Gothic horror revamped for the 21st century! Full of suspense and intriguing characters. I did feel that it dragged in places but on the whole it was very enjoyable. Looking forward to more from this author

A haunted gothic mansion? You bet I’m up for a story like that! This one, however, was a disappointment. None of the characters were particularly likable. The heroine was supposed to be a grad student but behaved more like a young teenager. Both the horror and the romance fell flat for me. I forced myself to continue reading in hopes that it would get better. It didn’t.

Much like Hardy’s Tess, a trauma drives the main character, Anne’s fate. She runs away, and meets a handsome stranger on a plane. He tells her about a mansion that rents out affordable rooms, and she decides to move in while she is staying in London. The mansion is aptly named Wildfell, like the Anne Brontë book.

Creepy things start to happen, and a few bad choices keep Anne at Wildfell long past when she should have left. She started as an anxious character, and seemed to lose her anxious personally by the end of the book, which is what kept this from being a 5 star book for me.

This book had some intense moments, and delivered on being the fun, gothic horror novel I was looking to read. I liked the ending; it felt organic and not forced.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a spectacular gothic and supernatural wonder. It has some wonderful characters, an amazing setting and brilliant storyline.

Running away from home Anne Fleming decides to try a forge a new life at a pay-per-month guest house in London. However as previous guests seem to have disappeared without a trace and an odd landlady starts displaying her quirks, Anne soon realises staying at Wildfell may have been a mistake…

I picked up Wildfell expecting it to be a chilling ghost story but I have to admit that it isn’t. The book certainly didn’t spook me in any way and the plot is less about the haunted house and more about the characters. I think I’d be slightly more on board with this if I actually liked any of the characters or if I hadn’t been expecting a ghost story.

I found Anne’s character incredibly shallow and annoying – the backstory she is given of a professor grooming and taking advantage of her is interesting but rather than making her a strong character with a distrust of love and relationships she just seems very self centred. Every man she meets or locks eyes on is obviously madly attracted to her or she is attracted to them – this is the same way every single man is portrayed in the book and it becomes very unrealistic and tiring. The main relationship in the story I was expecting to tie into the haunted house element in some kind of way but it actually just seems like all of the supernatural elements are just a side-line to the main plot which is a destructive, unrealistic romance that ultimately goes nowhere.

The story also seems to drag a lot in places, details that you think must have been mentioned because they’ll be important later on turn out to be nothing. The ending also drags along– the main supernatural element ties up and then you have chapters and chapters of what essentially feels like an extended epilogue. There were also some very unrealistic and odd choices made – immigration wouldn’t have been happy with a tourist with no return ticket who didn’t know how long they'd be in the country or where they would be staying and a minor character conveniently turns out to be a ghost hunter but then this aspect of his character is hardly used.

Overall Windfell is not a chilling horror, it’s a story about a destructive romance with some supernatural elements thrown in. The characters are flimsy and unrealistic and the story ultimately drags. Thank you to NetGalley & BooksGoSocial for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Luxuriant, indulgent and riveting historical supernatural thriller!! I loved that Wildfell was of a length that it took a good few days to read and allowed the central characters to be fully rounded. Would recommend this great read!

This book was a slow burner for me. The scenes were overly descriptive and I felt the characters actions were a bit predictable. My hopes were a little higher for a gothic horror novel. I felt that maybe the author could go back and retweak some things and the book would be a little better but this was a book that nearly got marked as a DNF.

It took me some time to finally finish the book. Initially, I was interested in the character and why she fled her life in the United States, escaping to England. There were many hints and nuances as to what she left behind but the whole story was not disclosed until the end of the book.

The story centered around, what seemed to be a haunted house. There was a main female character and a cast of both male and female secondary characters. The house itself was definitely a main character.

There was a romance that never materialized between the female character and the main male character. He was not your typical romance hero. In fact, he was unlikable, at times. His moral compass was pathetic. Anyway, the relationship between the two characters was complicated.

I retained one star, as I was unsatisfied with the book's ending. There were just too many loose ends and unanswered questions that were not to my liking. Finally, I was left wanting justice for the character. There just was none. While reading, my mind wandered to all of the scenarios that could have happened to the one character that caused our heroine's flight to England. There were so many ways in which that character could have met his fate. But, alas, none of them materialized. Otherwise, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to readers who want to experience a scary read.

Anne Fleming boards a plane to London to escape her life, leaving everything she knows behind. She was meant to testify in court, but she just couldn't bring herself to face "him" again. During her flight she meets Bain Tierney, a handsome actor in London, who informs her of cheap lodging in the house where he is staying. Short on money, Anne follows Bain to Wildfell, a gothic mansion with a very peculiar owner. When the tenants begin to mysteriously vanish, Anne discovers Wildfell has a dark history involving several other deaths and disappearances...and she might be next.

