This books started out slow; however it picked up halfway through and I really enjoyed it. It has part mystery, part ghost story, and a tiny bit of romance. The story has libraries, old houses, and lots of books. I would highly recommend!

Great book, love this author and how they can keep my attention to the end! The plot is well developed, characters are believable and they obviously paid attention to detail to make the story worth your time to read.

This novel has many of my favorite elements ... an Irish castle with a ghost, a library full of books and multiple mysteries dovetailing into a satisfying end. Intelligent storytelling, family dysfunction and secrets and well-developed characters made this an enjoyable read from beginning to end. I'll be looking for more works by Ms. Andersen, brava!

I recieved an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and will recommend it often to lovers of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels!

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

The Gallagher family has lived in Deeprath Castle for 700 years, but since his parents were murdered there, Aidan, the current viscount, has had the place stand empty for years. Now, the family has hired Carragh Ryan to take inventory of the castle's historic library before they convert the castle to a public trust. With the Gallagher family gathered together at Deeprath one last time, detectives decide to take another look into the 20-year-old murder of Aidan's parents. In Carragh's room in the castle, there is a picture of Jenny Gallagher, who also died at a young age at Deeprath Castle a hundred years before Aidan's parents. A secret reason Carragh has taken on this job is that she wants to look for evidence of a book Jenny's husband Evan was purported to have written but never published, The Darkling Bride. The castle itself seems to be helping uncover these mysteries, but will they find the answers in time?

I enjoyed the gothic mystery feel to this book. Apart from Carragh, we didn't get to know much about any of the characters in this story. The story was pretty predictable for me; I thought it was obvious early on who the murderer was. The story wasn't bad but wasn't as good as I was hoping from the description.

If nothing else, Andersen did her homework when it comes to Irish geography and folklore. This story jumps between present day, the early 90s, and the late 1880s, but predominately follows the Gallagher family. Carragh is brought in as an outside contractor and is intimately swept up in the family mystery of the Darkling Bride and, more recently, the Gallagher family murder-suicide. There were some slow and disconnected moments, but the story was engaging and I loved Aidan. How I wish the moments between he and Carragh had been a little... steamier, haha. But still, it was an enjoyable partnership. I figured out the motive for the violence before I figured out who dun it. But all that happened for me at the end anyway and unfolded beautifully.

An interesting gothic mystery, spanning hundreds of years of secrets. Thank you NetGalley for the copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a great mystery! The characters were intriguing along with the setting and the plot.
This was a great read.

I enjoyed this intriguing mystery about dark family secrets, a missing manuscript from a famous Victorian-era writer, and a haunted Irish castle. The characters were interesting and the whodunit aspect kept me guessing. This was the first Laura Andersen book I've read, but I plan to read more.

I really enjoyed reading The Darkling Bride. Very well written, suspenseful, and intriguing. I'll be on the lookout for more novels by Laura Anderson.

The Darkling Bride was an enjoyable historical mystery, with a bit of current day thrill and a little romance thrown in! The setting is an old castle with a dark past that has a presence all it's own. Our heroine gets hired on to catalog the library of the castle before it is given over to the National Trust, but she has a bit of an ulterior motive in that she believes there may be an unpublished manuscript related to the family's history. There are many intertwined relationships that made for an interesting and twisting story.

It may not be detailed enough for hard core historical fiction fans, but it was a decent and enjoyable story and I would definitely be interested in more from this author.

The Darkling Bride is a very enjoyable book. This book has a lot mystery. I had a hard time putting this book down. Totally worth ☆☆☆☆☆
Thanks to Netgalley, for this advance copy. My opinion is my own.

