A brilliant gothic mystery. Brilliantly written. I would love to read more books by this author highly recommended xx

Hannah finds herself back in the Catskills for the first time in 17 years when her aunt Fae is killed in a car accident. She loved the castle when she was a girl but then... her sister Julie disappeared. What happened to Julie? No spoilers from me. The story is told by Hannah in the past and the present; how reliable is she as a narrator? This is a sort of gothic, sort of ghost story mystery with interesting characters but it does sag a bit in the middle. Keep reading though for good twists. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read for fans fo the genre.

Kate Moretti delivers a wonderful, spine-tingling suspense in this gothic tale of unexplained deaths and disappearances. The atmospheric setting of a creepy old castle in the Catskills lends itself to the magic and mysterious hauntings as the secrets of the past become linked to the present. Moretti skillfully portions out clues and plot twists with an expert pen from the first page to the last.

The only critique I have is that there were some unanswered questions. However, that seems to be a trend in suspense books right now. Ms. Moretti is a new to me author and I am looking forward to reading more of her books.

Perfect for readers who like psychological thrillers.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author/publisher through Net Galley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

“Girls of Brackenhill” by Kate Moretti tells the story of Hannah Maloney. Hannah, now engaged with a seemingly perfect life, must come back to her aunt’s castle on the hill after her aunt’s body is discovered in her vehicle in a ravine. But Hannah has mixed feelings about returning. At once a refuge and haunting, the castle holds memories from the past that Hannah would rather forget- including the disappearance and death of multiple young girls, all connected to the castle grounds. The past mingled with local folklore about the home makes for an interesting mystery.

Hannah was an interesting character to read because she is an unreliable voice. We see the world through her eyes, but is it possible that at the young age of 13-15 Hannah has misremembered something? That mixed with her sleepwalking and overall reaction to returning to the castle makes you question if there is something strange about the old, empty halls. So much of Hannah’s development into an adult happens within the castle that it’s hard to know if she’s romanticising the appeal of the crumbling home. Past traumas also add to the attachment Hannah has to the castle and it makes the reader wonder what kinds of things she can forget or block out.

I also enjoyed the relationship between the town and the castle. The town is wary and tells stories about the castle. It’s haunted, it makes people go crazy, it can’t be trusted. With this kind of relationship, I find it interesting how seamlessly Hannah and her sister Julia are able to integrate themselves into the town. No one questions them joining the other teenagers, and they are never viewed as suspicious. If the town truly felt the castle was haunted, how were these girls so easily accepted?

Overall, this book held a compelling mystery and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The chain of tragedy connected with the house is curious and makes for an interesting read, especially as more and more players come to light. With hints of gothic and mystic mysteries, I couldn’t put it down. In the end, I gave this book 4 stars.

FIRST LINE: "I didn't mean to kill the girl."

THE STORY: Hannah's seemingly perfect life with Huck begins to fall apart with a phone call telling her there's been a deadly accident at Brackenhill. During the six hour drive from Virginia to her Aunt and Uncle's home, a mountaintop castle in the Catskills, Hannah remembers the wonderful summers she spent there until the last one when her older sister disappeared without a trace. Should she share her past secrets with Huck?

WHAT I THOUGHT: Brackenhill itself is a character. It has locked doors, eerie sounds, banging doors, a scary room-rearranging basement, strange deaths, and ghosts. The castle seems to induce strange moods and visions. Hannah has survived by hiding secrets and refusing to face the past.At Brackenhill she fixates on trying to find her sister who's been missing for 17 years.

Author Kate Moretti sets up a fascinating puzzle for the reader to solve. When I finished the book, I couldn't sleep trying to put all the pieces together. I was glad to be reading on my Kindle so I could search for terms in the book to check for clues I might have missed and they were all there. Perhaps I would have read more carefully if I had approached it that wa

BOTTOM LINE: A grown up ghost story for Halloween and beyond. RECOMMENDED.

DISCLAIMER: A copy of The Girls of Brackenhill was provided to me by Thomas & Mercer /Net Galley for an honest review.

I struggled with this book. I found it to be slow going until about the last 10-15%, and I found Hannah to be annoying. I did not guess all of the ending, but I felt underwhelmed by it.

