The Darkling Bride

My mom was a HUGE Victoria Holt fan.  She pretty much quit reading books when she exhausted the Victoria Holt catalog.  If she were still alive, I would recommend this book to Mimi in a heartbeat!

The Darkling Bride by Laura Andersen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure about this book going in, but I really enjoyed it. I don't like books that include too much of that ominous and frightening feeling that keep me up at night, but this had just the right mix of mystery and suspense with a little romance thrown it. I usually try to stay away from books that are too creepy or unsettling, so I was wary of this book, but it had the prefect amount of "scariness" without any of the unsettling feelings that lead to sleepless nights worrying about strange noises or dark shadows.
Carragh Ryan takes a temporary position at an old eerie Irish castle that was once home to one of her favorite Victorian authors. While her job is to catalog the contents of the Gallagher family's extensive and valuable library, she is actually hoping to uncover information about the lost years of the renowned writer who married the daughter of the house during the late 1800s. In doing so her true wish is to perhaps discover the author's lost manuscript about "The Darkling Bride," the unpublished novel supposedly written about his wife Jenny Gallagher and based on an ancient legend from the family's lands. Carragh must navigate around the complex family relationships between Nessa, the great-aunt who hired her, Aidan, the current viscount, and his sister Kyla, among others. These relationships are all tainted by the fact that Aidan and Kyla's parents were murdered in the house 30 years earlier. As information and secrets come to light, not only from Aidan's parents, but also from Jenny Gallagher and the original Darkling Bride, Carragh begins to feel more and more threatened. She cannot tell if the malevolence she feels is from one of the inhabitants of the castle--alive or dead.
I feel as though the author did a great job of telling the story of Deeprath Castle and the Darkling Bride. There were several different timelines and perspectives, but all the threads wove together well to create a nuanced yet complete story. Several references were made to traditional gothic tropes as well as authors such as Victoria Holt (who I read as a young teenager), which I think added a very slight hint of humor to the story. As Carragh is doing things like climbing a dark haunted tower she smiles as she realizes what a cliche she is, which made me smile as well. It was as if the author, through Carragh, was acknowledging the fact that she seemed to be living in a novel of gothic suspense and almost poked fun at that fact. As someone who has read almost all of Victoria Holt's novels, I enjoyed and appreciated that fact.
This was a really good read. It was fun, interesting, suspenseful, yet also light and not too frightening. It had all the gothic staples: the innocent (yet not at all helpless--it is 2018!) newcomer to the dark and foreboding castle, the handsome yet mysterious lord of the manor, the formidable and unwelcoming elderly female relative, the ancient legend of tragedy, a murder mystery, etc.. Yet the author realized all of these things and used it to her advantage. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery and gothic romance. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and would read more by this author.


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