Might seem simple when you start it but oh my does this have twists and surprises! This moves between Maggie narrating in 1998 and a variety of third person observers in 2019 when the garden of a house Maggie lived in is dug up. Her mother, Dede, a model, left one night in 1998 and didn't come back, making 17 year old Maggie responsible for 6 year old Kit. Maggie meets Wolf, who changes the path of both her life and that of Kit who, in the present is an antique dealer. But what, or who, is in the garden? Maggie comes rocketing back from Paris, where she's been living, even as Kit meets a new client. And they both look for Wolf but for different reasons. This is very layered and even when you think you know the answers, you won't be correct (or at least I wasn't) right up to the end. It needs to be read without spoilers to fully appreciate the tangled tale of secrets and lies that Chase has created. She's a terrific storyteller and this kept me fully engaged and entertained. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A great read I really enjoyed.

I loved this story! The secrets, romance, and mystery will have you flying through the pages.

The dual timelines were cleverly written and add so much suspense .

I am excited to read more by Eve Chase. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review!

This is a dual-timeline book, starting with 38-year-old Maggie in Paris in 2019, and looking back to 1998 London—Notting Hill to be more specific—and the tumultuous events of Maggie’s life back then. The reader is clued in to the central mystery of the book quickly, when Maggie gets a phone call from someone she hasn’t heard from in years, and he tells her that the current owner of Maggie’s mother’s house in Notting Hill has unexpectedly received planning permission for a downward expansion, which means digging up the cellar. Uh oh.

Back we go to 1990s London, where we learn about Maggie’s life as a teenager, living with her much younger handful of a brother, Kit, and her glamorous mother, Dee Dee, who was once a famous model and actress. When Dee Dee disappears, Maggie is desperate to find her, but also feels that she needs to keep away from the authorities, because she is only 17 and fears she and Kit will be taken into care. She looks to Dee Dee’s coterie of eccentric friends for help, as well as a new friend, Wolf, a boy from the wrong side of the city whom she meets by accident.

As a result of events in London after Dee Dee’s disappearance, Maggie’s Aunt Cora takes her and Kit to Paris, where Maggie remains in 2019, having established herself as a novelist. This phone call takes her back to London, back to all the issues of her childhood and possible repercussions of the events of 1998. There is a central mystery in the book, but I wouldn’t categorize this book as a mystery. It’s more of a coming-of-age story with suspenseful elements. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but that time allows us to get to know the characters better and revel in the vivid descriptions of Notting Hill in the 1990s, including of the antique business that Wolf worked at and that intrigues Kit.

This is an intriguing story, told with atmosphere and feeling.

This is the story of Maggie and Kit . Growing up in Notting Hill one night their Mother Disappears . Maggie is left to care for Kit. Will Their mother return? Filled with twists and turns , an unbreakable and family secrets you will be reading this way past midnight

At first, Eve Chase's tendency to overuse purple prose put me off, but once I became more familiar with her writing style, I was able to sink into the narrative. The mystery at the story's core is compelling one, and the way she slowly dolles out clues kept me coming back to the book. I found the romantic elements a little less compelling, though. I think this is because I never completely sympathized with Maggie or Dee as characters. Maggie is a bad mother, and Dee- Well, I might not be the target demographic there. Which I admit is more about me than it is the character but it was still a hurdle and colored my appreciation for The Midnight Hour.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

I wish I could rate it higher; The plot is excellent, and the story compelling, but some of the characters just fell flat, preventing me from giving it more stars.

I’ve tried to sit down and read this twice and I just cannot for the life of me get into it. It’s overly written and too fully of time jumps and storylines. It feels like an absolute chore to read

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This book had so much mystery! Maggie (love her by the way) searched for her mom who seemingly walked out, while looking after her little brother still. She befriends Wolf who I also adore, and he tries to help her. They discover some unsettling things and jumping 21 years ahead - Maggie (now thriving) finds herself revisiting her past when something is literally unearthed. I loved the then and now of each chapter and I really loved how this plot developed along the way. This book will have you on edge and devouring every page!

We start in May 2019 when Maggie, an author living in Paris, gets a call from London. This call brings the news she has been dreading. Work is being done on the Notting Hill home she lived in as a child.
We then go back to the 90s when Dee, former model and mother to two children, leaves for a night out but does not return. Her teenage daughter Maggie is left looking after younger brother Kit. An excursion takes them out on a walk where they bump into Wolf, a young man who works at an antique shop. They strike up a good friendship and he helps them, as well as opening Maggie's eyes up to the world! But this friendship, and the lack of a mother figure, soon also brings about some darkness, eventually leading to them fleeing to stay with Aunt Cora in Paris...
All a little convoluted and busy... well yes it is a bit, but no more than I could handle. There are also quite a few incidental characters who all have their parts to play, all of whom are well crafted and do their jobs well. But you do have to have your wits about you as the story meanders in the present with excerpts from the past brilliantly inserted for clarity, illustration, and progression of the main narrative.
The story is compelling and contains just enough obfuscation to keep my attention nicely as well as adding a healthy layer of intrigue along the way. We have family secrets as well as lies and more than enough dysfunctional behaviour to keep me guessing all the way through. OK so some of the characters and their behaviour were a bit annoying and I did roll my eyes on the odd occasion but, given their upbringing, I can easily forgive. And it did make them feel more real if that makes sense. Their truth, as it was exposed, peeling back the layers, well... at the end of the day, when it was all laid bare, it left me wholly satisfied. All quite emotional on occasion too.
All in all, another winner from an author who, if you have not already read, also has an impressive back catalogue for you to discover after you have read this one. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Such a lovely story! Even though it is composed with dual timelines, the tale moves along easily with a fair bit of family drama, passion, betrayal, history and redemption. The Midnight Hour is a great read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I was initially drawn to The Midnight Hour by Kate Morton's blurb about it (Morton is one of my favorite authors). The novel alternates between 1998 and 2019, following the lives of Maggie Parker and her younger brother Kit. Shifting between London, Paris, and the English countryside, The Midnight Hour weaves a rich and thrilling tale of families, lies, and secrets. Chase will keep you guessing, and the novel's ending will stay with you.

