Overall it was a good read. The ending was a huge surprise for me and I did not see it coming- especially the big twist revealing between the assistant and the deceased wife. I read this book through audio on netgalley and I enjoyed the female narrator, but I found the male narrator's voice to be very similar to readings of Edgar Allan Poe and I found it a little boring to be honest.

The hot and cold back and forth of feelings between the FMC and the MMC got a little annoying because they were so quick to flip their emotions between each other. But overall still a good book. Really good twist.

Reviewed added to: Amazon, Goodreads & B&N

The Cruel Dark is a mix of a few genres including historical fiction, gothic romance, paranormal and mystery. I was immediately drawn into the story and it's spooky atmosphere. I admit I didn't know where this book was going to lead but at around the 70% mark I did guess part of the mystery so it was a bit anticlimactic for me but I still enjoyed the story. Professor Callum is grumpy and grim and you can't tell me that he isn't Beast from Beauty and the Beast because I will not believe you.

This was a wonderful debut novel from Bea Northwick and I look forward to reading more by this author.
The audiobook narrators, Madison Mitts and Theodore Zephyr were perfectly cast and Theodore especially voices Callum with a deep, dark voice that matches the character's personality.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing an Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story is creepy and will have you continually wondering what you can and can’t believe with a twist that will have your head spinning. This gave me Verity vibes and I was suspicious of Callum, our main guy, the whole time as Millie, our main character, tries to figure out what is what. She is seeing things like her dead mother and Callum’s dead wife and it has her convinced that the house is haunted, but is it? For about 70% of the book I wasn’t sure how this would go but read other reviews saying to just trust it and keep reading. So I would say the same to anyone else it was worth it.

There are very few books that leave me speechless at the end, this is one of them.

Dang. Just. . . WOW!

The last chapter of this book is EVERYTHING. I thought I knew what was coming. I thought I could vaguely guess. I was wrong on SOOOOOOOOOO many levels. That alone is refreshing. I love to be surprised.

This book truly is a Dark Romance and has some wonderfully creepy imagery to go along with it. Since I am a very busy working mom of two, most of my reading is done at night after the kids go to bed. . . I can honestly say there was one night I was torn between being ok with how scared I was and my need to keep reading. Reading won out, but I woke my husband up on the sly just to not me along for a moment. BAHAHA!

I said it once, but It needs to be said two or three times more. This story is beautiful, the imagery is stunning, the characters are demential. I could honestly go on and on just listing the reasons this book is so jaw droopingly good.

5 freaking stars all the way around.

Thank you NetGalley and Northwick Books for the ARC.