Eleanor Harper is heading for her first day as the new director of the Cliffside Arts Foundation. The previous director, Penelope Dare, was the last of the family who set up the retreat for people to work for a set period on a particular arts project be it writing, painting, photography or anything similar. As Eleanor settles into Cliffside House she becomes aware of a few strange goings on - noises in the night, time that goes without her realising it, a spooky dolls house and so on. Once the six fellows arrive it all becomes a little more heated and events take quite a sinister turn. Who are the children running in the attics and who is wreaking destruction - is it someone mortal or a ghost?

I very much enjoyed the first two thirds of this book. The book seemed to be reasonably well written with a good structure to the plot. I was interested in the characters and how they were reacting though became quite aware that Eleanor wasn't the sharpest spark in the bonfire and she didn't pick up on some early, obvious clues. As the action started to hot up I felt that the book started to disintegrate. There was a terrible demonic exorcism which just wasn't credible. I didn't find it believeable that a demon being exorcised would calmly sit in a chair without screaming or fighting. At least they could have tied her down for effect! Up until this point the information had been unravelling nicely as the story progressed and I was happily fitting everything together. However, during this rather odd exorcism scene there were several pages of information given as a speech by one person, Nate Davidson. Where is the fun in having the rest of the puzzle spoon fed in a hurry?

The last third of this book piled in a vast amount of information in a great rush. I did start to wonder if the author had an impending deadline! It really spoiled the tension for me. I don't like being spoon fed large amounts of information especially when it got more and more inplausible as the story progressed. The author really did not do themselves or the book justice with this ending.

This had the makings of a good, solid four star book. Not exceptional & a little predictable & obvious in places. However the last section just didn't live up to this and was a disappointment.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

I've loved Wendy Webb's other books, but this one just didn't feel very thought out. It started out strong, and I loved the atmosphere, but the end just felt rushed and thrown together.

“Death lived within these walls; she could feel it hanging in the air, as tangible as the fog outside.”

Eleanor Harper, as fate would have it, has become the director of an artist’s retreat at Cliffside Manor. That the place and it’s grounds were once ‘a waiting room for death’ (a sanatorium housing adults and children infected with tuberculosis) may well be the reason this ‘peaceful manor’ is anything but. Is it possible suffering clings to the surfaces or is it something more malevolent? Nervous about her inexperience, this change in career is what she needs, as is the escape from her former life as a crime reporter, dealing with the most heinous, viciously murderous crimes. She is beyond burned out and run down, could that be the reason she feels uneasy? Maybe her mind is playing tricks on her?

Nothing could prepare her for what happens to the woman that hired her, nor is she in command when the artists arrive. Eleanor isn’t sure what’s solid, her imagination must be running rampant, seeing things differently than they are, as they would be in the past, an uneasy feeling consuming her from the moment she stepped through the doors of Cliffside Manor. It’s on her now, and she cannot fail. There is an instant attraction to one of the men, a photographer named Richard, but something about the manor’s resident doctor whom she meets prior to the arrivals has her mystified. A wicked force begins to torment the group immediately. As she learns more, she soon realizes everyone chosen, including herself wasn’t random, but just what was Penelope Dare up to? Did she set them up, have nefarious intentions? Why did Penelope have faith in her and leave so much to her, a veritable stranger really? The author plays with a fascinating subject of tuberculosis and sanatoriums then sprinkled in a bit of horror and romance for good measure creating this strange concoction of a thriller. While I enjoyed it, I really wanted more focus on the tuberculosis patients as a haunting and while they have a part in the story, I just didn’t like the evil seed so to speak. I was sold on the terrible heavy sorrows of a place people went to die, all of that would be foreboding and haunting enough but the child… well… that’s my one sore spot here.

Now, the romantic interests… it was creative but the reactions any living person would have would be less ho hum. The revelations were passed over much too fast for my tastes and accepted a bit too easily. But I don’t want to give away the story-line. It’s strange because it’s a thriller, romance, horror, supernatural story and yet not fully any of those things. Any fan of ghost stories and investigative haunting knows hospitals, sanatoriums, and mental asylums have such breathtakingly heavy stories that it seems if there were a place to house tormented ghosts this would be prime real estate. Such abandoned places stand as foreboding shells of their former lives, and what scarier setting for activity and terror? The author picked the perfect atmospheric setting and for whatever reason, throw a lake in and it’s raises the spook factor. Water and ghosts just go together. Creepy children always raise of few hairs on the arms don’t they?

