I’m a writer who grew up reading anything she could get her hands on, and the local library and I were besties. If most writers can point to a particular book that made them fall in love with stories, then I must be one promiscuous reader. Because I’m happy to date just about any genre, and I don’t even keep to one at a time—you name it, I’ve loved it. But the ex I’ll return to over and over is romance in all its forms. And on a chilly night, nothing beats a spooky romance, so light a candle, huddle under a blanket, and get cozy with one of my favorites!
I’m cheating a little here to call this a spooky romance, but in this case, it was the book that made me fall in love with ghost stories! I still remember this book sweeping the class in fifth grade, all of us scared out of our wits and seeing the evil Emily under every desk and in every mirror. Little did we realize that, by all reading the book at the same time and talking about it nonstop, we were also participating in our very first book club. Elementary school is the magic age to hook readers, and Jane-Emilydid the trick.
Emily was a selfish, willful, hateful child who died before her thirteenth birthday. But that was a long time ago.
Jane is nine years old and an orphan when she and her young Aunt Louisa come to spend the summer at Jane's grandmother's house, a large, mysterious mansion in Massachusetts. Then one day . . . Jane stares into a reflecting ball in the garden—and the face that looks back at her is not her own.
Many years earlier, a child of rage and malevolence lived in this place. And she never left. Now Emily has dark plans for little…
Gothic horror novels were wildly popular in Jane Austen’s day, and she made fun of them and their readership in Northanger Abbey, but I much prefer Bronte’s later, serious treatment of the genre’s features: the “haunted” house, the threatened female protagonist, and the supernatural elements which cannot be explained away. Jane Eyre is so familiar and has been adapted for film so often that it’s hard to take each plot twist as the revelation it once was, but do your best, and you will be richly rewarded. Besides—I don’t care what he tried to pull on Jane, I <3 Mr. Rochester.
Introduction and Notes by Dr Sally Minogue, Canterbury Christ Church University College.
Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage.
She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester.
Not every ghost is supernatural. Sometimes hauntings are all in one’s head. That is the fate of the second Mrs. DeWinter, hopelessly overshadowed by her husband’s first wife. Who can live up to the beautiful, the sophisticated, the perfect Rebecca? Certainly not the mousy creature whom DuMaurier brilliantly doesn’t even give a name to. Seriously—don’t watch any of the lousy movies (sorry—even Hitchcock’s version!) because none of them can capture this book’s spine-chilling atmosphere or even get the danged plot right.
* 'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY * 'One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century' SARAH WATERS * 'It's the book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH
'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .'
Working as a lady's companion, our heroine's outlook is bleak until, on a trip to the south of France, she meets a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. She accepts but, whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory…
Clearly I wasn’t the only writer influenced by Bronte and DuMaurier. Many of Victoria Holt’s novels read like mash-ups of the spooky-romance masters, with mixed results. On the Night of the Seventh Moon is less derivative, however, while keeping to beloved themes. A teenage convent schoolgirl gets lost in the forest, where she meets a Man of Mystery, who nearly seduces her (and whom she wouldn't 100% mind being seduced by—let’s be honest). The next time they meet, again on the titular Night, they marry. Or do they???
For generations, Victoria Holt has dazzled and entertained millions of readers with her spine-tingling novels of romantic suspense. On the Night of the Seventh Moon is one of her most evocative, magical, and chilling. Come take a journey into a dark and shadowy forest where nothing is as it seems.…
On the night of the seventh moon, according to ancient Black Forest legend, Loke, the god of mischief, is abroad in the world. It is a night for singing and dancing. And it is a night for love.
Helena Trant was enchanted by everything she found in the Black Forest—its…
Rejoice, for Mary Stewart’s wonderful books are finally available on Kindle! If Victoria Holt was fun but derivative, Mary Stewart knew how to do a fresh take on the imperiled-heroine-in-a-creepy-setting for the 20th century. And out of all her books,Touch Not the Cat was my favorite for its supernatural, telepathic element. (You can trace the echoes of this telepathy directly to my book because, baby, that’s what inspired them.) Just writing this paragraph makes me want to drop everything and go have a re-read. Enjoy.
'A comfortable chair and a Mary Stewart: total heaven. I'd rather read her than most other authors.' Harriet Evans
Ashley Court: the tumbledown ancestral home of the Ashley family, all blessed with 'the gift' of being able to speak to each other without words. When Bryony Ashley's father dies under mysterious circumstances, his final words a cryptic warning to her, Bryony returns from abroad to uncover Ashley Court's secrets. What did her father's message mean? What lies at the centre of the overgrown maze in the gardens? And who is trying to prevent Bryony from discovering the truth?
Among the fog-shrouded redwoods, the trees are not the only ones to live forever.
When Red Gap throve as a logging town, the beautiful young wife of the most prominent citizen vanished. There were rumors. There were accusations. But Daphne Lindstrom was never found. Now, over a century later, a bestseller based on her life transforms Red Gap into a tourist destination, where botany graduate student Ben Platt finds himself marooned. There, he discovers theories on her fate were not the only things to survive. Daphne Lindstrom has been seen. Over several generations—with fatal results. And when she appears to Ben, he faces the same choice as those before him: will he pursue the truth about her, no matter the cost?
My book is fantastical historical fiction about two characters who're wrestling with the monstrosity of their grief.
It takes you into London high society, where Ambrose tries to forget about how much he misses Bennett and how much he dreads becoming as cold as their Grandfather. It takes you to the family's country manor house, where Mattie isolates and old ghosts start to come out of the woodwork.
It's a story about loss and depression; it's a story about friends who don't let you walk through the valley of death alone.
Ambrose Bancroft returns to London society with his younger sister, hoping they'll leave ghosts of memory behind. They have only each other left. While Ambrose attempts to draw Mattie out, dragging her to balls and threatening to seek suitors for her, his sister recoils from his meddling. Finally, when Ambrose compels her to attend art class before she's ready, Mattie paints something horrific enough to banish them from society in public disgrace.
At Linwood Manor, Mattie and Ambrose aren't as alone as they think. Taking advantage of Mattie's desperate need to find freedom, a vanishing room lures Ambrose's sister into…
