Helpful Score: 2
Had a hard time putting down this historical ghost story. I have read one other book by Simone St. James, The Haunting of Maddy Clare but I like this one best. It has a bit of gothic romance and mystery and holds your interest until the last page is turned.
Helpful Score: 1
If you like reading a real gothic style novel and this is the one for you. Imagine being a patient in an insane asylum that is being haunted by ghosts? Will anyone believe that you see a ghost when you are thought to be out of your mind? I really enjoyed the twists and turns this book had to offer.
I'm not a fan of Gothic stuff in general, so this book was just okay for me. I've read others by St. James, and enjoyed them more. Despite that, I can see this becoming a movie of some sort (If it hasn't already). The ending drags on a little, I felt. But if you like ghost stories, this is right up your alley.
Spooky, scary, good romance, terrific atmosphere. Good prose style. A very entertaining suspense novel.
The first book I read by Simone St James was, An Inquiry into Love and Death. I loved it and became an instant fan. I liked this book too; the setting, the characters, the situations the possible haunting and various mysteries about the patients in the building and of the building itself. Many times I kept waiting for bigger climaxes but it kept falling short. The book had great potential but fell short for me. Im still going to seek out more books by St James, she is a great writer. The book was just so-so for me.
This was another enjoyable gothic ghost story by St. James set in 1919, just after the end of WWI. The protagonist is Kitty Weekes who is trying to run away from her past, especially from her brutal father who was prone to beating Kitty along with her mother as she grew up. Kitty finds a chance to get away by obtaining a nursing position at a home turned hospital used to nurse shell-shocked soldiers. Because the hospital is short staffed, she is able to gain the position by falsifying her background. The hospital was the once magnificent Portis House located on a remote island off the English coast. But there is more going on at Portis House--the once beautiful mansion is crumbling, there are strange noises heard in the pipes and walls along with a very odoriferous smell in the men's room, and some specters seem to haunt the hallways and stairways giving off very cold drafts of air. So what is happening here and how is this related to what happened at Portis House during the war? And what happened to the former owners of the mansion who seemed to have disappeared?
I did enjoy this one with its historical setting and events including a flu outbreak. But compared to the other St. James novels I have read, I would place this one a little below what I feel are her best, The Broken Girls and The Sun Down Motel. This novel was also somewhat of a romance story with Kitty falling for one of the soldiers under care at the house who was also considered a National war hero. Romance novels are not really my favorite genre so only a mild recommendation overall.
I did enjoy this one with its historical setting and events including a flu outbreak. But compared to the other St. James novels I have read, I would place this one a little below what I feel are her best, The Broken Girls and The Sun Down Motel. This novel was also somewhat of a romance story with Kitty falling for one of the soldiers under care at the house who was also considered a National war hero. Romance novels are not really my favorite genre so only a mild recommendation overall.
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Historical fiction with ghosts, crazy PTSD soldiers and all in a home that is completely isolated from the world. Kitty is a woman who has been running from a past for a very long time and she ends up in this historical home that has been converted into a mental hospital working as a nurse without the proper qualifications. She learns that the past doesn't always stay in the past both the past of the occupants of the home and those in her personal past.
Historical fiction with ghosts, crazy PTSD soldiers and all in a home that is completely isolated from the world. Kitty is a woman who has been running from a past for a very long time and she ends up in this historical home that has been converted into a mental hospital working as a nurse without the proper qualifications. She learns that the past doesn't always stay in the past both the past of the occupants of the home and those in her personal past.
