weird things keep happening, which is apparently a trend at Wildfell. In a house full of misfits, will Anne survive? Or be Wildfell’s next victim?

This book has a perfect atmosphere to be a great ghost story. And it is creepy. The author does a great job of subtly ramping things up the tension to create the crisis point. It was really intense and very interesting.

But I feel like the ending was a little rushed. Like, there’s the “final confrontation,” really pulling us toward the conclusion, and then....oh yeah, this stuff is what’s been going on, the end. It felt really inadequate compared to the build-up.

If it weren’t for the ending, this could have been a 5-star read. But the conclusion left me a little unsatisfied, which colored my view of the book overall.

Recommended for ghost story fans who like the action, but don’t require thorough resolutions.

If you love gothic mysteries, this book is for you!

I absolutely LOVED this book! Started out a little slow, but once it gets going, you won't want to stop reading. Seriously, just set aside a few hours because you won't put it down.

Creepy atmosphere, strange characters, and some paranormal activity make this book a winner!

Do we get the tiniest impression that London Clarke is a romantic in love with old-fashioned English gothic novels?

Ann Fleming is on the run from a domineering mother and an abusive mentor professor. She meets an attractive man on a plane (actually she meets more than one attractive man on the plane), who, on realising she has nowhere to stay in London, recommends his own lodgings - the quaint old mansion near Highgate Cemetery, Wildfell. The landlady is old and eccentric, he tells her, and mealtimes are a must, but the rent is cheap.

To begin with, Ann is enthralled by the sumptuousness of this olde-worlde mansion and in true Radcliffian form, there are evocative descriptions of traditional dinners with chicken or duck served in delectable spices.

There are two problems. Ann needs to decide if her Byronic actor friend is a good guy or a cad. The other issue is more serious. All Wildfell tenants have a way of disappearing. Ann starts by feeling somewhat oppressed by the Victorian ambience of the house, then threatened. She is told by the son of the other attractive man she met on a plane, whom she encounters by chance in a bookstore in Hampstead, that Wildfell does not have the best of reputations....

The novel then pulls out all the stops to deliver one gothic tropism after another. There are the madwomen in the sealed-off wings, mysterious shadows, the presence of evil, to say nothing of skeletons on the cupboard and murder: Wildfell has it all. And just like the Hotel California, it also seems that you can check out any time but never leave.

It was an enjoyable enough read, though I have never cared much for romantic novels. That is just my personal taste, though main main criticism is that Clarke has added way too many diverse seasonings to the brew, where one or two in lesser strength might have been more.

London Clarke has given me a reason to love the gothic mystery genre again! Lovely writing. I read in one sitting.

A lovely creepy and atmospheric novel with scares a plenty. I do love a haunted house story and this didn't fail to disappoint. shivers

This supernatural/horror/mystery set in London was not really my cup of tea. I’m not a big fan of the genre at the best of times, but felt like something a bit different, and receiving books from NetGalley is a good way to stretch my reading repertoire - but has the disadvantage that I feel compelled to finish them even when I’m not enjoying them. My biggest problem with this was how feeble, self-indulgent, silly and self-pitying the heroine was.

Anne, a graduate student living in Virginia, decides she needs to run away as she can’t face testifying at the court case against her college professor, with whom she had an affair. She dumps all her possessions and gets on a flight to London, where she is sat between two men, an amiable businessman, Chris, and a handsome rake, Bain. Finding out she has nowhere to stay, Bain offers to take her back to the suspiciously cheap house where he rents a room, and because she’s an idiot seduced by a pretty face, she readily agrees. She discovers the house is run by the irritable Mrs Gates, and that a suspicious number of tenants have disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Instead of checking into a backpackers hostel like anyone sensible would, she decides to stay, whine about not having enough money, spend most of her time mooning about feeling jealous of other women talking to Bain, and drinking too much. Even seeing scary black clouds forming humanoid shapes at the dinner table is not enough to make her move out, despite offers of an alternative place to stay from Chris and his family. No, she stays for the inevitable life-threatening climax (not the kind she hopes to have with Bain, either.)

The writing was fine, the narrative chock-full of classic British literary references, that even I, who has barely read any literature since my O-levels, couldn’t miss. Initially I thought this was going to be a retelling of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which of course I haven’t read (but found a plot summary on Wikipedia so know that it’s not). I think if you like “gothic horror” (whatever that means) and are less impatient with immature idiotic protagonists, you would enjoy this, it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

On the cover we can see the Wildfell mansion where Anne will meet.

Everything starts after a short relationship with her teacher, Anne leaves the city, she will make a strange meeting on the plane. She will meet at Wildfell in this Gothic mansion in North London. She will think immediately that it is an ideal place to hide except that it raises questions about this place and its course of deaths and disappearances.

A fiction filled with suspense and twists with endearing characters. The story is captivating, I love the pen of this author.

Wildfell tells the tale of Anne Fleming, an American college student who had an inappropriate relationship with a professor, runs away to England and finds herself living in a haunted house among total strangers, dealing with otherworldly phenomenons and a creepy landlord.

The premise, while intriguing, seemed very similar to the Doctor Who episode "Knock, Knock" and the requisite (complicated) romantic subplot between Anne (renaming herself Tessa) and Bain (who fill the requisite "bad boy" stereotype) was (for me) too much of a distraction from distracting the eerie occurrences in the titular house. Anne comes across as a formulaic (almost stereotypical) damsel in distress, making a succession of bad choices; nevertheless, I was invested in the narrative and wanted to know more about the history of the house, and less about Anne's jealous fixation of any girl who took an interest in Bain.

I'm a huge fan of Gothic literature, but I tend to avoid books with modern settings. I usually just don't enjoy them. However, I was intrigued by this book's description, so I gave it a try. It was surprisingly really good. It's rare to find a good Gothic in this sort of setting, but I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend it. It has all the tropes of a Gothic - the heroine has a mysterious past, the hero is dangerous, the house is foreboding, the tone is creepy. There's a central mystery  - who are these people and what's really going on in the house. The heroine is also sympathetic and her choices - even when they lead her to danger - are realistic. You don't end up screaming at her for being stupid, but sympathizing with her because she's in an impossible situation. 

I look forward to seeing more from Clark in the future.