This was dark gothic fantasy meets Turn of the Shrew and I was totally into it. I found the story new and engaging and the characters totally fleshed out.

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden captured my attention from the very beginning. The errieness of the forbidden part of the house made for a spooky atmosphere. It’s the perfect read for Halloween!

Margaret Lennox is a young widow and she’s offered a position as governess at Hartwood Hall. She is eager to start, hoping that this new place and work will bring her a healthy distraction from her reality. It’s 1852 and references are extremely important to secure a job. Although Margaret is afraid her hearing loss will prevent her from getting this job, she is soon proven wrong. Mrs. Eversham gives her the job to teach her son, Louis.

Despite Louis being a great pupil, Margaret feels quite uneasy in the house. There are strange figures in the dark and a forbidden east wing of the house. Also, the servants keep whispering and Margaret feels like they are keeping things from her. The town doesn’t trust Mrs. Eversham and they think the house is haunted and cursed. Margaret also starts a forbidden affair with Paul, the gardener, and inevitably starts to tangle herself in a lot of situations. As her past is trying to catch up with her, she now has current secrets also to try and keep.

I quite enjoyed reading this book. It was so easy to keep the pages turning and dive into Margaret’s life. As we learn more about her, I admired her search for freedom, despite the curveballs that life has thrown at her. Her marriage was not one from love and she was being owned by a man who claimed to know what’s best for her. Imagine not being allowed to work if you wished so, to not be allowed to read your preferred genre, to engage with your friends. When Margaret becomes a widow, she’s rightfully excited to start teaching again.

On the other side of the story, we have Hartwood Hall and its residents. Mrs. Eversham is a lady that keeps to herself and often travels away. Louis is a boy that doesn’t say much, but is hiding a big pain in his heart. Everyone is hiding something in this house, even the servants, especially the servants. The house screams of secrets and eeriness. On top of this, spooky things do happen, especially during the night. Food missing from the cupboards, footsteps that keep erasing themselves, candles placed in odd places and being moved… The servants don’t seem to know how to mind their own business, and Margaret ends up getting herself in the middle of a blackmail situationship.

“Of course I did not believe the house was cursed – but when people feared a place, there was usually a reason.”

The ending was somewhat unexpected, but not as exciting.It explained everything and tied up the story very neatly, leaving nothing unresolved. I just didn’t feel that wow factor when closing the book in the end. However, despite that, this book really impressed me. It was the battle for freedom, in a time when it wasn’t socially acceptable to do so that did it for me in the end. In the search for true happiness and standing up for love, for friendship, for loyalty. When a loss can cause us heartbreak, even though we know it’s the best thing for us. And when a loss can also ultimately secure our freedom and give us the relief we needed to be happy again. The Secret of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden is coming out in March 2023 and I strongly recommend you give it a chance.

Widow Margaret becomes a governess at the mysterious Hardwood Hall after she is left without any means to live on. However, Hardwood Hall and it's mistress have a spooky reputation, but Margaret chalks it up to the fact that the young widow and her son are not from the the village and therefore strangers regardless of how long they've lived there. Yet the mistress is very protective over her son and they are rarely are seen in town. Add to this strange sounds coming from an abandoned wing and sightings of a ghostly figure roaming the grounds. Margaret has her secrets but so does the household she's come to live in. Plenty of suspense and twists in this gothic mystery.

This is a wonderful debut! It’s rich with atmosphere and the setting is beautifully created. I love the foreshadowing in the prologue that really sets the tone for the story. I immediately fell in love with the protagonist, Margaret, and the family she becomes a part of. There’s a pervasive, creeping strangeness surrounding all of the characters and events that kept me turning the pages to learn more. And the surprises are epic. I never knew which way the story was going to go. The writing and pacing had me locked in from start to finish. It’s a tale rife with women empowerment and found family. This is a gothic, historical mystery at its finest. I’m so excited for this author, and to be a part of the early review crew. I hope she will bless us with another masterpiece like this one. Everyone is going to love this book! Also, this cover perfectly fits the feelings that this story evokes in the reader.

Admittedly, the cover drew me to this title first, and then I was willing to give Secrets a try after reading the gothic set up. A recently widowed governess, a mysterious old house, a young and mysterious mother - and secrets!

Truly an unexpectedly complex story of identity and self expression. Not what I thought I was going the read, but very satisfying,

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-galley of this title in exchange for an honest review. This might be in my top 5, if not top 3, reads for this year (and I say this reading it in 2022, not in 2023 when it is released). This was *everything* I could ask for in a thrilling, taut, well-paced, twisty Gothic read. It was full of that tense, serious energy that soaks into the reader as the mystery keeps building, and the plot twists and curves were supremely placed and done. I loved this book, I loved the entire story, and I loved the ending. Fantastic read!

Good piece of gothic style historical fiction. Unique plot twist. Worth the read. #thesecretsofhartwoodhall #katielumsden #netgalley #goodreads

As a huge fan of Jane Eyre and gothic fiction, I was extremely excited to read this debut novel by Kate Lumsden. The story openswith the main character,Margaret Lennox, a recently widowed woman who finds herself in need of employment. She accepts a governess position at Hartwood Hall, looking to start a new life. She soon finds there are a lot of dark secrets swirling around the estate and has many questions concerning her
employer Mrs. Eversham and her new pupil Louis. This was a dark and mysterious novel that had me on the edge of my seat. It was a beautifully written novel with twists and turns and ultimately a very satisfying ending.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4955642839

A gothic tale with the perfect amount of chilling suspense and mystery. After the welcomed death of her husband, Margaret takes a governess position at a remote estate where she will teach ten year old Louis. Living there with only his mother and a small handful of servants, when Margaret is told she must never let Louis out of her sight she starts to wonder what is really going on. Why all the locks on the door? Why are there strange noises in the night, candle light in the unused east wing, and mistrust from all the villagers?
The perfect gothic mystery.

Wow was this book a delight! It had echoes of Jane Eyre, a mystery that kept you guessing, a forbidden romance, and a strong female character that wouldn't rest until she found out the secrets so closely guarded at Hartwood Hall. Definitely one of my favorite reads in 2022. Thank you so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for this treat of a novel!