1830's London, Bonnie, Crawford and Rex will do anything to survive. Bonnie finds she needs to escape after something happens and ends up as a lady' maid for Cissie, who lives with her father. However everything is not as it seems for Bonnie.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I did quite enjoy it. The story has a lot of things that I like. The story did have a gothic feel to it with something sinister going on. The story did have its twists. One I did guess quite easily, one shocked me and another I didn't see coming.

The story did have plenty to hold my interest and I do enjoy books set in the Victorian era. The descriptions were lovely and I especially enjoyed the parts about the cemetery.

The ending did seem a little too neat and there was one particular event that wasn't explained very well and why. This didn't however spoil the book for me but it just didn't sit right in my opinion.

I will certainly read more by the author and I do have a copy of The Doll Factory on my kindle. Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for the book to review.

The Burial Plot – 5 stars | Pub Date Jun 06 2024

So, #TheBurialPlot – one of the best Gothic thrillers I have ever read. And the cover is so stunning. Grab this book ASAP, you won’t be disappointed.
The main character, Bonnie runs away to London from upcoming wedding with an old rector. She hopes that at London she will start her new happy life, her hopes are so high, that reality hits hard. There is no one who can help her, nowhere she could stay with, no recommendations to find a decent job. Eventually, she ends up in the company of two men Crawford and Rex, who were scamming gentlemen’s by using Bonnie as bait. After she killed one gentleman in self-defense, Bonnie has to run away again. Crawford helps her to find a job as a lady’s made at Endellion, the house that looks “more like a magnified doll’s house”. In a try to get to know better Mr Moncrieff and his daughter Cassie, she discovers unpleasant truth about Mrs Moncrieff and her death. Bonnie, blindly in love with Crawford, doesn’t see that she is just being manipulated by him and there is much more behind all this. Will Bonnie find her place eventually in all this?
Overall, I did like this Gothic story. The writing is so good and vivid, that you can see that Victorian London and characters are believable too. The story has a few twists through, the middle part felt a bit slow but the end fixed all those little nuances. Anyway, I’m in love with this book!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Author: Elizabeth Macneal
Publisher: Pan Macmillan | Picador
Pages: 336

Beautifully written historical fiction set in Victorian times, showing the struggle between the rich and poor, and how envy and hatred can dictate a person's path in life.

Bonnie, the protagonist, is a young girl who has been betrayed by every man in her life, but she is determined to make a better future for herself. Crawford is the only man who has ever treated her decently, and she is fiercely loyal to him. Until the day her life is turned upside down and she must find somewhere to hide away.

Full of twists and betrayals, I was captivated by the story. Every detail was perfect, the characters believable, the setting so realistic it was as though you were there with them. With an ending that won't disappoint, I highly recommend this novel!

🦇Book Review👻

🕸️The Burial Plot by Elizabeth MacNeal🕸️
⭐⭐⭐⚡3.5/5

I love this authors previous novels The Dolls Factory and The Circus of Wonders 🎪 so I was so excited to receive an ARC of her new book...

In a nutshell 🥜...
1830s, Bonnie has been promised to an older husband since infancy, feeling trapped she fleas for London. She falls in with Crawford and they lead a life of trickery, surviving off ill-gotten coin and nefarious schemes. One scheme goes too far and with Crawfords help Bonnie fleas again, this time to be a lady’s maid in a grand house on the Thames. As she tries to get to know her grieving employer Mr Moncrieff, and his daughter Cissie, she begins to question what really happened to Mrs Moncrieff and whether her own presence here was planned from the beginning.

💭My Thoughts
I adore gothic London vibes and Elizabeth MacNeal is amazing at setting a delicious scene. I also absolutely fell in love with the cover at first sight.
The book started strong, it began with the first chapter "Killing Moths" with Bonnie already at the Big House as a house maid. The descriptions of the house are deliciously Victorian. Then we jump to Part one in London.
Sadly the story didn't quite work for me. Bonnie's character was very inconsistent, she acclimatized to each change in the story too easily making her character unbelievable and unrealistic. I'm not sure a young girl can be ... Groomed to be a vicars wife/an urchin trickster/an eager housemaid. I also didn't connect with any of the characters, found myself speed reading to get to the end and found most of the twists predictable and tenuous.

Bit gutted about this one. But there's a high chance it's a case of "it's me, not the book". Maybe I just wasn't in the right head space to appreciate it.

Thanks to the author @netgalley @panmacmillan for an ARC of this book


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A gloriously gothic masterpiece!

The tense atmosphere, the lingering sense of menace and sinister scheming had me reaching for this one at every opportunity.