This was a solid thriller/mystery for the most part. It kept me up late reading on a chilly October night. I was slightly disappointed in the ending: it felt like there were a few things that weren’t really resolved. Rounded up from three and a half stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

I've read quite a bit of Moretti's backlist, and I highly respect her work as an author. Brackenhill has a tried and true plot that will be familiar to most seasoned readers of psychological suspense, and I think the strength of this story is more in its encompassing atmosphere and compelling narration, rather than any unsuspected twists and turns. As you can probably tell from my rating, this isn't my favorite novel from Kate Moretti, but don't let that stop you from giving this one a try; I mainly struggled with the pacing and the lack of full closure at the end of the story. As a reader, I think this one was just not a full on hit for me, but will look forward to the author's future works with as much gusto as I anticipated this one.

This had the potential to be amazing! Murder? Check. An eerie castle? Check! An unreliable narrator? Check, check, check. The only thing it lacked, and it's a big flaw, is answers. By the end of the book I felt like none of my questions had been answered or resolved. I feel like with a little tinkering with the end, this could be a huge hit.

I always enjoy Kate Moretti’s books; they have an eerie atmosphere, compelling characters and are creepy without getting gory. Girls of Brackenhill is no different and fit my spooky October reading theme well!

Hannah has been staying away from her family and subsequently her past for years. Something happened that last summer in Brackenhill when her sister disappeared and it’s been easier to avoid it all and move on with her life. But her aunt has died and she’s forced to return to tend to her uncle, the estate and her past. A mystery begins to unravel on the estate with police involvement and the unraveling of Hannah’s mind sends her into a spiral. The truth about what happened that last summer in Brackenhill may finally be known.

It’s amazing how the brain works and what it can suppress to protect us. I thoroughly enjoyed following Hannah’s journey through the mental obstacles of her past and dealing with the present. It’s a complex web. The whole story really grabbed me and kept me flying through page after page.

If you’re looking for a good book with elements of mystery, ghosts, and psychological twists, Girls of Brackenhill is one you’ll definitely want to add to your TBR!

A nice slow burn Psychological suspense story. Really easy and enjoyable read. Can’t wait for the next book from Kate Moretti!

Girls of Brackenhill by Kate Moretti is a classic gothic tale; a huge castle up on a hill, a damaged family, and girls who go missing. Even the ending is reminiscent of gothic tales of years ago with the ending a bit vague and leaving the reader with questions. To me this adds to a tale of horror because with a good imagination you can let your mind wander and it often finds what would frighten you the most.

There is so much going on in Girls of Brackenhill that I wish Moretti would have been able to delve into some of the plot lines more, especially the other girls that had gone missing previous to the 20 years this book takes place. But that could make for a wonderful prequel.

An excellent read for the spooky time of year, or any time really, since I seem to often read Gothic Horror during the summer months for some reason!

This dark, gothic mystery hit me like a train! Ms. Moretti had me immediately immersed the intricate story surrounding Brackenhill, and the secrets it holds.

Originally built for his wife by Scotsman Douglass Taylor in the 1800's, Brackenhill sits atop one of the mountains in the Catskills mountains. Taylor's wife was committed to a sanotorium soon after the birth of her first and only child, a daughter Merrill. Taylor's wife died young, and Merrill inherited the land and fortune which included Brackenhill, what the townspeople call "the castle". Merrill was committed following the birth of her fourth son. And so Brackenhill passed down through generations riddled with mental illness. The castle and its grounds are said to be haunted. Over ten young girls have gone missing on the grounds of the estate over 150 years and have never been found.

The main story in the book begins in the summer of 1998, when Julia, 13, and her sister Hannah, 11, are dropped off by their mother Trina, to spend the summer with the girls' Aunt Fae and Uncle Stuart. (Fae is Trina's older sister, but they don't speak.) Oh how the girls sink into the wonders of the old house, exploring the grounds like adventure hunters, basking in the happiness and easy laughter of Fae and Stuart!! They'd never heard grown-ups laught before. Everything is calm here, with some new fun to be found every day; so different from what waits at home, the dark and bitter relationship between their mom and Wes, their drunk and abusive stepfather. It's no wonder coming to Brackenhill is the highlight of their year. The girls are very close, and do everything together.

Ms. Moretti alternates between the time starting in the summer of 1998 and the current time starting on 8/15/2019 when Hannah Maloney receives a middle-of-the-night phone call telling her she is listed as next of kin for her Aunt Fae, who has been involved in a serious car accident. Huck, Hannah's fiance of 18 months and Hannah drive from Virginia to the hospital where they learn Fae died of her injuries. Hanna and Huck go back to Brackenhill in Rockwell, NY. to tell Uncle Stuart (who himself is dying of cancer) the news. Hannah has told Huck nothing of her family or her past; she left Brackenhill in 2002 and hasn't talked to Aunt Fae since. It's been too painful and confusing for her to think about.

