„The Cruel Dark“ follows Millie, who moves to Willowfield to be the new assistant to a reclusive Professor of mythology and botany. Tragedy has struck Willowfield a couple of years ago, when the wife of the Professor died under mysterious circumstances. While Millie did come to Willowfield to save up for a new start, she soon starts falling in love and is being haunted by the ghost of his deceased wife.

The audiobook was incredible!

The story is gripping and dark. We follow Millie’s POV and the edges of reality soon start to fade. Millie starts to doubt herself and it is disconcerting to feel untethered. The twist at the end is a masterpiece!

This book has all the right vibes AND substance! Dark Academia, Gothic Romance, Historical Fiction, Mythological Creatures and some Spice. An intriguing mix of Beauty and the Beast, Rebecca and Belladonna. I’m already thinking about a re-read (or rather re-listen).

The book is read by Madison Mitts and Theodore Zephyr. Theodore’s dark voice fits perfectly and gives the book an even more gothic vibe. Madison portraited Millie’s confusion, fear and detachment from reality perfectly.

One of my true 5 star reads this year and a clear recommendation! I can’t wait to read more from Bea Northwick.

Thank you to Netgalley for the audiobook download!

4 stars for Millie and Callum!

I received an ALC copy of The Cruel Dark from Netgalley and boy oh boy has this changed my life! I'm not really an audiobook listener but this has certainly changed me!

Millicent Foxboro and Professor Callum Hughes were so dreamy. This romance was set in the year 1928 at the Willowfield estate, which is owned by the MMC Callum. Millie, our FMC, gets a job offer to work as an assistant at Callum's estate with a huge paycheck and she accepts the offer which can set her up for life. And ain't nothing wrong with that! Ooh and the spice! I don't want to spoil for anyone but if you love romance and mystery and a historical setting, this book has exactly what you want. The chemistry that is built between Millie and Callum is so well done. That honestly is what kept me coming back for more. Add in two amazing voice actors and you've got a great book.

I enjoy a slowburn and this is definitely a slowburn. I love when a writer takes their time to explore a relationship and doesn't rush it. I felt that Bea Northwick did an excellent job with her debut novel. The setting and characters were perfect. I enjoyed the banter between Millie and Callum so much. He was so mean and then so sexy and I really want to now read Lover which is a companion book to this book, but from Callum's POV.

Madison Mitts and Theodore Zephyr do a phenomenonal job of bringing Millie and Callum to life! Listening to these two narrate was the cherry on top and I will definitely be buying a hard copy of The Cruel Dark!!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op for giving me the opportunity to listen to The Cruel Dark by Bea Northwick!

2.5
Got this audiobook from NetGalley, but I couldn't finish it. In the beginning you learn that Millie sleepwalks, has a period of amnesia, has been in an asylum, Prof. Callum's wife died in a mysterious way, and there are ghosts. 60% of the way through, after wading through a lot of rich (and by rich I mean wordy) description of gothic architecture and scenery, you still don't know any more than that. No bits of detail, slowly uncovered throughout, to fill in the gaps. Nothing. You don't learn anything more about either character, we still don't know what Dr. Callum is even doing resarch for and why he needs help. Their conversation and interactions are choppy and stilted, with language that turned me off - not romantic in any way. After a second, sex scene that didn't make any sense between two people who have hardly said two words to each other, I realized I had better things I could be reading. Also...Callum sounded like he could be Millie's father.

ℝ𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥: 𝐸-𝐵𝑜𝑜𝓀 & 𝒜𝓊𝒹𝒾𝑜𝒷𝑜𝑜𝓀

ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨: 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐝 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐢𝐭, 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧! 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐛𝐞.

𝐈’𝐦 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐚, 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥—𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧! 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭, 𝐈 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲—𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞.

𝐀𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝! 𝐈 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲.

𝐻𝓊𝑔𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝐵𝑒𝒶 𝒩𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽𝓌𝒾𝒸𝓀, 𝒱𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎 𝐸𝒹𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒩𝑒𝓉𝒢𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒜𝑅𝒞! 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓅𝒾𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃.

This was a psychological thriller and dark romance. The twists in this book were fantastic, totally unexpected, and made the book such a beautiful and entertaining story. The epilogue tied everything together and explained everything so well. The narrators did a really, really great job with this book. I absolutely loved this story and would easily enjoy this book again!

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this audio ARC of The Cruel Dark, in exchange for an honest review.

The narrators did a fantastic 5 star job on this read. Both the female and male voices were done so well and helped to draw you into the story. They boosted the gothic feel and created the perfect tension.

The plot was very interesting but it felt drawn out and very clunky at times. The last few chapters of the book were exciting and had everything I wanted from this book.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen and review this audiobook!

Millicent Foxboro Is Haunted. A Past Of Abuse, Running From A House of Murder.


