Well who knew that it was such a thing to have a medium on your payroll and even have a seance room at home? This gives an intriguing look into the workings of mediums and their patrons - who all seemed to be women with more money than sense and not much else to fill their lives. But I suppose that if you weren’t allowed to work and had to fill your mind with fripperies then you might as well employ a medium.

The story starts off well but then there is a slow section, where the scene is set very slowly, this is a shame as it is worth persevering as once the action starts the plot is clever, I felt Mrs Wood’s despair and had my fingers crossed for a happy outcome. Perhaps the editor could work some tricks worthy of Mrs Wood and slim down the slow bit?

I loved the description of this book but unfortunately this one just didn't work for me. I enjoyed getting to know Mrs Wood at the start of the book and the world building was great. However I wanted more to happen - there kept being hints that there was something more going on but this didn't really progress.

At 25% in there still hadn't been any real developments and I'm afraid I lost interest in what those secrets may be.

A good start but too slow to keep me interested.

This is atmospheric from the off, and the seances are immersive. Love the historical detail.
The plot is slow, and a bit predictable but the characters more than make up for it. Female led and feisty, this is entertaining.

This was an enjoyable read about mediumship during Victorian times. The various techniques and deceptions used were well researched and depicted and I felt a lot of sympathy for the widowed Mrs Wood whose livelihood is threatened by her protege . I did find the story rather predictable and a little slow in places but an entertaining enough way to while away some hours.

Career opportunities for a widow of limited means were not great in Victorian England and Mrs Wood has found herself achieving far more than her poor childhood might have led her to expect. Via an abusive husband, a controlling but talented mother, and a dedication to the maintenance of 'illusion', she has become one of the most celebrated mediums in London. All this at a time when mediums were kind of the rock stars of their day.

People wanted to believe they could connect to their dead relatives and friends and those who could help them to do so were very well rewarded. Mrs Wood appears to have it made.

And then, up pop a young girl who wants to learn from her.

Worried that her place at the top of the medium tree could be at risk, she decides that taking on an apprentice might help to keep her craft fresh. The girl - Miss Finch - isn't entirely as controllable as Mrs Wood had hoped.

Very little happens in this book that isn't well-signposted a long time in advance. It's not an unusual story in its plot, but setting it in the murky world of mediumship is interesting. We can assume that all of the women in this field are charlatans but some of them are better at hiding their fraud than others and all live in fear of being uncovered.

Can Mrs Wood fight back against the devices and schemes of her protege and protect her position in society?

The book picks up in the second half. The first half feels as if it contains way more seances than are really necessary to establish the plot. It's more plod than plot. But once Miss Finch reveals her true colours it gets a lot more interesting.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy.

Suitably Atmospheric..
Victorian London and, in a place gripped by spiritualism, Mrs Wood is the most influential medium in her day. Competition has indeed been fierce, yet she has still been successful. The tides, however, are turning and when Mrs Wood realises that then she knows that she needs to ramp up her game. Taking on a protégé, Emmie, seems the appropriate course of action - but is it? Things are about to get very awkward indeed. Beautifully written, suitably atmospheric with a glorious cast of characters, an original premise and a plot laced with wry humour.

Victorian London was gripped by spiritualism and the weird and the wonderful, and Mrs Wood was London's most sought after medium.
She takes in Miss Finch, a young woman who is wanting to learn the skills needed to become a sucessful medium herself. At first all is going well, and Miss Finch seems to be an eager pupil, but things are not as they seem.
This is a story full of deceit and hidden lives, and takes a dark direction, as things go from bad to worse for Mrs Wood.
I enjoyed the read, and it was great to read about the lives of everyday people in Victorian times.
I would recommend this to anyone who loves a period drama, and is interested in the occult.

Victorian London in the height of spiritualism and Mrs Wood is the most successful Medium in the city. With an excellent eye for reading people and a desperate need for more money Mrs Wood takes on promising new Medium who just might be her salvation.

Absolutely loved this take on spiritualism in the 1800s. Instead of actually seeing spirits and making things up Mrs Wood is delicately reading people and comforting them in their time of need. I loved the way Mrs Wood was shown to care about her craft, it made me care too! I also really enjoyed the addition of Miss Finch, she was an excellent example of what Mediumship probably was like back then... her betrayal while not unexpected was still painful! But here is where I felt the pacing went a little awry. It took way too long for Mrs Wood to pick herself up, make amends and fix the situation.

All in all though I really enjoyed this and I may need to pick up some more historical magical realism!

