The forgotten house on the moor is full of mystery, paranormal activity/ghostly happenings and full of atmospheric charge!
Alice single since her and her husband split up leads a safe, predictable existence until she is informed that Grant her husband who she hasnt seen for about 6 years has been found dead in a derelict isolated house in the moor due to an unexplained explosion, intrigued and mystified Alice visits the site and meets Max and Jenna who live at nearby Hatherleigh Hall, from here on in Alice’s life changes dramatically as she finds out more about her husband, becomes friends with Max and Jenna and has a change of career!
Would love to see where Alice and Max’s relationship goes and what happens to the Hall and if the plans for Fortune House come to fruition!
A read packed full of mystery, humour, romance and spooky happenings!
Thank you netgalley for this early read

Alice Donaldson had a difficult childhood, with both parents very ill she was forced to play a caretaker role at a young age, it led to her being marked as 'different' at school and combined with her size led to her being bullied and ostracised. She took the only work experience that would be flexible about her working hours to help her parents and then just fell into a full-time job with them afterwards. Now eighteen years later, with one failed marriage, Alice is content to live alone in her parents' tiny cottage and do the admin at a local double-glazing firm.

One day she is woken by the police, her ex-husband has died in an explosion at an old deserted farmhouse on the Yorkshire Moors, while hunting for ghosts of all things. Perplexed as to why the police would be contacting her when she hasn't sen Grant for six years, Alice is even more confused as to how her couch-potato husband came to be ghost-hunting in an abandoned house in the middle of the night.

While exploring the Yorkshire Moors trying to make sense of Grant's death, Alice runs into brother and sister Max and Jenna, Jenna and Grant were a couple and she is devastated by his death. Max tells Alice that Jenna suffered from an eating disorder after she lost Grant's baby a few months ago and he is worried that Grant's death will cause a regression. Max is a psychologist, and owner of the house in which Grant died, he is writing a book on the house which is allegedly haunted and collating stories from people who have seen something there.

More to humour Jenna than for any other reason, Alice agrees to help Jenna investigate why Grant went off alone in the middle of the night to a house with no electricity and what he expected to achieve, but their investigations bring her closer to the devastatingly handsome Max and Alice has to keep reminding herself that tall, dark, handsome men don't fall for size 16 plain women with dubious dress sense and mundane jobs.

I have to say I hesitated to request this book because I am not a fan of ghost stories or horror and I feared this might be some scary suspense type of novel. Fear not, nothing like that. This is very funny, Alice has a wicked sense of humour and there is a super satisfying romance. My only gripe is I would have liked the ghost explained ...

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Forgotten House on the Moor delivers the mystery and gothic elements it promises. The original plot also has gentle romance, self-realisation for the main characters and lots of humorous moments that this author writes so well. Alice is not unhappy but unfulfilled when she receives an unexpected visit from the police with some surprising news it provokes her into action. The story that follows is full of humour, mystery and romance.

Complex characters that develop as the story progresses make this an engaging read. The well-written ghostly element adds depth to the story, and I liked the final twist.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

**Contains Spoilers**

One Liner: Lighthearted, but overdoing a joke a ruined it

Alice Donaldson wakes up to the news of her ex-husband Grant’s death. The police tell her that he was killed in an accident somewhere on the North York Moors.
Alice has no idea what she’s supposed to do. But curiosity leads her to the place of his death. Imagine her surprise to see a woman, Jenna, cry for Grant. She was his girlfriend and distraught about his death. Alice also meets the handsome Max, Jenna’s bother, and a book-writing research scholar.
When Jenna wants to play Sherlock about Grant’s death, and Max asks for help, Alice decides to help them come to terms with the developments. However, shocking news arrives at Alice’s doorstep, followed by another incident at the crime scene.
It doesn’t help that The Fortune House has been haunted for a long, long time. Who is this ghost? What happened in the past? How can Alice and Max uncover the mystery? And what about their growing attraction for each other? Will the story have a happy ending?
The story comes in the first person POV from Alice.