It’s a good little story, while I wasn’t horrified, it was fun. It takes a lot to scare me though and I nitpick horror stories. I think when you have seen too many horror films and know too many ghost legends you scoff at everything. There was just enough to keep me reading to find out what the heck was going on.

Publication Date: June 6, 2017

Lake Union Publishing

Wendy Webb sets her story in a sanitarium which was a medical facility used to treat tuberculosis before technology gave us medicine. Back then people died at an alarming rate and were often kept quarantined in these ‘hospitals’ so it was easy to believe the tormented spirits of these people haunted those buildings as they fell out of fashion to be left abandoned to ruin. Webb obviously put some time into researching this stuff because her work is detailed and authentic which heightens that chilling sense of horror at what happened here.

Webb starts off strong so you become hooked early on, the excitement builds, her characters make it easy to follow their story, and the setting is everything a horror fan could want then it hits a small bump. It’s almost as if Webb lost some of her own excitement at writing such a cool and intriguing story. I definitely had a love/hate relationship going with around the middle or so because her writing is very descriptive so you can see her world unfolding before your eyes, you feel like you get to know her characters on a personal level. I think it was more my expectations because I wanted to know all about the spooky stuff, the sinister things that keep you up at night, the mysteries that keep you puzzling so life doesn’t get boring. It reminded me a bit of the second movie in a trilogy; the first sets up the story to get your interest hooked, the second is just there to provide the bigger picture then comes the third with all the action and payoff.

Even if it feels like the story drags a bit and you want to give up you must push through because the payoff will happen. The chilling plot will come and it gets good so the wait be awarded as the page turning supernatural mystery you were hoping for comes to pass.

Along the thread of books I could not put down (like Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris) this was a gripping page turner. If you're interested in books with a supernatural theme and enough twists to keep you on your toes, this is the book for you.

The first few chapters of this book were really good, then the book came to a lull it began to drag through until about 1/2 way through then it really go to the reason I chose this book, the ghosts. The last half of the book was really good and creepy. The part that began to drag was over run with description that was a bit boring to me, and really had nothing to do with the story. When a thought takes 3 pages I get bored. But like I said once it got to about the half way point I couldn't put it down. There were a few surprises along the way, a lot of mystery, and yep ghosts and a demon as well. The book really is worth the read.

Ex Crime reporter Eleanor Harper has come to Cliffside Manor as the New director. Cliffside was built as a TB Sanatorium and then turned into a retreat for arts. Shortly after her arrival the previous director and owner of Cliffside is found dead in her room after committing suicide. Now it is up to Eleanor to welcome the new group of Fellows to the manor and to carry on the work of the Dare family. As she goes to bed that night she finds a very cryptic and threatening letter from the old director under her blankets. Telling her her nightmare has just begun and that there is a puzzle she must solve. Strange things start happening as well as a long standing feeling of dread. As soon as the 5 fellows show up things really get creepy. Can Eleanor save the fellows and herself from the ghosts of Cliffside Manor and solve the puzzle?

I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

The setting in a TB sanitarium that was turned into an artist's retreat was suitably spooky. I remembered The Pines TB Sanitarium outside of Shreveport that had a pretty eery atmosphere, and I became curious about the "white plague" of tuberculosis that killed so many people prior to the discovery of streptomycin. I had no idea how many people died of TB before 1952.

Although the plot had promise, it deteriorated into silliness and the too long conclusion dragged.

Wendy Webb is the Queen of Gothic, and The End of Temperance Dare earns her a brand new sparkling gold crown. If you love settling in with an old fashioned spooky gothic, this is the book for you. Loved it!

After years of working the crime beat for a major newspaper, Eleanor Harper is suffering from PTSD. The ugly things she’s seen over the years have taken their toll and she leaves her job. She takes a new position as director of an artists retreat known as Cliffside Manor, a beautiful old mansion that once held patients stricken with tuberculosis. While the setting is ideal, Eleanor is overcome with feelings of dread and apprehension and begins to believe the former director chose the current group of artists for a reason that has nothing to do with art, something much more sinister. Does the mansion hold the souls of those who died there so many years ago? Webb is a modern Victoria Holt, a Gothic writer who can spin a spell of enchantment over readers