The readers learn of what happened in the five fateful summers between 1998 and 2002, through Hannah's recollections and her conversations with others in her search for the truth. Their idyllic summers started to change the summer Uncle Stuart got the girls bikes to ride. Once they let "the others" (townspeople) in, things began to change. They no longer did things just the two of them. Julia gathered a circle of girlfriends, but Hannah always felt as though she was on the outside. The bond between the sisters wasn't as close as before. Hannah found something special that made her heart sing, but was told it must remain a secret. In the summer of 2002, after a night when the sisters fought bitterly, Julia went missing, and has never been found. Though declared dead several years ago, Hannah wants to know what really happened to her sister, and also to Ellie, a town girl who disappeared the summer before.

Moretti's characters are rich and deep, and she sets scenes so beautifully. I "felt" all the emotions of the various characters and, like them, wanted to know the truth behind all of the secrets surrounding Brackenhill.

This is a wonderful diversionary read! I loved how we kept finding out more and more of the backstory as we went back and forth between the time periods. Very well-done.

My thanks to NetGally and to Thomas & Mercer Publishers who allowed me to read a review copy of this book. Publication is expected to be 11/1/2020.

𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧.

When Hannah Maloney is awakened by an alarming call, she is informed by the hospital in New York that her Aunt Fae has been in a serious car accident. An accident she might not survive. Beside her fiancé Huck, they rush from Virginia to the hospital, fully aware that time is of the essence. Sadly, with a six hour drive between them, they are too late, time has run out and Aunt Fae has passed away. Hannah is stunned to learn that she must identify the body, with her uncle bedridden back at Brackenhill it falls on her shoulders. Somehow she gathers the strength to proceed, as she’s always had to do. It would be so much easier, safer to return home with her loving fiancé Huck, leave the past buried but she must head to the castle and confront the ghosts waiting for her, including her dying uncle. Brackenhill is calling her back, but she will escape its clutches, she has done it before, she will do it again.

Huck, with his large, raucous, happy family, it has been best he be kept in the dark about Hannah’s past and the summers she spent in the Catskills. Once a charmed time with her aunt and uncle at Brackenhill, an enormous towering castle, it now remains a black spot in her heart. Worse, he is heedless of the knowledge that she had an older sister who disappeared seventeen years ago. The floodgates open when they arrive at the castle and Huck finally learns more than he could have ever imagined about his fiancé’s guarded past. The time has come to revisit the painful wounds of the last time she saw Julia alive, the final summer when she was fifteen, when she left Brackenhill for good, without her big sister by her side.

Still, she keeps some secrets for herself. There is comfort in Huck’s obliviousness, his trust. When the couple’s dog Rink, alongside his master, digs up a bone by the river, could it be the remains of her sister? The discovery and its implications are shocking enough without the added stress of Wyatt being present, now working as a detective, concerned about the ‘inconsistencies of her aunt’s accident‘. Wyatt, a knot in her heart, the boy who came between the sisters that terrible last summer. Her repressed memories are rising like ghosts…fragments of moments that have her questioning her sanity. Can she wrap her mind around the slippery impressions, sort through solid facts and find answers in her own investigation? How does one press forward when they can’t fully trust themselves?

The house seems to have been holding its breath until she was back in its guts, but is it the house or her own mind that is haunted? Even Huck feels uneasy behind Brackenhill’s walls, surely something is wrong with the place. Once, she and Julia found sanctuary here from the mess that was their mother. A pleasure to be ‘banished for the summers’ to their aunts place. Life was a dream, despite the chilly spots in the home and the locked doors of forbidden rooms, there was so much excitement and mystery to keep their young imaginations alive. For Hannah the woods, a thousand acres of peace, hideouts, chirping birds, fresh air and endless hours with her best friend, her big sister Julia, were a welcome respite from their other life. It is a glorious pleasure being in such a place, despite the awful stories surrounding its origins. Of course it couldn’t last, no spell was truly broken and the bubble burst. Once they were old enough to ride into town, befriending local teenagers, growing up, losing their innocence their own connection was tested. In letting other’s in, they invited ruin. But did this ruin cause Julia’s disappearance? She must put the recollections from that ill fated summer into order and face the shameful things only she knows.

