I have loved all of this authors books and this one is no exception. When I first started reading I wasn’t quite sure where it was going to go, but little by little it developed into a brilliant twisty story of old secrets and lies. I loved it 10/10

A beautiful, atmospheric mystery about family secrets, hidden tragedies. Well written characters and a weaving, fast paced and ultimately satisfying story.

This was clever - twisty turny as well as interesting. It flips back and forth between timelines, solving a mystery in the woods. The characters were well described and the atmosphere of the wood was creepy. A good summer read.

The Glass House is a really special book. It is one of those novels that you will keep thinking about long after you have turned the final page. It is written in a dual timeline and from the perspective of three main characters which I loved.

Rita - 1971, a nanny for the Harrington family.
Hera - 1971, the eldest daughter in the Harrington family.
Sylvia - present day, a make-up artist recently separated to her husband and mother to Annie

I loved the way the story weaved between the two eras,

I was so caught up in the lives of these women that I found it extremely hard to put this book down. From the synopsis you know that a body will be found in the forest and I was wracking my brain to try and guess who that body would belong to. The added mystery surrounding Sylvia and how she 'fit' into the 1970s story line was also very intriguing and made me want to keep on reading. When the pieces of the puzzle slowly started falling into place I was shocked but also delighted by the connection.

Eve Chase writes with such elegance and beauty as her descriptive writing not only draws you in but allows you to visualise and immerse yourself within the novel. She explores sensitive issues with care and empathy which pulls on your heartstrings. I found this an atmospheric, emotional read and I loved every moment of it. This is definitely a book I will be recommending to family and friends

It has been a real pleasure to read and review this book and I will look forward to future novels by Eve Chase. Many thanks once again to Gaby Young, Michael Joseph and Netgalley for a copy of this eBook.

After a traumatic event, children’s nanny, Rita, has gone with the family she works for to stay in a remote house in the middle of the woods. Secrets lurk within the family and when a baby is found among the trees, Jeannie, the mother, feels that this could be the start of something good. Soon, however, the discovery of a body changes everything and the Harrington family will never be the same again.

My interest was piqued right at the start of The Glass House when we are told that a body has been found at Foxcote Manor, the home of the troubled Harrington family. The story then transports us back to the time leading up to the discovery of the unnamed body, giving us a peek into the lives of the Harringtons and their nanny, Rita, known affectionately as 'Big Rita' by Hera and Teddy, the children she looks after. There was a very strange atmosphere surrounding the family, partly due to the fact that all was not well between Jeannie and Walter, the parents. I really felt for Rita, who found herself caught between the two while trying to provide love and care for the two children who she clearly had a lot of affection for.

We are also brought into the modern day where we meet Sylvie, a woman who has just separated from her husband after years of marriage. I found myself immediately warming to Sylvie and was devastated when tragedy struck her family. Although I enjoyed reading about this character, I did find myself wondering how she was going to fit into the story of the Harringtons so was pleased when all was revealed. I particularly liked how the connection felt very natural, not contrived in any way. Too many books like this rely upon coincidences to link two plots together, but this was not the case here. 

The Glass House is a beautifully written tale about secrets and how they always have a habit of resurfacing when you least expect it. This is not by any means an action-packed story, despite there being a dead body and other exciting parts along the way, but it doesn't need to be. The characterisation is perfect, and you really feel that you know these people by the end of the story. The setting is also ideal with Foxcote Manor and the surrounding area providing a claustrophobic atmosphere where danger lurks around the corner. 

The story comes to a very satisfying conclusion and, although some of the details of the plot can be worked out earlier in the book, I was still gripped until the end as more revelations are made.

If you want to become completely immersed in a character-driven plot with an air of mystery and intrigue, then I can highly recommend The Glass House as this was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Glass House is a book that will draw you in and creep around you like the forest it is set in. In 1971, the wealthy Harrington family relocate to their country house, Foxcote Manor in the Forest of Dean for Jeannie to recover from a traumatic event. Jeannie takes her daughter Hera and son, Teddy plus their devoted Nanny, Big Rita. Walter Harrington is abroad on business but he hopes this change of scene will alter Jeannie’s mood and bring back the wife that he wants rather than the one who has been having an affair with his best friend Don.
Yet Foxcote Manor does not provide the solitude expected as Hera finds a baby girl abandoned in the woods and Jeannie is determined to care for her with Rita’s help. The situation is made worse when Don arrives at the house and Rita and the Harringtons are not able to prevent the terrible chain of events that occurs. In the present day we meet Slyvie and her daughter Annie, Sylvie now lives in London but she knows she has links to the Forest of Dean but she has always been too afraid to delve too far into her past. When her adopted mother has an accident, the past and present suddenly collide and Sylvie finally has to confront the truth.
This is the first book I have read by Eve Chase but it was wonderful. Her writing is full of rich and beautiful descriptions; the forest in the story almost becomes an extra character within the narrative. The Glass House has so many of my favourite elements within a book, crumbling old house, family secrets and mysteries. Rita was my favourite character, she becomes entangled in the Harrington family mess, she is looking for her place in the world and you are willing her to find it.
I don’t want to give anything about the plot away as there are some brilliant twists along the way. I can highly recommend this book though, it’s a great one to lose yourself in for a few hours.
Many thanks to Michael Joseph for allowing me to review this book!