Dark Academia is a genre that takes a special place in my heart, and this novel hit every desire my little dark heart desires - you have the gothic, tragic house. There is the brooding professor who lives in a giant estate all alone. There are grueling visions of the previous wife, who she is told met a tragic end (very Rebecca, at the start).

The year is 1928, and Millicent is offered a job as an assistant. This is a nice surprise, as long as Millie can hide the fact that her past is covered in darkness. Millicent suffers from traumatic amnesia, waking up in a ward without a single memory to date.

The amazing salary is appealing, but Millie refuses to hold her tongue. My favorite thing about this main character is that she is opinionated, even with someone that employs her. She is confident, unashamed, takes what she wants, and does not take no for an answer. Millie refuses to be bullied.

Millie is cautious to take what seems to be too good to be true, but the Professor of Mythology draws her interest more and more. The Professor Callum Hughes and his manor, Willowfield, is more than anything she had expected. The lavish estate sings in her blood, even with the dark crevices marring its interiors.

Willowfield is alight with sprawling gorgeous gardens with homely parties. Millie can tell it is a shell of what it once was. The housekeeper and employed warn her not to mention the late Mrs. Hughes. The happiness and glee and happy aura diminish following her death.

The house is a maze of bittersweet memories, spicy journal entries, rumored changelings, and faceless ghosts. The grim, intense man is quick to change from angry to cheered, from sweet to bitter. The instability of the professor's emotions refuses to temper Millie's growing interest in the widowed man, and the interested gleam in his eye when she is near him.

Dangerous secrets come out, so many twists messing with my perspective. I was surprised and delighted and amazed by the end. Very very good read, any dark fantasy readers, you must not pass up this beautifully haunting tale! 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 Stars!

The cruel dark by Bea Northwick, In The book we meet Millie, for reasons later explained in the book she went to an insane asylum for two years but for the past couple of years has been working for an elderly bookseller and then she gets a job with Professor Hughes. The book started great I was intrigued especially with the professors subject of mythology something I thought was going to play a bigger part in the overall story. Professor Hughes is a widow and it isn’t long before the creepiness settles in Millie starts seeing a ghostly apparition and at first she is scared to follow it but once she does it seems to lead her to Professor Hughes‘s bedroom. That isn’t the only place it leads her and that isn’t the only creepy thing she sees. She also finds diaries it seems all his wife talked about was the times they had sex and it seems the diary entries only heighten Millie‘s yearning for the professor, who she doesn’t always see Eye 2 Eye with. She’s also haunted by the memories of her own abusive mother couple that with the secrets in the home the ghostly apparation and all the unknown entities and this should make for one gastly ghostly story and at first it did but once again the ending seemed like everything was fast forwarded and rushed. I listen to the audiobook and the narrator Madison mitts seems to want to evoke emotion and every single word she says and at first it didn’t bother me but for 11 hours it started to get on my nerves she couldn’t even say my ill gotten gains without sounding like just the thought of it was going to make her pass out. Her mini emotions were just a bit much I get evoking emotion Wild the characters talk with doing it during the storyline just all became too much as I said. I thought the guy narrator did a great job. I think for the most part I do recommend this book although I will say there were some things that happened inside the book that didn’t jive with the ending but if you like Rebecca then you will definitely enjoy this book. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Gothic Horror, dead wife, amnesiac FMC, a large mostly abandoned mansion falling apart, this book has it all.

As is typical for the genre, there are mysteries along the way and nothing is as it seems. A twist or two thrown in for good measure and you have The Cruel Dark.
Good book, really atmospheric.

This was the first audiobook I have listen to I enjoyed it and thought it had a good storyline however I would have preferred if it was just read by one person rather than having the two separate voices

A dark and very spicy adventure full of secrets to be revealed in the reading. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC/audiobook the leading man sounded like a monster!

I enjoyed this book a lot! I feel a little silly that I didn't see some of the twists and turns at the end but it definitely made it a more enjoyable listen. I really enjoyed the audio, I liked that they had a male voice for male characters and it wasnt (to the best of my knowledge) a female narrator trying to sound manly. I definitely would be curious to read other novels from this author.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the audio ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.



“Strange things bloom where grief lives”



I ate this up so quickly. It was everything I needed in a spooky vibes book. I am still wowed and shocked. Although I suspected the twist at the end, it still left me speechless. The book is well written, charming, and haunted that I was so spellbound from the very beginning to the end. The writing, imagery, the characters, and the romance were perfect. I never believed I could listen to it in just one day, my 8 hours were well spent listening to it.



I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone so I’ll just say this, expect ghost, psychological thriller, dark academia, Irish folklore, and gothic historical romance.



If you enjoy books in the above-mentioned genre, then you need to read THE CRUEL DARK!