Wildfell is a gothic horror novel set in present day London. A deteriorating mansion turned boarding house run by a controlling and unstable owner, offers lodging to some of the individuals who happen to find their way to Wildfell’s doorstep. Most of the tenants are individuals who won't be missed if they happen to mysteriously disappear. Strange occurrences, voices, and malevolent mists set the atmosphere as Anne tries to figure out who or what is behind the missing guests. Although this book was entertaining, the plot revolved mostly around Anne's backstory and her romantic attraction to Bain. Anne often comes across as the helpless female who relies on the handsome actor (who has apparently had relationships with every other female staying in the house) to offer her refuge from harm...well unless one of the other girls are in trouble and he has to run to their aide. I was hoping for a lot more horror and a lot less romance and felt kind of let down by the limited events noted in the book. The plot is still entertaining as long as the reader realizes that this novel is more of a backstory/romance novel than a horror novel.

Thankyou to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this wonderful novel.
I found it enjoyable from the very beginning. The characters were engaging and I loved the descriptive setting.
For anyone who loves creepy ghost stories , this is a good book for you. You will not be disappointed.

Thanks for this one, but sadly I have to give up. I am just falling asleep. Maybe it will get better, but I got tons of other books beckoning me and frankly they seem much more interesting than this one. And I was really in the mood for a nice haunting story with lots of creepy going-ons.

I get that the house needs to be described, but really is it needed to go in such detail? I am not looking to buy it or anything so I don't need SO much details or to know whatever kind of windows or carpets are around the place.

Plus I would think that people want to see some identification if they are boarding a room, yet no one asks for our MC's stuff. Plus is she thinking she can just stay so long in England without anything? And even thinking of just staying, because she knows the language? You can't just stay in a country forever without all the proper paperwork. Also, who the hell throws away all their stuff? Can't you just have brought it to some container or place. We have places here that will keep your stuff. You pay each month, and you can get them out whenever you want. It seems better than to radically throw away everything you own, even memories and all that. :| Also who the hell goes to England in January without A COAT.

So yeah. Epic cover, but when is the scary stuff starting because I haven't seen anything happening and again I am falling asleep here. There are hints (like what happened to that guy or why is it naughty to have ones keys changed (I am guessing that person had good reason)).

Anne is a young woman fleeing from her home and life in the D.C. area after an affair with her professor leaves her reeling and the professor on trial. Telling no on she escapes with a little money and a backpack to London. On the plane she meets two young men one who tells her about a big old mansion he is living in. After moving into Wildfell strange things begin to happen. Why is Mrs. Gates so nervous? Why doesn't her daughter Alice speak at all? What is in the rooms that are closed off? What is the big black cloud that moves through the house? Anne and Bain try to figure out what is going on while beginning and on again off again romance. This book is a suspenseful paranormal romance book that keeps things moving and interesting.

Wow! Wildfell returned me to my love of gothic mysteries. I devoured this story in 1 day, reading during work breaks, while cooking, in bed and at dawn...I just could not put it down. The adventure of running away to another country, coupled with the paranormal activities in the ancient house and the mystery of the missing tenants had me enthralled from the first page.

This was a good attempt at a Gothic novel, but it just didn’t quite get there. Perhaps the characters needed to be better developed? I’m not sure. I’m the end, it was a little disappointing for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the eARC.
Anne Flemming flees the States before a court date to testify against her professor accused of inappropriate behavior with his students. Her destination: London. Meeting Bain, a wildly handsome Irish actor, on her flight, he suggests her staying at Wildfell, where he has a room. Because it's cheap, she decided to rent there too. It's a huge mansion with a sinister landlady, housing other single inhabitants who seem to have escaped their previous lives as well.
The claustrophobic atmosphere quickly turns ominous, causing Anne to stay away as much as possible by seeing the sights in London. She develops a huge crush on Bain, who is an obvious womanizer, making her stay at Wildfell even more difficult. Wildfell has a bad reputation, people have mysteriously vanished from there and when she starts seeing dark shapes that seem to turn into human forms, life turns into a nightmare.
This gothic mystery was a decent read, but it also beggared belief: why on earth wouldn't she leave? I would have been out of there like a shot! Plus, the romantic angle was a distraction. After her experience with the Professor you'd think she'd know better. All in all it kept me reading, wanting to know how it ended, but it left me a bit dissatisfied.

Anne Fleming wants to get as far away from her hometown as possible. After a catastrophic experience with her ex boyfriend, she decides not to testify against him in court. Instead, she boards on a plane without telling anyone, and finds herself in London under a false name. Desperately trying to get away from her own memories, Anne will feel well in the beginning. Having rent a room in a gothic mansion in northern London, she seems very fond of Bain, her striking Irish roommate.

However, the Wildfell mansion is not what it seems to be. As black mists in the form of human beings will start to appear, the landlady will get more and more secretive and peculiar. Anne finds out that people have vanished from the house before, but where have they gone? Why were they never found? Among disturbing drawings from the landlady's young daughter , bodiless voices and mirages, Anne and Bain will have to figure out what is happening, or get out of the evil building before it's too late.