The beginning of this book was a bit confusing, but once I got into it, it was really interesting and enjoyable.
Good mystery, good writing. I'd recommend it.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

This is an interesting story with a dual timeline - one in the present day and the other in 1971. In 1971 Rita is a nanny to a family who live in London - there is a tragic family event and Mr Harrington decides to send his wife, the Nanny and his 2 children to their second house in the Forest of Dean - they are to stay there whilst he is off travelling and Rita at the age of 19 is in charge of all of them all. The forest is the main focal point of the story and the author has used fab descriptions that make you feel like you are there.
The second timeline is of Sylvia who has recently separated from her husband who is trying to help her 18 year old daughter understand and navigate their new lives. The two stories entwine and there are lots of lovely mysteries that unfold along the way. It touches on grief, family and mental health issues. There are plenty of dark secrets that had me guessing right to the end and there is a bit of a Gothic feel about the book. Overall an enjoyable read.
I am off to look for terranium now......

An enjoyable book but I did take a while to get into it. I am pleased that I kept going. A family saga with secrets aplenty. Big Rita becomes nanny to the dysfunctional Harrington family at Foxcote Manor , a place she finds eerily disconcerting.
There are three voices in the telling, Rita, Hera (one of the children Rita nannies and Sylvia and it is told in two timelines ie the present and 1971
The secrets are unearthed gradually with history impacting in the modern era
An interesting family saga

BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL. BEAUTIFUL.

Absolutely breathtaking was this book where the genius of an author Eve Chase took me through the circle of life. I came to where I started, but I breathed a lifetime of a journey. I saw the characters as they were, but I felt their emotions deep within. I read the story as told to me, but I lived through the nuances of them all.

Harrington family moved to the country for the summer where they found an abandoned child in the woods, until a catastrophe made them lose themselves and the child. Years later, the truth was finally pieced together.

Author Eve Chase wrote this with a mesmerizing poignant touch where each word was delicately kissed by the sheer talent of storytelling. Scenes blew me away with the suspense, the dread, the secrets. Characters were confusing on the surface until I was shown their heart. The silent breeze flew through the forest, a child’s cry was heard soon. They took the happiness in, then lost her. They went further away with their secrets that resided deep within, blew away one by one, so they did when the lost child found them all.

I loved each of them, I took them into my heart, but then I realized it was the book who drew me deep within itself, to show me a world filled with secrets and lies, darkness and shadows, grays and blacks of the woods until the beam of light revealed the truth. And rejoiced I did as I got to the end, laughed a cheer at the family again, wiped a tear when the mother turned to blow one last kiss. A smile. Then gone.

A sigh and a happy tear was I left with with a strange joy in my heart for having read the story of the lost found family.

The Glass House is a beautifully atmospheric mystery which follows a family from the 1970s, interspersed with the present day. It's full of intrigue, twists and turns, with themes of love, loss and family.

Although the novel is occasionally slow- moving in places, Eve Chase's writing is stunning, and I found myself pausing every now and again to admire the particularly apt and descriptive metaphors. She is a really skilled writer and I look forward to reading more of her work.

If you're after a fast paced all action thriller this one is not for you, but I very much enjoyed this slow burn of a book. It swaps between time frames, unpicking the stories of various women facing trauma and crisis in their lives. Over the course of the book various mysteries unravel and the author is clever in how much is revealed as you go along. I liked it very much - gentle, thoughtfully written, kept me guessing until the end,

I've enjoyed both the books by Eve Chase I've read previously - Black Rabbit Hall and The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde (US title, The Wildling Sisters). The author sticks to the same successful formula in The Glass House (US title, The Daughters of Foxcote Manor): multiple points of view and timelines, a story involving family secrets and an atmospheric location. In this case, the latter is the slightly rundown Foxcote Manor situated deep in the dense Forest of Dean.

The book opens in 1971 with the arrival of the Harrington family - Jeannie, her daughter Hera and son Teddy along with nanny, Rita (known in the family as 'Big Rita') - at Foxcote Manor. Jeannie's husband, Walter, is notable by his absence on business and it transpires this is no summer vacation but an enforced relocation from their London home in the wake of traumatic events. And it becomes apparent that Rita has found herself in a rather dysfunctional family and in a house whose location she finds unsettling. She experiences "an eerie watched feeling, especially at night when the house is lit up and the darkness rubs against the windows".