The mysterious vanishing of Julia adds weight to the urban legend about Brackenhill and its Ghost Girls. A legend alive and well with 10 girls missing over 150 years, not to mention the women and madness. But what really happened? Why the subterfuge? Was it the house or something more sinister? What is locked away inside the castle, inside Hannah’s own mind?

It is a well written gothic story that makes you wonder who to trust. Hannah and Julia are at a tender point in their sisterhood, confused by leaving childhood behind, stuck between loyalty and resentment towards their mother and slipping into bouts of selfishness that comes between them. By the time we come to the end, the reader feels both disturbed and confused… reminds me of classic, spooky thrillers. I liked it, I just wish it was scarier. I was surprised by the ending, and I was happy about the path the author took but I admit there are a few loose ends and questions swirling in my head. A decent read for the fall.

Publication Date: November 1, 2020

Thomas & Mercer

Book Review✨
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•GIRLS OF BRACKENHILL• by Kate Moretti✨
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 4.5

When Hannah and her older sister Julia were kids, their mother sent them to stay with their aunt Fae for the summer. Fae lived in a castle called Brackenhill deep in the Catskills with her husband Stuart.
The castle immediately became a magical sanctuary to Hannah, who was grateful to be away from her uncaring mother and horrible stepfather. Hannah and Julia began spending every summer at the castle and each summer Hannah grew more enamored with it.

There are eerie sounds, strange rooms and locked doors in the castle, but Hannah feels at home there.

The townspeople have told stories of the castle for generations. Legends say the castle is haunted and that all of the women who have lived in it have gone missing or have descended into madness.

Their last summer at Brackenhill, Julia disappears. Hannah goes home to her mother and doesn’t return or speak to Fae for 17 years.

Until one night, Hannah receives a phone call telling her that her aunt Fae has just died in a car accident. Hannah must return to Brackenhill.

Not long after she arrives at the castle, her dog finds a human bone in the yard. Hannah immediately believes the bone belongs to her sister and becomes consumed with the mystery surrounding Julia’s disappearance.
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I loved this book! It’s a creepy, gothic mystery and is perfect for this time of year. Be sure to put it on your list of Fall thrillers!

Kate Moretti does it again with her psychological thriller!! The book had me turing the pages quickly. It felt as if you were at Brackenhill the entire time during the entire book. Will reread and recommend!

The real main character in this novel is Brackenhill, the mysterious but dilapidated castle in the Catskills where Hannah and her sister Julia spent many summers. Its unused rooms, furniture covered in sheets, creaky stairways, overgrown greenhouse and creepy surrounding woods are so well described that it feels like you’re there, by the river, under the full moon. You can almost smell the dust from decades of neglect. Brackenhill is the perfect setting for this ghost story. Julia disappeared one summer and Hannah hasn’t been back in 17 years. She now has to return when her aunt dies in a car accident, and all the work she’s done to get away from her past seems to crumble when she steps back into the castle. This is more of a slow read, with many descriptions, as well as Hannah’s memories and inner monologue. This is not something I usually enjoy, but in this case the author finds the perfect balance between action and atmosphere.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Thomas & Mercer!

I wanted to let this resonate before writing a review because I wasn’t really sure how I felt when I finished. The descriptions of this - a castle in the woods and multiple disappearIng girls - grabbed my attention and, as I’m a big Kate Moretti fan, I was excited to read this. I enjoyed the gothic setting and the multiple time periods in which both past and present reveal the secrets of unsolved mysteries. I had a little trouble with the ending. Without giving anything away, I felt like there was too much going on and it wasn’t entirely plausible. I had to suspend my disbelief just a bit too much. I still found this to be a worthwhile read and am planning on reading more by Kate Moretti.

A haunting mystery full of suspense. This story had me on the edge of my set the whole time, I never knew where the twists and turns would take me. This book should be on everyone's TBR this Fall!!

I was undecided whether to give this book 4 or 5 stars, but I settled on 4, since there are so few true 5-star books, in my mind. I loved this book. The characters well well developed, and the storyline flowed easily between two different decades. There were some real twists and surprise, especially the last 50 pages or so. I missed Jeopardy to finish the book...lol. That should tell you how good the ending was. I did not give this book 5 stars only because it took me a bit longer than usual to read. But that could just be me, I am a slow reader, and only finish a book in a couple days if it really, really grabs my attention. I read this in about 2 weeks, only reading about a half hour a day. If you want a good story, with a bit of supernatural subject, and a reminder of your teenage years, I definitely recommend this book.