Wildfell is a tremendously enjoyable horror story. Based more on what you don't see rather than what is there, it is constructed in the way a good ghost story or haunted house book should be : no excessive scenes. The reader's imagination runs wild with "what ifs", and there are several very good, blood curling scenes. There are several intelligent heroes, thankfully, who investigate into situations instead of blindly accepting them, which is a certain plus. Moreover, the romantic element to the story was laid out perfectly, spicing it up just enough to add one more component.

All in all, Wildfell was a very good horror book to read, certainly interesting enough to make a reader finish it in one go! Definitely recommended for the fans of mystery and horror.

A great old fashioned ghost story. The cover of this novel got me interested and the synopsis got me hooked. The novel is about Anne who is running away from testifying in court against her Professor. The story doesn't break till much later into the novel which I thought would have been better revealed in the very beginning. Anyways, Anne heads off to London to get away. On the plane she meets up with two gentlemen in which one is staying at Wildfell. Wildfell's rate is cheap but the mansion is creepy. The lady of the house and her daughter are super weird and creepy along with the guests staying there. While Anne is there guests go missing and supernatural things start happening. The novel was creepy enough to keep me reading till the end. I rated this novel 3 stars as I felt the story line dragged in some places and some parts just didn't flow.

The blurb and cover drew me in - and the fact that I needed a break from romance novels, so why not try a Gothic horror?

I liked the beginning, getting glimpses, here and there, of some past event that had set the story in motion - the heroine, Anne, fleeing the US to London. A chance encounter on the plane leads her to Wildfell, a house with history and a pretty scary past.

Since I love London, I loved the story taking place there. The heroine would visit this and that; she'd go there and there. All those references somewhat kept the action in the present, while the house was keeping it in the past. I mean Gothic horror was first written in the 18th century, and Wildfell was said to be built back then. Sinister and terrible things have happened, throughout the centuries there and they were still happening.

It would have been a really, really good book but something was missing. I was intrigued by what was happening - people kept disappearing and such - but then the author would throw in a bit of romance between Anne and another character - is he the hero of the story? - and I'd get confused. To be honest, I'd rather the author hadn't written the romance into it because it kind of had a dead end; I didn't see the purpose of it. As for the missing factor? Well, it didn't spook me, like I expected.

But people and tastes; what didn't work for me, might work for others. It was okay though.

I voluntarily agreed to read an early copy through Netgalley and my rating is 3 stars.

A fun and spooky romp about a haunted house in London. Loved the story, characters and setting! Made for a quick and enjoyable read - very engaging and entertaining!

I picked this book up because I was in the mood for a cozy thriller kind of book, and gothic, supernatural stories are right up my alley... I definitely can relate with Anne in wanting to escape my life and hide. What I found was an interesting and spooky tale, but characters I didn't really connect with.

Wildfell is told from the point of view of Anne Fleming, an American graduate student that impulsively gets on a plane to London to escape her less-than-stellar reality. Through random happenstance, she makes a couple of friends on the plane, both of them showing her a kindness. Bain brings her round to the house he lives in, Wildfell, and she occupies an open room. But things get weird when residents begin disappearing and spooky things are seen. Just what is going on there? There is a lot going on in these 300 pages, and I have distinctly different feelings on two of the main elements so this review will be broken down into two parts.

The Wildfell plotline itself was what gripped my interested and kept me reading; spooky, old building with a lot of history and local legend, and a cast of mysterious characters to go along with it. I found the pacing good, the spookiness getting more and more intense as things happen. I would have liked to see more research on the part of Anne into the house and its history rather than relying on others. Things on this front are wrapped up mostly well by the end of the book.

Where the book wasn't as strong for me was with Anne. There is so much mentioned about her past, seemingly for character development but read mostly like traits that didn't connect to a character. I don't want to get into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say I wish there was more character development beyond being haunted by the past. The biggest detractor for my enjoyment was my inability to suspend my disbelief with Anne coming to London. I get wanting to escape your life and wanting to disappear, and I get the selfishness of not telling anyone so as to not be talked out of it. Where I struggled is the little things: throwing away nearly all her belongings but leaving her only coat in the closet (when she is going to London in January), bringing an unrealistic amount of money to live off of, and seemingly having no trouble with immigration when she has no return flight home and obviously no intention of returning. Perhaps I am just not the kind of person that can relate to this kind of impulsivity, but for me her lack of planning on lodging, food, and necessities detracted from the narrative for me.

Overall I enjoyed the story despite my nitpicking, but I never really developed any feelings for the characters. I think that is in large part to there being so much going on with Anne's backstory and my being mildly annoyed by her inner monologues. I actually found myself most invested in Bain, who isn't the main character or narrator.