The author is certainly fond of metaphors and similes, some of which work better than others. However, the depiction of family dynamics is deftly done, such as the way in which the arrival of the baby affects Teddy, no longer the centre of attention as the youngest in the family. And there are moments of insight such as the observation on married life as "an editing process...a discerning closing down of other options...like choosing a capsule wardrobe - navy, black and cream - over fleeting extravagance, throwaway fast fashion".

Moving to the present day, the reader is introduced to Sylvie, recently separated from her husband and dealing with domestic problems of her own, not least her teenage daughter, Annie. The connection between the two storylines gradually unfolds, revealing intriguing echoes of the past and secrets waiting to be discovered. But what about the mystery of the dead body found in the forest in 1971, I hear you say? Who is it, how did they die and who was responsible? You may well work out the answer to the first two but I'd be surprised if you do the third.

As always in this kind of story, a degree of suspension of disbelief is required in relation to some of the coincidences that occur. I have to say as well that the sections set in the past didn't scream 1970s to me, apart that is for the cheese and piccalilli sandwiches! Having said that,The Glass House is a well-crafted mystery about family secrets and the lasting, unforseen consequences of past actions. It will definitely appeal to fans of Eve Chase's previous books or readers of the books of Kate Morton.

3.75/5

I wasn't sure about the first quarter of this book. It took a little time to figure out who was who.

I'm glad that I persisted though because the rest of the book completely hooked me in.

I felt like the ending has a nice twist that gives the story a roundabout feeling.

I really enjoyed this book - great characters and really well-written. I was drawn in from the start and couldn't wait to find out what happened. Definitely recommended.

This is a really good book, it's not my usual "type" of story but the description intrigued me and I really enjoyed it.

The plot is good, with enough subtle twists to keep you entertained to the very end.

The settings are a significant part of the story, both for the plot and the way the characters interact with their surroundings. I enjoy it when an author does this, and the attention to detail in this book is fantastic.

The characters are really where this book earns it's keep. They are all fantastic, you with love them or love to hate them. They are all 3 dimensional and I can tell who is talking without being told and that is always pleasing.

Overall this is a nice book that readers of any age and genre preferences will enjoy.

This is a dual-timeline story, partly set in the present day and partly in the Summer 1971, told from the perspectives of Rita and Hera in the 1970's and Sylvia in the present day. It tells the story of the wealthy Harrington Family and their nanny 'Big Rita' who all spend the summer in the Harrington's second home, Foxcote Manor, in the Forest of Dean after a fire destroys their London home.

There are so many secrets in this story and I really enjoyed seeing how they unfolded. They were surprising but believable and certainly didn't feel like they had just been added as a shock twist for dramatic effect. The setting of the forest and Foxcote Manor was very atmospheric and the characters were well created with a nice mix between likeable and unlikable. I think it's a perfect summer read for those looking for something gripping with a bit of heft.

I've not read any of other Eve Chase's novels but I'll certainly be looking out for them after reading this.

The Glass House was the first book I had read by Eve Chase. It's a dual-timeline novel, partly set in the 1970s and the present day. In 1971, Rita is a nanny for the Harrington family, looking after Hera and Teddy at Foxcote Manor in the Forest of Dean. The children's mother, Jeanie, is fragile, having recently suffered a terrible trauma. The father, Walter, runs the family business, Harrington Glass, based in London. One day, a baby girl is found abandoned in the woods, and the Harrington's take her in with the intention of informing the police, but Jeanie is determined to keep her.

As the story moves between 1971 and now, the mystery of the baby girl, and how her abandonment will impact on the characters and their lives, starts to unfold. I loved Eve Chase’s ability to get inside the skin of her characters, particularly the nanny, Rita, and by the end of the book I was desperate to know the truth. Atmospheric and mysterious, heartbreaking and uplifting, The Glass House was an extremely enjoyable read.

Thank you to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and NetGalley for the ARC. This review is my unbiased opinion.

A beautiful tale well written and poignant. I am so pleased that this author has 2 previous books I can buy. Loved the way the story is told from the perspective now and back in 1971. A firm 4/5.

I love a book that begins with a body.

You are catapulted into the story head first with a newspaper article, informing you of the discovery of a body at Foxcote Manor belonging to the Harrington family. Having moved in just one month prior due to a fire at their London home.

Narrated by Rita, Hera and Sylvia and told both in 1971 and the present day we have more than one plot running parallel. We have broken marriages, affairs, loss, grief and murder but throughout it all the author has deftly highlighted the treatment of women and the expectations that are placed upon them.

Minor characters and the setting normally take second place but here the author uses them to her advantage making them equally as important. The descriptive writing style makes this a book to get lost in and savour rather than rush through and this is more of a teapot than just a one cup of tea read.

I will be honest when I read the blurb and saw the cover I expected a Victorian Gothic mystery so to find this was set in the 70’s was a complete surprise. Although while reading I got so swept away by the author’s writing that it could have been timeless.

Like a tapestry this is richly woven with multiple threads that all come together to paint an exquisite picture.