Secrets, past and present in a story that talks about the past and the tension in the present and the mystery behind the disappearance of a member of the family.
Well, plotted, twisty and dark. I preferred the part in the past and enjoyed the present
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I enjoyed this story and thought it was well written and flowed well. I liked that we hopped from one perspective to another so we got to see the story from various points. It did quite dark at times but that just increased the tension, which was great.

I think the only thing that let it down was the ending felt rushed and that was disappointing.

What a very enjoyable read. Set, mainly, in two different timelines and from the perspectives of Ailsa Reid in the present and Elspeth in the past - it’s the story of four generations of the Reid family, all women and believed to be descended from witches. The research has been well done and the inclusion of accurate historical fact alongside the fictional story is beautifully carried out.

Briefly, Ailsa ran to her grandparents in Scotland after her life in London started to fall apart. It’s somewhere she always feel safe but she arrives to find her grandfather injured on the floor and her grandmother, who has dementia, missing. In the early 1900’s Elspeth has been employed by a doctor as companion and governess to his daughter. Elspeth is shocked to find her charge is a young woman, Selina, around her own age who is virtually bedridden following a childhood illness.

This is quite a dark and certainly gothic read in the earlier story, which of the two was for me the most compelling- I was enthralled by Elspeth and Selina’s story. I enjoyed Ailsa’s story too and it was important to the overall narrative to have both timelines. The relationship between the characters in both timelines is really well written and the emotions between them are palpable. With all the main characters female you would expect this to be a feminist novel; it’s a story of strong women who have overcome difficulties put in their paths, it has to be said largely by men. There are some difficult topics including abuse, death and alcoholism but it is also it’s a story of friendship, support and romance. A very entertaining book.

I really enjoyed this book. The storyline was well written, and I loved the way everything was nearly wrapped up at the end.

However, the book was not formatted well for my reading on the kindle, and I found the layout was all over the place. Some chapter titles were in the previous chapters, and some of the speech were all linked into one. Unfortunately, because of the formatting, I cannot possibly give it more than 3 stars, because it was just too difficult to read.

A really intriguing, captivating story covering multiple narrative perspectives and across different time frames, telling us the story of the Reid woman through the generations and how their stories and lives intertwine.

I found this book to be well written, with a good flow, and even though we flip from one characters perspective to the next frequently, it is easy to follow and doesn’t get confusing. The story itself has lots of emotion and characters you feel you want to support and get behind, and there are hints of twists to come and secrets to uncover as you go which make you want to continue reading.

The only thing I wasn’t sure about was the ending - whilst it did reveal what the story had been working towards, it felt a little rushed and the ending slightly abrupt, and I would’ve liked to see a bit more of why things happened the way they did and the outcomes of these. Saying that I still very much enjoyed the story and would definitely recommend!

A haunting novel with a series of interconnected plotlines woven together. I enjoyed it - the women at the heart of the novel are strong and compelling characters, the atmosphere - gothic, and the twist was an interesting surprise. A well-written book for people who enjoy mystical, gothic historicals.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

An atmospheric and empowering read about women across several generations.

Victoria Hawthorne’s writing is sublime and the story and it’s wonderful characters were so immersive. I loved every character, even Rowan, once I got to know her.

All of these strong women had secrets from young adult Ailsa, in the present day, right back through the generations of Reid women who all had to have each other’s backs in order to survive in a cruel and male dominated world.

Fabulous!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Victoria Hawthorne and Quercus for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed The Darkest Night. I really enjoyed the way the book brings together four generations of Reid women and how their stories are connected. I found the Reid women well-written and easy to connect with. I loved the premise of the book. I found this book haunting at times and gripping. I enjoyed every second spend between the pages and didn’t want the book to end. I also loved the way the story moves from before WWI to the present and the threads that connect the women. This is a compelling read. I’d recommend it.

I love historical fiction where you learn about how lives were lived in certain eras. I also love psychological thrillers. And this book is a combination of the two so it's a win/win for me! Told through a dual time-line, we are immersed in the lives of the women of the Reid family, from post-war to present day. And through their stories we learn how our main character, Ailsa, finds herself in a dire situation, with her family crumbling around her and secrets from a workplace incident snapping at her heels. The writing was completely immersive and compelling. And wait until you get to the ending. Oh my word, I did not see that one coming!!! A brilliant read with a very satisfying conclusion. Loved it!

Told across times lines and viewpoints, this is historical women’s fiction meshed with psychological mystery. We learn the secrets of the Reid family against a backdrop of witchcraft and the associated oppression of women.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

I interviewed Victoria (name-twins!) for my blog but I admit this is the first of her books I've actually read, but what a way to start!

I must say, Victoria descriptions of grandparents is gorgeous. I lost my first grandparent when I was 8, and my last when I was 23. And I miss the warmth and love and safety that they provide. It can be hard to capture that in a book, but she's done exactly that. She's captured that nostalgia and I was really absorbed. I loved the grandparents before we even met them.

