"There is something profoundly bad about this place, something ghostly and menacing, something that infuses the hearts and minds of all who spend muchtime under this roof".
The Haunting of Willows Cottage by Isobel Blackthorn is a Gothic story, set in the Western Highlands of Scotland.
This is book 3 in Strathbairn Trilogy. I would recommend starting the series from Book 1, as otherwise you will miss on the dynamics and undercurrents of all the relationships between the protagonists and the decisions they make.
Blurb:
The Haunting of Willows Cottage (Strathbairn Trilogy Book 3)
Ingrid and her daughter Susan return to the Western Highlands of Scotland, staying at Strathbairn with Gertrude McCleod while their new home, a cottage by the loch, is redecorated. The very same day, the ghosts of Ingrid's past return when Gertrude's brother Miles arrives with his new bride and his friend Timothy.
When her former beau turned betrayer Hamish starts work on a barn conversion, Ingrid is desperate to leave Strathbairn. She rushes to move into the cottage only to find she is sharing her new home with a violent ghost.
Realising the haunting is somehow connected to Strathbairn and sensing that something at Willows Cottage must be returned, she makes every effort to discover what that it is.
While Hamish and Gertrude conspire to force Ingrid into marriage, Timothy becomes a regular caller with a romantic motive. With two suitors and two marriage proposals, who will she choose - and can she solve the haunting of Willows Cottage?
A gripping conclusion to a classic gothic mystery trilogy laced with dark family secrets.
The story has all the right ingredients for a delicious Gothic drama, with its haunted houses, old betrayals, dangerous suitors and secrets festering beyind the heather.
Ingrid returns to the Western Highlands with her young daughter Susan, for a temporary stay at Strathbairn, while her farmhouse by the loch is being prepared. Their move back to Scotland from Winchester is not well thought-through.
While Ingrid tries to justify their move by feeling isolated, and having terrible memories associated with the house in Winchester, where she was abused by her late husband, it's not exactly a happy space to come back to. There is a lot of past tragedies and secrets connected to Strathbairn, and the people living there are not her friends. Ingrid tries to convince herself that her daughter is fond of Strathbairn, and loves the cook.
"My reasons seem insubstantial even to my own ears. What reasons can there be for such a move, other than Susan's longing, her tantrums, her abominable behaviour?"
Willows Cottage needs quite a lot of work to be done before they can move in, and Ingrid is impatient.
The big house offers little sanctuary, as should be expected, judging by the resident company and the previous encounters with violent ghostly inhabitants.
Gertrude McCleod, the current owner of Strathbairn, tolerates rather than welcomes Ingrid and Susan's stay at her house. She has an agenda which she is trying to pursue.
"She is cold, hard woman, her character befitting the roles she plays as owner-manager of a whisky business and a guest house or hotel. I feel uneasy in the role of her ally, a role she seems determined to foster".
The ghosts of Ingrid's past stir once more when Miles McCleod (one of the sons of the family) appears with his beautiful new wife, and their friend Timothy. This arrival seems to unsettle the already fragile semblance of peace.
Then comes Hamish. Ingrid loved him once, but he cruelly betrayed her. Hamish arrives to oversee the conversion of an ancient barn at the estate.
Desperate to escape the suffocating painful memories closing around Strathbairn, Ingrid hastens her move to Willows Cottage, only to discover to her dismay, that she is not alone within its walls, and the calm she was looking for is an illusion.
There is a violent and restless spirit who haunts the cottage, its fury is bound to a long-buried secret connected to Strathbairn. Something hidden there has been taken away and must be returned.
The scary actions escalate in the night, and the haunting tightens its grip. Ingrid must uncover the truth before the evil lingering at Willows Cottage destroys everything she holds dear.
As if that isn't enough to endure, Ingrid finds herself trapped between two men: Timothy, whose growing devotion offers her a promise of tenderness, and Hamish, whose intentions are far darker than passion.
Gertrude and Hamish weave their own designs around her future. They are conspiring and enjoying Ingrid's discomfort.
