This review is part of a TLC Book Tour for The Woman in the Lake.
About the Book
From the bestselling author of House of Shadows and The Phantom Tree comes a spellbinding tale of jealousy, greed, plotting and revenge—part history, part mystery—for fans of Kate Morton, Susanna Kearsley and Barbara Erskine.
London, 1765
Lady Isabella Gerard, a respectable member of Georgian society, orders her maid to take her new golden gown and destroy it, its shimmering beauty tainted by the actions of her brutal husband the night before.
Three months later, Lord Gerard stands at the shoreline of the lake, looking down at a woman wearing the golden gown. As the body slowly rolls over to reveal her face, it’s clear this was not his intended victim…
250 Years Later…
When a gown she stole from a historic home as a child is mysteriously returned to Fenella Brightwell, it begins to possess her in exactly the same way that it did as a girl. Soon the fragile new life Fen has created for herself away from her abusive ex-husband is threatened at its foundations by the gown’s power over her until she can’t tell what is real and what is imaginary.
As Fen uncovers more about the gown and Isabella’s story, she begins to see the parallels with her own life. When each piece of history is revealed, the gown—and its past—seems to possess her more and more, culminating in a dramatic revelation set to destroy her sanity.
Excerpt
It was only later that she opened her rucksack. The golden dress from Lydiard Park was bundled up inside. Fen had known it was there, of course, but she had deliberately ignored it because to think about it was too difficult. She didn’t know why she had stolen it. She wished she hadn’t. Sometimes she took small things: sweets from the post office, a pair of tights or some lipstick or face cream. She didn’t do it for the excitement. It was weird really. It scared her but at the same time she needed to do it. The impulse was uncontrollable. She had no idea why. It wasn’t as though she needed to steal. Her grandmother was generous with pocket money when she remembered. It wasn’t even as though Fen wanted the things she took. She usually threw them away.
The golden gown, though… That had felt different. The impulse to take it had been more powerful than anything she had ever previously known. It had been totally instinctive and irresistible. Which was very frightening.
She wondered if anyone had noticed that it had disappeared. Surely they must and tomorrow there would be a message waiting for her to go to Mrs. Holmes’s office and she would be arrested for theft, and then she would need to make up another story and convince them that she had taken it by accident. She screwed her eyes tight shut. She wasn’t a bad person. She did her best. But sometimes she just could not help herself.
She should give the gown back. She should own up before anyone asked her.
Fen stood irresolute for a moment in the middle of the bedroom floor, clutching the gown to her chest. She did not want to let it go. Already it felt too precious, too secret and too special. It wasn’t the sort of dress she would ever wear, but even so she knew how important it was. She just knew it.
Her palms itched. Was it guilt? Greed? She was not sure. She only knew that it was essential she should keep the gown. It was hers now.
Review
When I originally picked this book for review, I’m pretty sure the description wasn’t as detailed as it is now, particularly in regards to abusive husbands and a dress that “possesses” people. If it had been, I may have passed it up, which would have been the right decision as it turns out, because this book wasn’t really for me.
To begin with, the main characters were all fairly one-dimensional, and the two historical women were unlikeable to boot—bitter, scheming, adulterous, and quite happy to stay that way. I felt a little more sympathetic toward Fen, who wasn’t unlikeable so much as uninspiring. At first, her kleptomania sparked my intellectual interest, but that dwindled as the story progressed and it became clear it wasn’t going to be explored in any kind of meaningful way. Most disappointing of all, none of these characters experienced any growth during the course of the story. Their circumstances may have changed by the end, but they were essentially the same in character despite there being ample room for improvement.
The plot intrigued me to begin with, but as the story developed, it became easier to predict the twists and turns so that there was very little that surprised me. The supernatural element also seemed weak, perhaps because it was only a small part of the plot even though the entire story hinged on believing in the supernatural properties of the dress and a random time-travel “portal” scene at the beginning. Then again, I don’t tend to read books with supernatural elements, so perhaps I’m not the best judge.
The writing was okay for the most part, but there were times when it felt stilted, and it lacked the colour and nuance that can really bring a story to life for me. This may have been deliberate to some extent, as it seemed to suit the mood of the characters and the story, but either way, it’s not really my style. On the plus side, there was only very occasional coarse language, but there was also a scene with the historical characters that felt just as sullying as coarse language—perhaps even more so. Thankfully, it was brief and minimally graphic, but I often found myself wanting to detoxify somehow after spending time with the historical characters anyway. Definitely not my people!
So, not really my kind of story at all. But the author did use the word vertiginous, and I’ve decided that word needs to be used more often. So there’s that.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Nicola Cornick has written over 40 historical romances and now writes Gothic time slip for HQ and Graydon House.
Nicola’s writing is inspired by her love of history and was fostered by a wonderful history teacher and by her grandmother, whose collection of historical romantic fiction fed Nicola’s addiction from an early age. She studied in London and Oxford and works as a guide and historian in a 17th century house as well as acting as a historical adviser for TV and radio. Publisher’s Weekly have described her as a rising star and her books have been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and for the Romance Writers of America RITA Awards.
Nicola lives near Oxford with her husband and dog. When she isn’t writing she enjoys long walks in the countryside, singing in a choir and volunteering as a puppy walker for Guide Dogs.
Connect with Nicola: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Thank you for being on this tour!
Sara @ TLC Book Tours