The book is split into a couple of points-of-view. We have the present scenes, set in a modern time, from our protagonist Ailsa. We also have scenes set just before WW1, from Elspeth's viewpoint. I didn't know who she was at first, and I thought she might have been Ailsa's Grandmother but as a young woman but we learn her name is Moira. So that was intriguing. They were both equally as exciting and interesting as each other, and I would have gladly read an entire book set in the past scenes. It threw up a lot of questions. I think my heart was more into the past scenes, but I think that's just because I enjoy reading about the early 190s, big houses, governesses and whatnot. We do also get another viewpoint from the 60s towards the latter half of the book, but I won't spoil what that has to do with. Victoria has managed to balance the viewpoints, giving us enough of the past to understand the present, and enough of the present to remind us of the past. Beautifully done.

We have a range of characters: Ailsa, Rowan, Moira, Cordelia, Elspeth, Selina - and they're just the women! Men include fathers, husbands, brothers, sons. Forgive me, but this is the women's story. They were so brilliantly written I felt like I knew them, that they were friends or relatives, and some of it was hard to read, as it felt like it was happening, in a way, to me.

There are some difficult topics, such as domestic violence, death, loss, grief, alcoholism, dementia, abuse, abandonment, pregnancy issues, sexuality, power struggles etc. It doesn't get bogged down in the negative, but instead she uses it as a way to frame the good times.

As someone with a chronic illness, I really liked the inclusion of a character with a disability (Selina), and not just as an afterthought or a novelty, a fully fleshed-out main character who just so happens to have a disability, rather than it being her only characteristic.

I suppose one might describe it as a feminist story. It is definitely a powerful one at that, showing different generations of Reid women and the strength they've had to find in the face of violent obstacles over the years.

There's a lot of thrillers about nowadays, and I have read a lot of them, and they all have generally similar features which can be quite repetitive. But this had something a little extra. I can't pinpoint it exactly. Perhaps because it wasn't 'just' a thriller. It had a sense of the romance genre, historical, psychological thriller, fantasy. It hooked me from the first page and I just raced my way through it.

It's like a story within a story within a story. Which could have been confusing and complicated and unnecessary but Victoria has managed to weave them all in so well that I can't think of a better way of telling this story.

Historical fiction with a psychological element? What’s not to love! I really enjoyed alternating between the historical fiction chapters and the modern day chapters. The ‘curse’ of the female family link pulling between all the chapters. The relationships between the characters across the ages is very compelling, and the darker characters are very well written too. Definitely a recommended read.

This is a wonderful book and I loved it. Telling the story of the Reid women across the generations with the backdrop of a witchcraft legend, it touches many social issues from disability, women's rights and misogyny.
A tale of women forged by the past, it's dark, gripping, immersive and full of surprises.

I really enjoyed reading this book which tells of history repeating itself through several generations of women in one Scottish family who were thought to be witches. It jumps between the generations to tell the stories so that they are revealed slowly but throughout the book which works really well. The characters are well rounded and described and the historical elements seem to be well researched. The only criticism I would have is that the ending came very abruptly which seemed a shame. Still overall a very enjoyable book that I'm happy to recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

The Darkest Night is an empowering tale of Ailsa Reid and the women who came before her. It takes us on a journey through four generations of Reid women, and the individual yet connected hardships they have faced and overcome. The further into the book I read, the more I fell in love with the Reid women and how their stories wove together, creating a history of strength, determination, and perseverance in the face of men.

The depth and detail Hawthorne added to the story is so well executed. The progression of each character and their story was written pretty perfectly, and the referencing of the Reid women who came before them was intertwined so wonderfully.

My favourite character is Selina - I related heavily to her and her disability (I myself suffer from a chronic pain disability which renders me unable to work or able to do much else). I enjoyed watching how Elspeth helped her to become more than her setbacks, to push past what she thought were her limits, and to be a strong and confident woman.

The story holds the truths of how we’ve always lived in a man’s world, yet how the strength of women has always shone through. I hope that every woman who reads this book is reminded that she has the power to write her own story.

(I received an Advance Review Copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. ARC received via NetGalley.)

A great historical fiction with lots of twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages. This book had everything I enjoy in a book - well researched historical elements, a bit of horror, and some romance. I did guess one of the twists which is why it dropped a star for me, but a great read nevertheless.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for my eARC!

Beautifully haunting story of multiple generations of Reid women.

I was hooked within pages and finished the entire book within a few days, reading sentences whenever I could.

Victoria Hawthorne has created interesting and engaging characters which lead the reader through the modern age to post-war times to a contemporary world. By swapping between these storylines I was always kept in suspense at where the stories were heading and I was not disappointed at the end.

Very well written and will definitely be looking forward to anything else Victoria Hawthorne writes.

The Darkest Night by Victoria Hawthorne.
A split timeline of family relationships and secrets. The story spans the fortunes of the Reid Women (supposedly descendants of witches although this thread does not really feature in the story) from before the 2nd world war through to present day. Well written with some suspense and a final twist at the end.

I really liked this, I love a dual timeline and even more so if there’s a family or location link. I thoroughly enjoyed uncovering the mysteries in all the timelines, especially the one I had not anticipated!

The women in this book were intriguing and complex, demonstrating both strengths and vulnerabilities to make very real people.

The locations were atmospheric and evocative and it was a gripping read.

Highly recommend.

This was a timeslip mystery, so there was more than one narrative to follow. From the start, I was drawn in by the eerie tone of the writing, and I felt that something sinister had happened or was going to happen. The chapters were short, and moved from the perspective of one character to another, so that kept me in suspense, so it was difficult to stop reading, especially once I became interested in the characters and felt invested in the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.