One concern follows another, as Ingrid's daughter is going off the rails.
Susan's character is infuriating, she is the epitome of a spoilt brat. And when it comes to her daughter, Ingrid knows she is a pushover, "a weak and ineffectual mother". Easily manipulated by the cook, Susan is disloyal to her mother, and is a very unpleasant child overall (which is entirely Ingrid's fault, as she isn't able to teach or guide her daughter to behave).
Will Ingrid be able to solve the mystery surrounding Strathbairn once and for all?
The Haunting of Willows Cottage is a captivating conclusion to a classic Gothic mystery trilogy, steeped in dark family secrets, menacing spectral horror, and the stark beauty of the Scottish Highlands.
This review is part of the blog tour for The Haunting of Willows Cottage.
Many thanks to Isobel Blackthorn and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!
Purchase Links
UNIVERSAL
BOOK LINK: https://books2read.com/u/mYJzVp
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXJDKJQ3
APPLE
BOOKS: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-haunting-of-willows-cottage/id6754550008
BARNES
& NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-haunting-of-willows-cottage-isobel-blackthorn/1148696029?ean=2940182364515
GOOGLE
BOOKS: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=laCSEQAAQBAJ
RAKUTEN
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/ebook/the-haunting-of-willows-cottage
Author Bio –
Isobel
Blackthorn is an award-winning author of immersive and inspiring fiction. She
has penned over twenty-five books including a number of bestsellers. She majors
in strong female leads and empowerment narratives.
Among her
credits, Isobel’s biographical short story ‘Nothing to Declare’, which
forms the first chapter of her biographical novel Emma’s Tapestry, was
shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019. One of her Canary Islands
novels, A Prison in the Sun, was shortlisted in the LGBTQ category of the
Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2020 and the International Book Awards
2021. The Cabin Sessions was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award 2018
and the Ditmar Awards 2018. And The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical
novel of Alice A. Bailey received an Honorable Mention in the 2021
Reader’s Favorite Book Awards.
Blackthorn
is the author of the world’s only biography of Theosophist and mother of the
New Age movement Alice Bailey – Alice A. Bailey: Life & Legacy.
Isobel has a
background in Western Esotericism. She holds 1st Class Honours in Social
Studies, and a PhD from the University of Western Sydney for her
ground-breaking research on the works of Alice A. Bailey. Her doctoral thesis
has been downloaded over 13,000 times.
Isobel’s
first work, which she wrote in 2008, is Voltaire’s Garden. This
memoir is set in the mid 2000s and tells the story of building a sustainable
lifestyle B&B in Cobargo on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia,
which gained international attention when a firestorm razed the idyllic
historic village on New Year’s Eve 2019.
Isobel’s
writing has appeared in journals and websites around the world,
including Esoteric Quarterly, New Dawn Magazine, Paranoia, Mused Literary
Review, Trip Fiction, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line
Opinion. Isobel was a judge for the Australasian Shadow Awards 2020 long
fiction category. Her book reviews have appeared in New Dawn Magazine, Esoteric
Quarterly, Shiny New Books, Sisters in Crime, Australian Women Writers, Trip
Fiction and Newtown Review of Books.
Isobel’s
interests are many and varied. She has a long-standing association with the
Canary Islands, having lived in Lanzarote in the late 1980s. A humanitarian and
campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally
acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged
state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially
impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West
Africa. After working as a teacher, market trader and PA to a literary agent,
she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and
intriguing as her life has been.
Isobel has
performed her literary works at events in a range of settings and given
workshops in creative writing.
British by
birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, UK. She has lived in
England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands. She now lives and writes in
Spain. She is currently at work on two novels composed in Spanish.
Social Media Links –
Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Isobel.Blackthorn/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5768657.Isobel_Blackthorn
https://www.instagram.com/isobelblackthorn/
@isobelb-author.bsky.social
Many thanks for your lovely review! Gosh, Susan really was a brat, too!
ReplyDelete