Discover The House Book Fashioned By Susan Greenwood Presented As Hardbound

is graphic. The description sounded interesting. but, I didnt make past the first chapter, The prelude graphically describes physical and sexual abuse of the woman they suspect is a witch, Cant become interested in this kinda book, It was interesting, it was a little hard to follow with going back and forth between time periods, Also, there were so many characters, it was hard to keep them straight, It was a mystery with a very unpredictable ending! Kind of a lukewarm book,
It floated just along, All the dramas which were mentioned just dissolved quite undramatically,
I just don't like it when there is some crisis or drama and the chapter ends and in the next we just go along and the former drama has vanished and is just casually mentioned.

Also I would have liked to have more to and fro between the two different time lines, The big "what has happened then" was just as lukewarm as the whole book,
As was the relationship between Rob and Janie, .
And what about the cat

It was easy to read but there could have been so much more! Dear Lord, this book was so boring! NOTHING HAPPENS! She finds an old book that tells the story of a woman who lived there in the past.
The end. A Fun, Well Written Book!

I began reading this with no expectations other than the hope that I would be entertained, and I was!

A special home, several centuries, several special families and the mysterious bonds that tie them all together! Have you ever been sideswiped Well get ready because this book will knock you off your block! But not in a good way.

The author draws you in and gets you all wrapped up in the investigation then BOOM!!! Complete turn around,

I still am undecided if I like the surprise or find it unbelievable and frustrating, Either way I did enjoy the book up until the ending, When Janie and Rob Whittaker decide to leave London for a simpler life, they buy a centuriesold house in Sussex, Along with the house, Janie receives the House Book, a collection of information on the former occupants of the home, and the diary of Alice Crayford, one of itsth century mistresses.


As Janie becomes absorbed in Alices diary life, she discovers she and her husband are more connected to the house than she could have imagined, However, not all of her discoveries bode well for her future and there may be ghosts in the house that need to be laid to rest,

Another notnew book but I picked this up on Kindle Unlimited because it was comped to Kate Morton, This comp worked in the sense that the story revolved around a country house, but thats where the comparison ended,

First, let me say that this was a great story for about the first half of the novel, Then the author lost me, I understand what the author was attempting to do with weaving in the past set in the mids and the present set in, but I felt like shed start down one road then veer off to follow another one before tying up the first plot thread, with the end result that none of them were satisfying.


This next bit might sound muddled, but this is my recollection of the plot, There was a curse, maybe, Janie decided to leap into tracing her familys history and genealogy since they mysteriously moved away over something she might or might not have caused, and somehow she conflated this event with the “curse.
” I never did follow the trail of who was descended from whom very well, but it turned out that their connection with the house had to do with her husbands parentage, not so much with Janie.
However, the part where they should have told him, and brought closure to the story, was skipped over in favor of showing Janie with a happy family five years down the road.
My takeaway was this: her fears were ungrounded and nothing in her life was actually connected to Alice and this “curse, ” So it all felt a little pointless,

This novel could have been a great timeslip book, It flirted with that structure, but the “past” chapters were used as a vehicle to add details to the diary entries instead of providing a fully fleshedout secondary story, save for the prologue and last chapter.


Ill wrap up my review by saying although not a bad read, it didnt live up to my expectations,

I rated this book,stars.
Atyears old, Alice Crayford becomes mistress of Oakwood Grange, a house built by her father, and she begins her diary, The house remains in the ownership of one family for three and a half centuries, each generation faithfully recording details of their household in The House Book,
Eventually, the family line dies out,


Oakwood Grange has new owners, Janie Whittaker feels an unaccountable attachment to the old place from the very first visit and, inspired by The House Book, decides its time she traced the estranged branch of her own family.


But its Janies discovery of Alices diary in amongst some old papers which provides a more interesting link between past and present and soon shes absorbed in Alices world.


