Overall this was a short but well done gothic story. I was a bit spooked and enjoyed the build to the big reveal. I will not comment too much on the story because I do not want to give away the twist.

The beginning felt like an unnecessarily long build up to her placement where the actual meat of the story began to take place. Trigger warning off-page sexual assault. Additionally, I felt the last two chapters could have been one.

Thank you NetGalley and Quill and Crow Publishing for sharing this ARC for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

4.0/5.0

This was a hauntingly beautiful read. A chilling gothic romance reminiscent of the writing style of Emily Bronte and Daphne du Maurier. Russell created an eerie atmosphere filled with ghosts and things which go bump during the night.

I enjoyed this book immensely and that ending had me gasping out loud.

Thank you to Netgalley and L. V. Russell for the arc of this book.

3.75 rounded up. This was a short but fun gothic story sure to appeal fans of the Brontës and Henry James. It's difficult to summarize without giving anything away, but here goes:

Theodora has left her familial home behind to take a job as governess at Broken Oak Manor - her only shot at employment after a rough exit from her last position. Within the dark halls of Broken Oak, Theodora makes a place for herself alongside a stern-exteriored housekeeper, her sweet and precocious charge, Ottoline, and Ottoline's father, Cassias. As Theodora grows precariously closer to Cassias, it becomes clearer and clearer that Broken Oak is hiding dark secrets that hold the key to all of their futures.

Overall, the novel was a great example of the gothic genre and a fun spooky story that was building toward a reveal. I did guess the reveal early on, but it was still satisfying to get there. As a result of the form and genre, it leaned much more heavily on plot and atmosphere than character depth - not a bad thing objectively, but not as aligned with my personal tastes.

I was bothered a bit by the pacing early on, particularly surrounding Theodora's initial place of employment. (Slight early spoiler ahead) The off-page sexual assault threw me off, given both the short attention given to those years (which I didn't even realize were years rather than weeks until it was mentioned later) of Theodora's life and the minimal exploration of its effects on her afterward. While it's established early on that Theodora grew up learning to bottle away her emotions, it never felt like those stowed emotions came to play in her character arc, which felt disappointing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quill and Crow for providing a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Theodora Corvus takes up the position of governess at Broken Oak. In the large rambling manor, the walls creak at night and there are muddy footprints on the floor... This is a wonderfully eerie story of loss and love. Perfect for fans of Laura Purcell and Susan Hill.

Thank you Netgalley and Quill and crow publishing for the arc. I’m sold on this author!! Loved this from start to finish. 4/5

L.V. Russell has a new fan! The Quiet Stillness of Empty Houses reads like an easily approachable modern classic. In such a short book, the author really manages to take advantage of their page space. It felt like every sentence was important, so I ended up reading this book more slowly than I normally do. There wasn't any fluff added to pad the word count or unnecessarily repeated information. I can tell they really trust the reader and I appreciated it.

I haven't read many gothic romances, but from what I have read, I feel like L.V. Russell took the traditional tropes, such as houses representing people, mysterious sounds in the middle of the night, and orphaned governesses and played with them in a refreshing way.

Theodora Corvus is the main character. She grew up in a large haunted house and ends up working as a governess in a large creepy house, that may also be haunted. She is kind, intelligent, driven, pragmatic, and she has no idea what to do with feelings or emotions. The only times she ever behaves contrary to her normal personality is when she is forced to confront said feelings. It was fun reading her unusual outlook on darkness, silence, decay, love, and life in general.

Cassias is her love interest and he's interesting in his own way. While he embodies the "mysterious lord of the manor" stereotype, he also doesn't. Like with Theodora and the gothic romance genre, the author takes what is expected and shows the reader something else.

The romance isn't explicitly stated as such, but it definitely gave me heartwarming demisexual vibes. It gets slightly steamy, but what is somewhat vaguely described is mostly foreplay and is very close to fading to black. I think if someone prefers clean romance, this book will not be off-putting to them.

The main themes shown and discussed are class differences, grief, and gender expectations. This story is highly entertaining to read and it's one of the few books I would love to read again. I would recommend it to those who enjoy gothic romance, but also to general audiences. It's a short read and totally worth it.

This surprised me, I liked it more than I thought I would, but this was still just okay. Honestly, nothing was super unique but I did enjoy the ending, although it was a bit anticlimactic.

Thank you NetGalley and Quill and Crow Publishing House for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had a dull and slow start, but it became very atmospheric which was nice. The story did pick up a bit, and you couldn't help but become attached to the characters. I liked the spooky moments and wish that there were way more of them. The romantic aspects didn't really work for me. I found the plot lackluster; I kept waiting for something to happen, for there to be a crescendo, but what came was a bit anticlimactic. There needed to be more purpose to the actual story itself for this book to work.

Theodora is the new governess for young Ottoline Thorne of Broken Oak Manor, where she works under the watchful eye of a housekeeper that rivals Mrs. Danvers and the enigmatic lord of the manor, Cassias Thorne. As she grows closer to her charge, Theodora fights her attraction to her brooding employer in a creepy old estate where things go bump in the night. A gothic with definite modern twist

This book is a sweeping, gothic romance filled with ghosts and specters with an ode to Jane Eyre and the work of the Bronté sisters. It was chilling and haunting and the twist at the end was the absolute cherry on top. Truly, a delightful spooky read.