What I Like:
The book is lighthearted and easy to read. Alice rambles (obviously) but not so much that I lose track of the plot. Painful topics are dealt with with the right amount of seriousness.
Jenna is a person of contrasts, delightful yet annoying. I love that she rides motorbikes and bakes scones with the same ease. I just can’t see what she finds so alluring in Grant.
Max is actually a good guy. A bit prone to get into his lecturer mode, but I’d rather read about psychological aspects than laments about the body size (more on this next).
The paranormal part is pretty light. No scary stuff here, so readers wary of ghosts can read the book without worry.
The ending works well for the story. It’s not too sweet or a picture of happy-ever-after but has enough to tie up the loose ends.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
The pacing is slower than I like for women’s fiction/ cozy mystery. It also feels more like a historical mystery due to the setting.
I wanted to knock sense into Alice for half the most. Yeah, she is sensible when it comes to everything except her size. For God's sake, woman, it’s not a crime to be ‘plump’ or whatever she calls herself to be.
A couple of self-deprecating jokes about being curvy are fine. But to have one on every page (or more) is annoying. She is an easy person to be with and a likable character. Yet, she had to ruin it by obsessing about her weight throughout.
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*Spoiler*
Max first shows her a room full of nude paintings of curvy women from past generations. The collection belongs to his family. Then in the second half of the story, he shows Alice his pictures with ex-girlfriends to prove that her weight or curves don’t bother him. Alice feels happy that she is his type. Like seriously, woman? A 34yo woman needs to confirm that she is his type by looking at photos of his exes? Would she have left him if his exes were slim? I mean, how on earth do people decide things like this? Is there any rule that a person cannot change or realize that they had the wrong type? The other women were exes for a reason.
I was debating between 3 and 4 stars until this point, but the scene decided it for me.
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*Spoiler ends*

Oh, another aspect is that it never occurs to Alice that she can lose the weight she gained. She laments about the extra stone (6.3kgs) she gained after she stopped taking care of herself. She can lose it once she begins to pay more attention to her health and diet. There’s no need to starve or get to size zero. She only needs to feel fit enough to stop obsessing about her weight every time.
You can see that my major problem with the book was only one issue. The rest is good (meaning romcom good and eye-rolls are mandatory). For those curious, Alice would size XXL (converted based on the size provided by another reviewer).

To sum up, The Forgotten House on the Moor could have been a delightfully funny and sweet read if not for the heroine’s obsession with weight.
Thank you, NetGalley and Boldwood Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
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Spoilers have been hidden in the Goodreads review.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

One early morning, the police are knocking on Alice’s door, they’ve come to inform her that Grant, her husband was killed in an explosion.

She visits the place where the explosion took place and meets Jenna, his girlfriend, and her brother Max.

After her visit, she meets them more often, as Jenna wants to find out more about Grant. Alice also wants to know what Grant was doing at the house. Meeting Max in the process, can’t be a bad thing.

I enjoyed this book.

A real page turner. I was hooked from the beginning and loved how the story of Max and Alice progressed. It was beautifully written and I loved all the characters. It was a gripping mystery with a touch of romance which made for a great read.

I found this novel a fabulous mix of mystery (what happened in that house?), supernatural touches (possible ghost sightings), humour (of the author's signature variety) and, of course, romance. One thing I particularly liked is how Max studies the ghost sighting stories as a psychologist, trying to explain why people saw something or thought they did, but still doesn't exclude the possibility that in some cases it could be all real. And Alice is a very likeable main character, with understandable insecurities and practical skills, plus the "casually funny even in dreadful circumstances" kind of inner monologue that I always love in Jane Lovering's books. Also, I really liked the ending.

Tip: if ghost stories scare you and it's getting dark when you reach an "experiencer report" section (at the end of some chapters), wait until morning to read it. Everything else, you should be okay to read even in the middle of the night.

The Forgotten House on the Moor tells the story of Alice, who is leading a mundane existence, until she is contacted by the police who tell her that her ex-husband has been killed in an explosion at the Fortune House on the moors.
This news leads her to meet Jenna, her ex-husband's new girlfriend, and her brother Max.
Ghost stories, a new job and a whole new life opens up for Alice.
I liked Alice very much. She is described as plain and big, and has clearly suffered because of her appearance, so the angst she feels when a man takes interest in her is realistic. She's not the usual "plain" heroine, with the masses of red curls and deep emerald green eyes, as described in so many books of this genre!
This is a feelgood, holiday read.

This is the first book by Jane Lovering that I’ve read and I’d be interested to read more by her. This story covered many topics, including mystery, ghosts and romance. The main character is Alice who is woken up by the police knocking on her door at 4am one morning. It turns out that her husband who left her six years ago has died. What follows is a narrative that is interspersed with accounts of people experiencing paranormal events around Fortune House, a property on the moors. Although I enjoyed this I did think that Alice was a little too forgiving and for me there was lots going on alongside the main story that for me made it too all too busy. The characters were described well, as were the different locations.
Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the ARC in return for an honest review.

An interesting read covering a mystery as well as romance. The main characters were interesting and I really like Alice’s sense of humour. I thought the storyline was a bit slow in places but it’s an easy read that I would happily recommend. I think we managed to work out who the body belongs to and why thanks to careful sifting through paperwork.

This book was a bit infuriating and made little sense. I’m not sure how the house was forgotten on the moor when the book had many stories of people remembering it and talking about it. Nothing was forgotten. Grants story made no sense, Alice and Max are total snakes for dreaming up lies for poor Jenna. And all the mentions of Alice’s build and weight! Curvy, fat, plump, jiggly, busty, thunder thighs, etc. Christ give the girl some self acceptance. But on the other end of the spectrum I find often when a books main character focuses on her being overweight there is usually another very thin character (in this case Jenna) who is often described as having some kind of eating disorder, because there just can’t be naturally thin people apparently.