The Midnight Hour 3.5/5 stars

It is 1998, and Maggie Parker is living in Notting Hill with her mother Dee Dee, and younger brother Kit.

One night, Dee Dee goes out for the night, and never returns. Afraid of media attention due to Dee Dee's fame, and terrified of losing custody of Kit, Maggie hesitates to contact the police.

The Midnight Hour was told through dual timelines (which I really enjoy) it had mystery, secrets, and some unexpected twists.

While I did enjoy the story overall, it felt like something was missing. It left me wanting just a bit more.

This was my first book by Eve Chase, and I definitely want to read more of her books.

A sincere thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Eve Chase for the eARC of the Midnight Hour.

When Maggie’s famous model mom, Dee Delancey, goes out for the evening and leaves her to babysit her younger brother Kit, Maggie expects her mother to be home by around the midnight hour.

Maggie falls asleep waiting up for her mother. When she realizes Dee never made it home, she must decide what to do.

Because Dee is a bit of a celebrity, even teenage Maggie knows she can’t call the police, at least not immediately. The paparazzi would be on their doorstep.

She believes that her mother will be back by Monday, and she feels capable of handling things for the weekend.

That weekend they meet a young man, who goes by the name Wolf. He works for his uncle at a local antique shop. Maggie is smitten. He steps up to help them when he realizes their mother is missing. He encourages her to contact the police, and she is ready to until she notices a voicemail she’d missed from her mother saying she will be home soon.

Twenty years later, Maggie is a writer living in an apartment in Paris when someone contacts her to let her know that the current owners of her mother’s old house are remodeling. Maggie suspects they will find human remains.

Suspense, romance, and family secrets are skillfully weaved between this dual timeline story.

I loved the setting. Notting Hill in 1998 while the movie (Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant) is being filmed in Maggie’s neighborhood.

This was a fun, fast read. I was hooked early. Loved the characters and couldn’t wait to get to the end.

Eve Chase is a new-to-me author, even though I realized after finishing this book that I have both Black Rabbit Hall and The Wilding Sisters by her that I have owned for a while. I will be making them both a higher priority to read now.

If you like a missing person story with family secrets, you should probably think about reading this one.

Enjoyed this book was a nice story with some mystery thrown in, liked the setting of Notting Hill and the dual time lines. While it did seem sort of slow at first and I wasn't sure where the story is going it did pick up after the first half. I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book! Stayed up late many hours because I didn’t want to stop reading it. It blended so many compelling elements of suspense, wrought family dynamics, love, and 90’s glamour!

"In this thrilling, richly woven novel that spans from bustling London streets to the boulevards of Paris, a woman with a dark family secret tries to turn back the hands of time before it's too late.

Notting Hill, London: One May evening, seventeen-year-old Maggie Parker's mother walks out of their front door and doesn't return. With her little brother in tow, desperate to find their mother, Maggie is drawn into a labyrinthine world of secondhand shops and shadowy figures, far from the grand townhouses in her comfortable neighborhood.

As Maggie struggles to maintain a stable life for herself and her brother, she befriends Wolf, another young person also living on his wits alone. But can he help solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance - or will her growing feelings for him just cause her further pain, upending her life even more? When she discovers that her beloved house now holds a dangerous new secret, and Wolf is involved, Maggie, heartbroken, makes her escape.

Twenty-one years later, in her Paris apartment, Maggie gets a phone call that shatters her hard-won new life. While in London, the incoming owner of the Parkers' old Notting Hill house is excavating the basement, unaware of what might lie beneath - and the clock starts ticking on buried secrets."

It's never good to have secrets buried in a basement...

A Good Read With Some Flaws. «Midnight Hour» kept me interested with a few surprises at the end, but overall, I found most of the plot pretty predictable. I wish there had been more twists and turns throughout the book, not just near the finale.

My biggest issue, though, was with the main heroine. She came off as a bit hypocritical — it was hard to watch her struggle to forgive her aunt for keeping secrets, when she herself had been hiding the truth from her own brother for twenty years. That contradiction made it harder to fully connect with her character.

Still, the writing was engaging, the pacing was decent, and I’d recommend it.

slow, and a bit flat. I loved Chase's other novels and will come back for her next as well. this just wasn't my favorite.
thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I absolutely loved this book! Love and mystery - what a great combination! Likable characters and a definite page turner!

Eve Chase returns with a gorgeously layered mystery in The Midnight Hour, a haunting tale of family secrets, lost time, and the fragile threads that bind us. Spanning from the quiet elegance of a Notting Hill townhouse to the romantic melancholy of Paris, this dual-timeline novel follows Maggie Parker as she tries to unravel the mystery of her mother’s disappearance while protecting her younger brother—and her own heart. Chase masterfully weaves suspense with emotional depth, creating a story as atmospheric as it is devastating. With lush prose, a ticking-clock tension, and a chilling secret buried beneath the floorboards, this is the kind of book you devour in a single sitting and think about long after. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Lisa Jewell.

Maggie is abandoned as a young girl a d has to survive the streets of Bictorian England. She before another person, Wolf. Later in life, the relationship and her childhood experience revela secrets. Compelling, well.written, and a glorious novel..