We are introduced to Bonnie who flees from an arranged marriage and takes her chances in London, where poverty is rife and opportunities to make something of yourself are slim when you’re at the bottom of the social ladder. She gets entangled with the charming yet scheming Crawford who claims to love her but has his own private agenda. We watch as Bonnie moves from naive runaway, to desperate survivor, to fierce heroine who takes charge of her own fate. She is a complex and unforgettable character who has shot up to the ranks of my favourite heroines.

I loved The Doll Factory and The Burial Plot was just as brilliant. I felt immersed in Victorian London with the rich detail and the evocative writing had my sympathies bouncing between characters with every twist and turn. I found the complexity of the plot, the characters and the setting reminiscent of Fingersmith so I’d highly recommend this one to fans of Sarah Waters (and to fans of historical fiction, thriller, romance and gothic thrillers, this book has something for everyone!). It was a joy to read this with a lovely group of bookworms. We all loved it!

Another truly outstanding novel by this author. Superbly written and absolutely captivating from the very first page. Loved every minute of it and undoubtedly one of my best reads this year!

I loved ‘The Doll Factory’ so was looking forward to reading this new novel by Elizabeth Macneal. Unfortunately I really didn’t enjoy this book nearly as much. I felt that I was prediciting the ending long before it came as if I already knew what was going to happen. The novel was just not original enough to hold my attention.

The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal is an astounding Gothic thriller that had me captivated from the first page and kept me turning those pages feverishly as the plot unfolded and the true depths of the villain's cunning plan became apparent. I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them, but this one has left her previous offerings in the shade.
Bonnie arrived in London as something of an innocent young woman and soon found herself under the wing of Crawford, a man of the world with ambitions to better his station in life. While the pair eke out a living by robbing the men that Bonnie entices into a dark alley , it is never enough and when one such robbery goes badly wrong Bonnie is forced to flee the city. Fortunately Crawford has the perfect place for her to hide, having seen an advertisement for a ladies maid position in a grand house. If Bonnie can secure the job she will be safely hidden and well taken care of. Of course things go to plan and Bonnie soon finds herself hired by the recently widowed Mr Moncrieff , deep in mourning for his lost wife, as a maid for his daughter Cissie, a peculiar young woman scarred by the tragedy of her mother's death. Over time Bonnie finds herself starting to care about Cissie, but the sudden arrival of her "brother" Crawford at the house immediately has her wondering what he really intends for her to do, and as it turns out she his not wrong to worry. Crawford has a plan , one that could see them both wealthy beyond their wildest imaginings, but it is not without danger. Bonnie finds herself torn between her new and old lives, where will her loyalty lie?

This was an absolute page turner of a book, I was immediately absorbed by the character of Bonnie and compelled to keep reading to see how the story would turn out. I adored the setting, the house , Endellion, almost felt like a character in its own right, and the vivid descriptions made it easy to visualise a home that had stagnated following the death of it's mistress. The relationship between Bonnie and Cissie was one that I loved to see grow and develop while on the opposite end of the scale the complexity of the power dynamics between Crawford and Bonnie was almost uncomfortable but very well described. The pace felt right for a book of this genre, a slow building of story and steady ratcheting up of tension before a dramatic conclusion, with a final confrontation that genuinely had me on the edge of my seat.
I also have to take a moment to admire the stunning cover, it really catches the eye and I loved seeing how all the elements fit with the story as it unfolded.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher ,all opinions are my own.

I have to say while intrigued, I wasn’t really sure where this book was going until about 1/3 of the way in. Then I read the whole thing in two sittings! It’s a story about how a girl (Bonnie) becomes embroiled on the schemes of her boyfriend but I don’t know how to explain this more without spoilers!
I liked how it didn’t fall into being a ghost story (although this would have been easy to do) and I liked how the plot was strangely predictable but also drew you in.
Genuinely was intending to buy this but was given it through netgalley. I have written honest reviews of books I didn’t like and would for this book too if I hadn’t liked it. I would be writing this review anyways regardless of not having paid for the book itself.

Firstly the most beautifully designed cover. The story imaginatively realised, the plot, burial and trickery graphically embellished. Any fans of gothic thrillers will devour this, if you're yet to discover this genre, the burial plot is an excellent introduction, hidden clues to be unearthed throughout the characters and setting towards a grand upheaval that shakes to the core.

This is not my normal choice of book. But I really enjoyed it. I loved the gothic vibe this book had. Th e cover was enticing and so was the story.
It was beautifully written and I couldn’t put it down.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC copy of this book. It encouraged me
To step out of my reading comfort zone and I’m so glad I did or I would t have really missed out on this wonderful book!