I don’t know something about Alice just annoyed me, as did Max and even Grant and Jenna. At one point Max digs up photos of his old girlfriends to show they were all not thin too, for what? To make Alice feel better? It’s a bit creepy. Also the whole timeline moved way too fast. And the ending! Alice spends all this time working on something with Max only to let him publish with bad information. Really a class act Alice.

Absolutely loved this book, I love the character of Alice and everything she has been through. The other 3 main character's are also so well written, it's funny and really enjoyable. Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy

First off, I have to say how refreshing it was to read a romance novel where the main character is built like an average woman and not the perfect body gorgeous women we usually get. I loved Alice right from the beginning, there is something so relatable to her and what she is going through (both before we met her and throughout the story). The best thing I can say about Grant is that his moronic actions served as the catalyst to get Alice moving and go after what she wanted out of life. Having someone like Max there to support and encourage her obviously helped as well. My favorite thing about Max was that he saw so much potential in Alice but never pushed her into anything. He just makes it clear to her that he believes in her and will support her decisions. By the end I found myself wishing I had my own Max. I also really liked the relationship between Alice and Jenna. They were so different and had every reason not to like one another, but none of that mattered and they formed a friendship separate from the guys in their life. The mystery surrounding the body in the basement of the Fortune house added a little more excitement to the story. I have a guess as to who was buried there, so I am actually okay not knowing for sure. I would happily read more stories with Alice and Max should the author choose to ever write any more!

Alice doesn't have much going for her, or so she thinks. So when “posh” Max finds her sexy and attractive, she thinks he’s having a laugh. But as they come together to solve the mystery of a body found under an abandoned house on the moors, she finds they have so much more in common than she thinks.

A sweet romantic story which was an easy and enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I've read a few of Jane Lovering books in the past and really enjoyed them but I think this is the one I like the least - I just felt there was too much going on and I wasn't overly keen on the characters.

A thrilling, fast paced book filled with thrill and a bit of romance thrown in. First book for me by this author. I loved the story!

This was not what I was expecting, but in a good way. I've only recently started reading "chick lit" (even though that is such a broad category!), and don't really read much mystery, or romance for that matter...but I still really enjoyed this book. It managed to hit on a lot of different genres at once without being overpowering, or too light. A good balance was struck, and I think that's so hard with a multigenre novel.

The paranormal/mystery story line was decent. It wasn't overly involved, which I think was beneficial to the main story line of the book. It was used primarily to give readers something interesting to get involved in from the start to pull you in, allowing the author to develop the characters at a more leisurely pace, then switch the focus to their interactions as the main story. The characters themselves really are the stars of the show, and while I did feel that Alice's self-depreciation was a *tad* overdone (though that could just be me projecting), she was a very likable and relatable character. So was Max for that matter. The relationship between them was organic and sweet, it was fun to read about, and that's the point, isn't it? Grant and Jenna...very much an odd situation that added interest and contrast to the story.

Overall, an easy read, enjoyable, and touched on many stories, all juggled well. I've never read anything by this author before, but I would definitely give her other books a go after reading this one!

I didn’t finish this book there was so much description I kept putting it down and not wanting to pick up again ……. Not a good sign …… some might enjoy just not for me sorry

I've read pretty much all of Jane Lovering's books (I think - might be one or two lurking that I haven't discovered yet) and this is definitely one of her best. She's got a very deft way with a turn of phrase that is strongly in evidence here: Alice's voice is by turns deeply pragmatic, downright hilarious and full of yearning for the life she didn't get. It takes an extremely surprising event - the death of the husband that should have divorced her years ago - to set her on a path to realisation: she's not stuck in the same rut for the rest of her life, and she doesn't have to be the stereotype she thinks she is. At the same time, she gets a bit of a lesson in not foisting stereotypes on other people. Chuck in a stately home, an very-much-not stately farmhouse up on the moors, an ongoing mystery or two and a delightful romance, and this is a compulsively readable, highly recommended book.

The Forgotten House on the Moor by Jane Lovering

When police knock on Alice Donaldson’s door at 4am, she knows the news won’t be good. There’s been an accident involving her ex-husband Grant, and as his existing next of kin, they need her help.
Grant is missing up on the North York moors, but the Grant Alice knew could barely be persuaded out on a walk around the block. What on earth possessed him to go on a hike in the middle of the night?
I enjoyed this title. I found the story part chick out , part mystery , and part ghost story .
Enjoyed Alice's matter of fact , who gives a damn attitude to life , and the way she and Jenna got to solve the mystery of What happened to Grant.