I really liked the book, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to listen to the audio book. I really enjoyed listening to it, the narrators did a great job of drawing me in and keeping me entertained from beginning to end.

That was intense! Romantic psychological thriller with a shocking twists. Beautifully written & amazingly narrated.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ALC.

I had read so many raving reviews about The Cruel Dark, so I was thrilled when I received an advanced listener copy thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Cruel Dark was a hauntingly beautiful gothic romance that took place in the year 1928. The story surrounds Millie, who is hired as the assistant to Professor Hughes at his estate. There is mystery, intrigue, angst, and dark romance in this story. I loved the relationship development between Millie and Callum, and found myself fascinated by the story line. The prose was almost lyrical and the author did a wonderful job at drawing an image of the scenery. Though I wasn’t sure what to expect from Callum at the beginning, I grew to love the various sides of him (including the 🌶️ side). There were several plot twists; however, due to a great deal of foreshadowing, several of them I had expected. Nonetheless, this was an enchanting read that takes you on a historical journey. Would definitely recommend if you’re into dark gothic romance with some mystery/thriller 🖤

Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️.5
5⭐️ narration

So I absolutely loved this book, it was amazing and made me confused, happy, upset, annoyed, happy again. Basically all of the feelings. I usually write my reviews as I’m reading the book and try to avoid spoilers, but this book had plot twists that made me have to go back and edit things and I don’t think I can review without spoilers, so….

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD (kinda)

Overall I LOVED this book. I really like the light horror where you don’t know if the paranormal is real or not for most of the book. Are there ghosts or are these people just superstitious? The mystery was there the whole time and I read the whole book in one sitting because I wanted answers. There was a significant part of the book where I was questioning if he was actually human or not, and the mystery was fun for me.

It did make me uncomfortable in the beginning that there were obvious allusions to the FMC looking like the MMCs dead wife and that he likely gave her his dead wife’s clothes and didn’t tell her. The way everyone reacted to her wearing them and how she looked before there’s even any romance kind of gave me the ick and was going to be the reason for the book losing a star rating for me. I was really not into reading a romance where the man was so obviously still in love with his dead wife that the FMC looked like, but I’m SO GLAD that the non romance part was interesting enough that I kept reading.

Once it got towards the end and all the little things started coming together the romance was absolute perfection. And the plot twist as to who did it and why was not at all what I guessed.

I’m actually really excited to reread this book because I think knowing what was going on the whole time I’ll pick up on more foreshadowing and a lot of scenes will look different in hindsight.

The female audiobook narrator was great, but the male narrator was ✨perfection✨his voice was the perfect amount of growly and I’ll be looking up more books he’s narrated.

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓒𝓻𝓾𝓮𝓵 𝓓𝓪𝓻𝓴
𝒷𝓎: 𝐵𝑒𝒶 𝒩𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽𝓌𝒾𝒸𝓀

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

“𝐼 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓊𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝒹𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑒𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓅𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝓃𝓈𝓅𝒾𝓇𝑒𝓈. 𝐼𝓉 𝓈𝒾𝓂𝓅𝓁𝓎 𝓂𝑒𝓁𝒹𝓈 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓌𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓅𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝒸𝓉𝑒𝒹, 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑒.”

This review is a little different because I simply cannot choose my favorite character! Once I finished the book it changed, and so I just don’t want to pick 🤷🏼‍♀️

I had no IDEA what was coming in this book! I thought we were dealing with all kinds of supernatural, and I truly could not pin point what it was.

The twists were fantastic, and I’m truly obsessed!

I’m reading the ARC novella ꪶꪮꪜꫀ𝕣 now which is a different POV and needs to be read after The Cruel Dark! I literally jumped to it the second I finished TCD and I am already 50% done! I’m loving this side of the story.

The Cruel Dark is available NOW!

Thank you @beanorthwick for this gorgeous creation of a book! 🖤

♡𝙰𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 &| 𝚎𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠♡
4 🌟
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𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•DUET narrator
•slow burn
•gothic romance
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Ummm, how do I describe this book? The audiobook production was done very well, with a duet narrator, which is a super huge plus in my option!I enjoyed that the book was super long and literally got straight to the point. It's worth the read during the spooky season! I really didn't start to get into the book until maybe 40% of the book, but once it started to get entertaining, i was hooked. The twist and turns, chief kiss. But once again, the audiobook is phenomenal.
𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎!
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Thank you, Netgalley and Victory, for the (ALC)audiobook for my honest review.

This was a bit of a spooky gothic romance with a lovely twisty plot. I'm so glad this had an epilogue that wrapped the story up.

Audiobook, dual narrations.

I did find the dramatic prose along with the dramatic way the narrator spoke them was at times a bit distracting. It took me out of the story making me really aware of it being dramatic rather than feeling it. If that makes sense.