A Victorian "All about Eve" set in London and the American East Coast at the beginning of the 1870s, "The Other side of Mrs Woods" is a compelling and darkly funny novel centered around the highly competitive world of psychics, mediums and spirits that gripped British society during the latter part of the 19th century.

A terrific tale of deceit and betrayal involving a talented medium with a very shady past and her double-crossing and highly obnoxious pupil who will not hesitate to pull out all the stops in order to destroy her mentor...

A very entertaining romp full twists and turns and blessed with a great cast of exquisitely drawn characters that will keep many readers on the edge of their seats for some delightful hours!

Highly recommended and to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!

Many thanks to 4th Estate and Netgalley for this fabulous ARC

Set in the Victorian era at the height of the Spiritualism craze, Mrs Wood a renowned Medium is looking to keep herself at the top of the pecking order as younger Mediums are in high demand in London society as well as reports of whole spirits at Seances. Mrs Wood takes the young Emily Finch under her wing as a protege but her reputation is at threat from as her background is at danger of being revealed.
This is an enjoyable story with plenty of well-written compelling characters, however, there were stages in the book that I skipped threw a few pages as the pacing was sometimes too slow for me.

I had high hopes for this one, and it hit every hope and more. Great characters, I loved seeing the inside life of a well known medium in such a different time. The way it ended too, amazing. Such a wonderful read.

I loved the premise – a Medium in Victorian London – definitely something a little different! However, the novel unfortunately just didn’t do it for me. It was so flat and dull in places I am quite surprised I have finished it. I was waiting for something to unfold but it was a rather pedestrian competition between two mediums. I enjoyed the parts about seances and “behind-the-scenes” but I would have loved more detail about the nuances of what’s gone into them rather than just hints here and there. The part that left me most wanting is the whole conflict between Miss Finch and Mrs Wood – it just felt a bit bland and very anticlimactic. There was too much “nothingness” in the book where it felt like it was just padding the word count. It felt like it could have been a great story but just fell a little short.

A light fun read but not really qualifying as described i.e. "irresistable historical comedy".
Enjoyable none the less
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this chance to give an honest and unbiased review.

Mrs Wood is the most successful medium in Victorian London. Together with her assistant, Miss Newman, she hosts spectacular séances that have made her the talk of the town and brought the rich and famous to her door requesting private consultations. Of course, Mrs Wood can’t really communicate with spirits, but she doesn’t feel too guilty about what she’s doing – after all, a widow has to make a living somehow and this is the work she’s been raised to do. Recently, however, things have started going wrong. There are reports from America of mediums promising to materialise full spirits and although Mrs Wood disapproves of such things, she worries that her own more traditional shows are losing their spark. When she hears the unmistakable sound of a yawn during one of her séances, she knows she has to take action.

The answer to Mrs Wood’s problems arrives in the form of sixteen-year-old Emmie Finch, who wants nothing more than to become a medium. Impressed by the girl’s talent and enthusiasm, Mrs Wood agrees to take her on as an apprentice. Miss Finch is an instant hit with Mrs Wood’s friends and clients, but is she really the sweet, innocent young woman she appears to be or has Mrs Wood made a big mistake?

The Other Side of Mrs Wood is Lucy Barker’s debut novel and a very enjoyable one! It took me a few chapters to get into the story as the beginning was quite slow, but by the middle of the book I had been completely drawn in. At first I wasn’t sure whether I liked Mrs Wood, but I quickly warmed to her. It was nice to have an older, more mature heroine, who at nearly forty is starting to worry about greying hair and aching bones, has already been married and divorced before the story begins and is devoting herself to her career rather than looking for romance. The beautiful young Emmie Finch, on the other hand, is portrayed as the novel’s villain, but whether she really is trying to cause trouble or whether it’s all in Mrs Wood’s mind is something you’ll have to read the book to find out!

Apart from a subplot featuring Mrs Wood’s assistant Miss Newman, who is involved in the early women’s rights movement, this is not really a book that tackles a lot of deep issues and I enjoyed it primarily for its entertainment value. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a silly, frothy book in any way – it’s well written, evocative of the Victorian era, and I learned a huge amount about the 19th century fascination with spiritualism. It was interesting to read about the techniques used by mediums to produce dramatic effects, the etiquette of hosting a meeting of the Circle, and the preparations that go into holding a grand séance. What I found particularly intriguing was that although Mrs Wood, like her rival mediums, lives in fear of being caught out and exposed, she doesn’t actually view herself as a fraud or a con artist. She believes she is using her skills to bring comfort to other people and although she has no qualms over using trickery to ‘apport’ (transport using spiritual means) small objects and even herself, she feels that materialising full spirits is a step too far!