Meanwhile, Janie cant help noticing one or two strange little occurrences in the house even their foundling cat seems a bit odd but none of this really fazes her.
Its true the witches marks over the fireplace are a bit unsettling, but then belief in witches was commonplace in the seventeenth century and now, surely, everyone knows, . .

theres no such thing as witchcraft

A perfect book club read for fans of Kate Morton, Rachel Hore and Katherine Webb

Most of my favorite things wrapped up in one well written, cozy book.
I love generational stories, even more so when theyre cohesive and engaging through the end, The mystery around the diary, ledgers, and House Book led me astray in such delightful ways, Im not ashamed to say that I was incredibly off base more times than not, Why did I truly believe Cat was going to play such a significant role

Oftentimes with so many characters, its difficult to keep them straight, I didnt have an issue here, with each individual character differing enough to feel unique and stand alone, It didnt matter which generation or storyline we were in, even the shift in mood was visceral and complete, I dont have any noteworthy complaints,

My favorite: Janie, She was written so profoundly, so relatable, My favorite lines are all hers

“What alchemy exists, she wondered, to produce such a seductive scent, simply from paper, ink and glue” Quite good, just spooky enough

Loved both timelines realistic sort of endingsmostly happy.
Good characters. Only a tiny bit of too much coincidence, I definitely enjoyed it. This was an interesting book a little slow at times, but not slow enough to make me want to stop reading it! Interspersed with a sprinkling of paranormal, witchcraft and genealogical mysteries, I liked the twists and turns of the discovery behind the story of Alices diary! And just when you thought you had figured it all out BAM!! surprise ending!! I enjoyed this book and it had a good story line, but the writing was so choppy I had difficulty sometimes figuring out who was speaking.
Scene changes popped up suddenly from one paragraph to another that made me not know what was even happening, It would make a better tv movie because then you would be able to see sudden changes in scenes, I thought it was a solidstoryline, but the confusing writing put it down to afor me, Maybe Im dense but I didnt get the ending!

There are a lot of characters involved here, might be nice to have a summary or family tree at back of book.

Front of book not a good idea as it may give away some spoilers to come as the story unfolds,

I liked the storyline of a house book being kept a handwritten journal of events from the past that was kept up with for financial or social purposes.
It didnt reveal everything that went on, there definitely were secrets, but gave enough info for current owners of this historic home to delve further into the background of the house, the people.
There is also a witchcraft element but I thought it was rather subdued,

Janie, the new owner of the home, with her husband, Rob, take on the digging for information and clarification and misdeeds of the past,

I understand this is book, I didnt know there was a bookso thats on my TBR list, The author is finishing up bookto be published soon, Maybe Ill then get an answer to my questions and curiousity at the ending in this book! Nothing is Happening

I gotinto this and they were still buying the house.
It was excruciatingly slow and nothing has really pulled me into this story,

DNF /Stars

As much as I wanted to rate this higher, I just couldn't do so because of a couple of issues that I found rather conflicting.

I tend to not like books that jump from time periods, and this book helped me realize why, It's too difficult for the writer to keep the story flowing in a way that doesn't becoming confusing, This one definitely has that as an issue,
At times, I couldn't

even keep the characters from the past straight, let alone keep the relationships to the present, on track,
My biggest issue came toward the very end of the book, A totally unexpected twist in the plot line, and as the chapter is wrapping up on how to handle the situation, the very next page/chapter suddenly jumps ahead/years, completely skipping how it was handled.

Throughout the entirety of the book, there's a lot of rather boring daily grind details, which just fills up pages in the book, And now when the pages need to be filled with details, now you skip it
The description given by the publisher also didn't do a very good job on letting you know what to expect.
Rather the opposite. I went in expecting something completely different, and was rather disappointed when it didn't live up to the that description given,
I mainly stuck it out from boredom, not liking to leave a book unfinished, and thinking it would eventually pick up,
It was just meh, and at least gave me something to do over the last couple of days, while battling a cold,
Not my style of writing, or typical genre, but it may apple to some, Susan Greenwood was born in the North of England but now lives in rural West Sussex, surrounded by stunning scenery and locations which feature in much of her writing, She graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Zoology and, although the natural world is still an important part of her life, its her long held love of literature, both reading and writing, that is now her main driving force.
Growing up hearing about Pendle witches and with a fascination for the social history of theth century, particularly how this relates to the lives of women, has been the basis for her first two published books and a third which is still in the research phase.
Susan is the author of several short stories and two novels, The House Book, whic Susan Greenwood was born in the North of England but now lives in rural West Sussex, surrounded by stunning scenery and locations which feature in much of her writing.
She graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Zoology and, although the natural world is still an important part of her life, it's her long held love of literature, both reading and writing, that is now her main driving force.
Growing up hearing about Pendle witches and with a fascination for the social history of theth century, particularly how this relates to the lives of women, has been the basis for her first two published books and a third which is still in the research phase.
Susan is the author of several short stories and two novels, The House Book, which is set in the beautiful downland surrounding Petworth, and An Uncertain Legacy, set inth century France and England.
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