2.5 stars!

i have to admit, this book left me slightly confused. bonnie was an interesting character, however, the way she went crawling back to crawford at the beginning was annoying, like c’mon girl you’re better than this. crawford wasn’t mysterious, he was just a toxic, controlling man who deserved what he got.

was highly disappointed by this book. it was trying to hard to be something that it wasn’t. i understand how people would enjoy it, but it just wasn’t for me. there’s honestly not much i can say because i’m just left confused and ???

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was easily immersed in this twisty gothic novel at first. The plot was well paced and the characters intriguing. However, halfway through I found myself losing interest for some reason. The plot seemed to drag and the characters lost their complexities. I do however appreciate the lengths the author must have gone to to do the research for this novel, and admire how she crafted the twists and turns.

With thanks to the publisher for granting me access to this ARC in return for an honest review.

I am a complete sucker for anything gothic and/or Victorian, so I was very excited to get my hands on a copy of this book! It is very well crafted and clearly well researched, with prose that flows well and carries the plot with ease. I loved the London aspects and felt a feeling of absolute dread throughout, the gothic always a spectre looming in the corners.

Unfortunately, I found the twists a little too predictable, and as such, the naïveté of the main character became jarring at times. Things that seemed very obvious to the reader just never seemed to occur to Bonnie, though I appreciate to some extent her sheltered upbringing might have contributed to this. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated at her passivity, as if things were constantly being done to her, her manipulation by Crawford throughout a great source of ire. I wished and wished for a moment where she’d finally be the one with the upper hand; where she would actually be the one to control her own fate (which, despite the frequent insistence that she was, having left both her childhood home and London, never felt true to me), and in the end she wasn’t allowed to; another character being the person to end Crawford. I thought it was a cruel thing to rob her of this!

Nonetheless, the ending came together nicely and I was happy it did, having feared something dreadful would befall them all right until the very last chapter. Will I read the next book by this author? Absolutely!

3.5 stars*

I loved the darkness and gothic elements to this book, it definitely made it more intriguing and the book kept me hooked.

Wow what a tale! I loved everything about this book, the characters & atmosphere are exceptional but the overall story line is just 5 star. I’ve read & enjoyed this authors previous novels but this is my new favourite.

Set in 1839, The Burial Plot is the fantastic new Gothic novel from Elizabeth Macneal, who you may know from The Doll Factory. As you can tell, I am a big fan of The Burial Plot – from plucky lead character Bonnie, to the sprawling mansion, Endellion, a character in its own right, The Burial Plot has got intrigue, drama and even a love story – all wrapped up in a Gothic setting.

Bonnie Fairchild is a very endearing character. We get the story of The Burial Plot from her POV and although not born into extreme poverty, she wants to work her way up in the world and thinks she’s onto a good thing when a very handsome man seems to want to help her. She falls for Crawford, and together they use not exactly honest means to forge a living (theft, lies, deception).

Despite this, Bonnie comes across as a nice girl, one whose circumstances, rather than her personality have driven her to do what she does.

Crawford encourages her to apply for a job as a lady’s maid in Endellion, a huge, isolated house and things escalate from there…

Owned by Mr Aubrey Moncrieff, he lives there with his 16-year old daughter, Cissie and a limited staff due to his money running out. His wife tragically died the previous year and when Bonnie moves in, its to a house still trapped in the past. Bonnie is the breath of fresh air the house needs, she certainly catches Mr Moncrieff’s eye.

Life is going well for Bonnie until it transpires that Crawford has links to Endellion that she knew nothing about. She starts to understand that Crawford hasn’t been telling her the whole truth and he will stop at nothing to get his way.

I loved the nod to the most classic Gothic love story of them all, Rebecca in the pages of The Burial Plot. Endellion does indeed have Manderley vibes, as does the ghost of Mr Moncrieff’s dead wife. Josephine (who drowned, coincidence lovers) is the Rebecca of The Burial Plot – that’s not to say her story is the same, but I enjoyed the reference.

The Burial Plot is highly readable and engaging historical fiction. You’ll be rooting for Bonnie through all her trials and tribulations and hoping her ending is the one she wants. Highly enjoyed this!

I really enjoyed the gothic vibes of this book, the twists and turns, and the overall story was very good. The prose really did transport you to Victorian London and the characters were very true to the era.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for an early eARC of this book.

I really enjoyed the plot but once it became family oriented I lost interest. Especially when the main character who never mentioned anything regarding a child starts saying stuff like how I feel so empty I wish I had a baby growing in me, gross. And then it just went downwards.

My favourite of Elizabeth Macneal's books to date, as this one proved a dark and compelling gothic tale set in Victorian England. The characters are well formed and engaging, particularly Cissie, who could have had a whole spin off book herself, and the world Macneal creates is vivid and authentic. I loved the surprising ending, and will definitely recommend this book.