The Other Side of Mrs Wood was fun to read (except when I became infuriated by the actions of certain characters!) but I can’t agree with the publisher’s description of the book as an ‘irresistible historical comedy’. It was amusing in places but not particularly funny and definitely not what I would call a comedy. Misleading description aside, it’s an impressive first novel with a great twist at the end and I’m already looking forward to Lucy Barker’s next book.

The Other Side of Mrs Wood is a fantastic read! It’s a vivid and beautifully written exploration of Victorian London and the fascination with seances. I really enjoyed how the author created such strong female characters who were able to make a living outside of the conventional marriage route. Dark, gripping and enchanting, this story is one I thoroughly recommend! 5 stars from me!

I read lovely reviews of this book and was excited to give it a read. But, for some reason, I could not appreciate this book as much as other readers.

The first time I picked it up, I struggled to manage beyond a few pages. I left it to pick it up at a later time. Finally, had to abandon it after three failed attempts.

DNF at almost 30%

Atmospheric Victoriana at its finest. I loved it. Very dark very well written and an absolute belter of a book. Loved it!

Mrs Violet Wood, esteemed medium, wows London’s gentry with brilliantly choreographed séances accompanied by lavishly catered parties alongside her assistant par excellence Miss Sarah Newman. If Mrs Wood’s dodgy knee and age-related complaints weren’t enough, the failure of her financial investments and the diverted attentions of nouveau-Suffragette Miss Newman make her fear the future. Might the real-life spectre in the form of a girl with a gift for clairvoyance be the retirement package she craves?

Author Lucy Barker announces her story is inspired by true events and while credible, the world and work of the Victorian medium is vividly imagined. Like ‘Beyond Black’ by Hilary Mantel, this is a behind-the-scenes look at the work of a psychic and the importance of a rock-solid assistant. With the threat ever-looming of exposure and social damnation, is it any wonder the story takes a page out of the ‘All About Eve’ Betty Davis playbook?

The writing is smooth and riveting, with the right amount of realistic tradecraft. Lucy Barker creates strong profiles for her characters and an Austen-esque ease to chronicling social interactions. The somewhat vague portrait of her late husband’s former accountant, Mr Larson, renders a bit of welcome tension to the slowly unravelling storyline of Mrs Wood’s decline. The ever present media reports add a relevant social commentary and the emerging feminism and socialism of the early twentieth century is a fitting backdrop.

If you like your Victoriana steeped in entrepreneurship and female empowerment, this is surely the read for you. Fans of Mantel’s ‘Beyond Black’, ‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters or the larger than the after-life character of Mme Blavatsky will find this book well in their comfort zone. Thanks to NetGalley UK and Fourth Estate for the eARC.

Spiritualism saturates Victorian literary culture, and not just through its most famous converts, such as Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the background for the obsession with ghost stories, and life after death - and this then is the backdrop to ‘The Other Side of Mrs Wood’.

It’s February 1873, - and a smart villa in Notting Hill, London, is the place where spiritualist medium Mrs Wood holds séances, in order to contact the dead for the benefit of her patrons who have lost a loved one. And as far as her patrons are concerned, she delivers what she promises, gives them the proof they are so desperate for, meaning she is held in the highest esteem by the great and the good in London’s wealthiest parlours.

When a young girl begins to stand outside Mrs Wood’s home, her curiosity gets the better of her and she demands to know why the girl is hanging around. It seems the girl, Emmie Finch wants to be a pupil of the great Mrs Wood, to learn how to be a respected medium of Mrs Wood’s calibre.

Mrs Wood spots a way of spicing up her séances and agrees with the girl’s pleading and takes her on as a pupil, but is that all that Emmie Finch is after or is there something more behind that sweet and innocent face?

Victorian London with its penchant for séances is brought deliciously to life, and the characters were strong and believable - this was a time when women normally relied on marrying well in order to be supported, but here we have mediums who went against convention and achieved financial independence. This together with a strong and atmospheric storyline, made altogether more interesting as it looks at the rivalry between mediums, made for a fascinating read.

This was such a good book. I love historical fiction, especially when it is about eras/ situations that I previously knew nothing about and this was definitely one of those books. It was so well researched and so compelling in its narrative that not only did I love reading it but I felt that I learned too. A really enjoyable read and perfect for any fans of historical fiction.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.