I just finished a great book by Lauren Westwood. The House of Light and Shadows was definitely worth the read!

This is a creepy book that looks into the Victorian tradition of photographing the dead. Once considered a way to remember and celebrate lost family and friends, it's obviously considered less palatable today. Add a haunted house and a missing woman and you get a sinister read

“The House of Light and Shadows” is by Lauren Westwood. In this book, we meet Kate, who is a workaholic lawyer, who receives a call asking that she care for her niece and nephew. Kate hasn’t seen or spoken to her sister, Emma, for a number of years - so she doesn’t know the kids and the kids don’t know her. Kate discovers that her sister had bought an old house that has some oddness about it - possibly supernatural oddness. Kate begins digging into the history of the house and makes a few discoveries. We then read about Ada, one of the sisters who lived in the house a while ago. The two stories do mirror each other. I found Kate to be very self-centered and pompous and I never really grew to like her. A fast mystery read.

When Kate moves back to her sister Emma's house to take care of Emma's teenage children well emma is recovering in the hospital her whole life has changed. After not speaking with her sister in years she is shocked to find out that Emma is divorced, and had bought a creepy old mansion with her husband.

Kate begins changing priorities in her life after being a workaholic lawyer she is now busy being an aunt and discovering lots of odd events in the old house. Lots of weird noises, being locked in the cellar, her neice and her sister have falls etc. With the help of the kids school headmaster Kate begins researching the history of the mansion and the weird sisters that lived there

Fast paced, plenty of drama and suspense had me finishing this book in one day. Thanks to the author for a very interesting book.

What a treat I loved this book from beginning to end.
Just brilliant
Just enough supernatural suspense to make it believable. I loved the way the 2 stories mirrored each other.
If you like Nicola Cornick Barbara Erskine or susanna Kearsley this is the book for you.

A dual timeline novel featuring 2 sisters years apart and the haunted house that links them.
I preferred reading Ada's story, her gothic, slightly macabre interests.
The present day characters came across as self centered, Kate especially was pompous in her beliefs, more so at the beginning.
A fairly easy, light read

This book was a unique mystery and I flew through it. The mystery was good and I didn't guess the ending. I really enjoyed this book and will be looking out for more from this author!

I am putting this book down at 10%.

While there is a possibility that this novel gets more palatable, I personally do not intend to spend precious time slogging through this.

My 3 main issues that I believe anyone contemplating purchasing this book should consider are as follows:

1. Barely three pages in, and the FMC, Kate, has managed to alienate anyone who thinks their life is worthwhile even without a partner and children. A direct quote: "Kevin's a good lawyer, and he's not a bad guy either. He's got a wife, two kids, a house in St. Albans, a plug-in hybrid Range Rover. The other candidate, Dave, just bought a riverside flat in Butler's Wharf with his surgeon partner, Simon. Settled, happy, normal. Everything I'm not. They deserve equity partnership. I don't deserve anything."

(This is not to mention that Kevin had just told Kate that their higher-ups were probably more likely to higher her over two men to "get the stats up and all." That's not misogynistic at all.)

2.The overuse of "I say." Can we find no better way to denote speaking than this? It falls incredibly flat, especially when the actual words being spoken by the character carry a heavier emotional load than the phrase "I say" can uphold.

3. Why is a 35 year old "consummate professional" acting like a toddler towards the niece and nephew she hasn't seen in years and, by her own admission, has zero relationship with? I do not buy it. Maybe the author could consider aging her down, but even then its a bitter pill to swallow. Especially with the circumstances the children are under. I like difficult characterization, but this is just reading as petty and small.

I'm grateful this was available to download without pre-approval from the publisher, and I hope the best for the upcoming release of this novel. Unfortunately, it just was not for me.