The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden

Nobody ever goes to Hartwood Hall. Folks say it’s cursed…

It’s 1852 and Margaret Lennox, a young widow, attempts to escape the shadows of her past by taking a position as governess to an only child, Louis, at an isolated country house in the west of England.

But Margaret soon starts to feel that something isn’t quite right. There are strange figures in the dark, tensions between servants, and an abandoned east wing. Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs. Eversham, Louis’s widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted in the village.

 Lonely and unsure whom to trust, Margaret finds distraction in a forbidden relationship with the gardener, Paul. But as Margaret’s history threatens to catch up with her, it isn’t long before she learns the truth behind the secrets of Hartwood Hall.

Publisher: Penguin Audio | Narrator: Olivia Vinall  | Length: 9 hours, 35 minutes  | Genre: Historical Suspense/Fiction | Source: Purchased | Rating: 1.5   

An isolated country estate, cursed family, governess with a secret, things that go bump in the night? Yes, please!

Margaret is a young widow with a bit of mystery surrounding the death of her husband. Wanting to escape, she takes the position as a governess at Hartwood Hall. While she enjoys spending time with her young charge, Louis, and developing a relationship with Paul, the gardener, there’s something strange about Hartwood Hall and Mrs. Eversham’s concealing something.

I picked this one up because of my love for Jane Eyre and atmospheric gothic novels.  I have to say, I did get that spooky, gothic atmospheric vibe that I love and the vibe of the book was very similar to Jane Eyre. There was a bit of mystery, some possible hauntings, an illicit affair, and so many things going bump in the night. This was what I wanted in a gothic, historical suspense novel. The first 70% of this novel was brilliant.

The last 30% of the book had me wondering if this was even the same book. I really liked Margaret at the start and enjoyed watching her almost forbidden relationship develop with Paul but she ended up treating him like something she’d toss in the bin and I didn’t care for the character change. She became cruel and hateful and suddenly took on this, ‘I don’t need a man’ attitude when in the first 70% of the book she’s mooning over how much she loved and needed him.

Then there was the reveal behind the spookiness of the house and the secret Mrs. Eversham was keeping. I’m not going to go into too much detail as I don’t want to ruin the book for potential readers. I don’t know why the author spent so much time creating a spooky gothic atmosphere if this was the big reveal she was planning. It just felt like such a letdown and had me questioning why an outsider (Margaret) was allowed in the house if Mrs. Eversham was trying to conceal this particular secret.

The first 70% of the book was slow and focused on building up the gothic atmosphere. The last 30% was rushed and didn’t match the pace or tone. In one way, I feel like the author felt the word count creeping up and decided that she needed to come up with an ending so she threw something out there and hoped it would work to explain things. Had there been something offered up in the first 70% regarding the truth of Mrs. Eversham’s secret, I might have enjoyed it but this one just came out of left field.

I’m a bit on the fence about rating this one. The first 70% would be a 4.5 for me but the last 30% ruined the book, especially since the author went to so much trouble to set a specific tone early on.

Olivia Vinall’s narration was brilliant.

Overall, the audiobook is nearly 10 hours, that’s a lot of time spent building up something and failing to deliver. It’s really disappointing because this was one of my most anticipated books of 2023.