The Gallagher family has called Deeprath Castle home for seven hundred years. Nestled in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland, the estate is now slated to become a public trust, and book lover and scholar Carragh Ryan is hired to take inventory of its historic library. But after meeting Aidan, the current Viscount Gallagher, and his enigmatic family, Carragh knows that her task will be more challenging than she’d thought.
This was a great Gothic mystery and I’m pretty sure it’s the first one I’ve ever read in this genre. I really enjoyed this mystery and couldn’t put it down. I liked the way the book was laid out as three stories in one and I felt like it was well written and kept a good flow. I highly recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

Carragh, an adopted child in an Irish American family, has come to Deeprath Castle to archive its library before the castle is given over to the National Trust. She encounters the family, the Gallagher's, in her work and a deep secret of murder, mystery and family issues along the way. Firstly, I really enjoyed the characterization in this book. I felt like every character was distinct in their portrayal and offered a little piece of the puzzle of the story. I found the setting of the tale as almost a character of its own. Deeprath Castle held so many secrets, intriguing details, etc of its own. I did not see certain parts of the story coming together either, which really led to the suspense of this story. I think the big issues I had were things that didn't come together. We got an idea of Carragh's affair, but never exactly what happened. I also felt like the letters between Carragh's Gran and Lily, the mother, never came full circle. I know they were destroyed, but Carragh had read them and they seemed like a pivotal piece of the murder. They sort of did when Nessa lost her cool about them, but not to the extent I felt they should have. I felt a little disconnect with some of the storylines (there was more points of view than there should have been), and I feel some pieces weren't brought to fruition. Overall, I enjoyed this.

Great mystery novel. I especially love that it takes place in an Irish castle. I've read Laura Andersen before, so I knew right away I wanted to read this novel as well. I was not disappointed. She is a fantastic author who knows how to grab a reader's attention, and also how to create characters that readers are able to connect with. I don't usually go for mystery novels, but this had the element of historical fiction with it, so I knew I wanted to read it. It kept me guessing until the end, and definitely transported me to Ireland as I read.
Whether you like mystery novels or historical fiction or are completely looking to read something new, this is a great novel to pick up. It was well-written, and did not take me long to finish once I really got into it.


https://www.amazon.com/review/R2O7DJTNV3NMAA/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8

Having first come to Laura Andersen’s work through her Boleyn King and sequel Tudor Legacy series, I was intrigued when I learned she had a new novel that broke from the alternative history genre. Add the fact that the description for The Darkling Bride involved both literary and murder mysteries and it promised to check a surprising number of boxes in terms of what I enjoy in a novel. As I found with her other works, The Darkling Bride took me a little while to become invested but Andersen’s skill with weaving a tight plot from threads that appear too loose to hold their structure ensured a satisfying showdown and resolution.

Carragh Ryan needs a break from dealing with her family as she works to renovate her late grandmother’s house in Dublin. Spending a few weeks cataloguing an old, large, and private library at an estate where power is faulty at best and a cell phone signal is non-existent seems like the perfect excuse to continue her avoidance. That the castle of Viscount Gallagher and his family also has ties to one of her favorite nineteenth century writers is the icing on the cake. But a twenty-year-old double murder cold case begins to thaw soon after she arrives and the Gallagher family’s dark past threatens to suck her in too.

The Darkling Bride is pretty much three stories slowly spiraling into one. In the beginning, this can be confusing and frustrating. The strongest and main thread belongs to Carragh Ryan and Aidan Gallagher in the most recent timeline. At first, the narrative dips into the late 1880s, feel like they’re only connected to Carragh’s interest in the writer, Evan Chase, and his marriage into the Gallagher family. Similarly, the flashes back to Aidan’s parents begin far enough from their murders to feel only loosely connected in their earliest appearances. Both the 1880s and 1990s narrative threads also appear in such short burst that it can be difficult to get much footing with them, making them feel like they’re meant to trip the reader up or distract from what’s really going on—the misdirection necessary to make the sleight of hand work. It’s only after the puzzle pieces of the present begin to fall into place that it becomes clearer that all three timelines are connected by more than just the location and the Gallagher name.

Amongst the hints at the supernatural and the thrill of the murder mystery, there is some heavy-hitting exploration of the interaction between personal identity and the influence of trauma as well as the nature of family and heritage. Carragh and Aidan develop a connection because of their early traumas and the ways they each coped with them. The empathy they not only have, but recognize in each other, keeps the lines of communication open between them and leads to rapid resolution when misunderstandings occur. Though Aidan and his sister arguably experienced the same trauma in the death of their parents, what once brought them together has since contributed to how far they’ve drifted apart.

Though I can’t wait for Laura Andersen to delve back into alternative history (mostly because there are too few writers who tackle it as a subgenre), I will happily read whatever she writes next.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not usually a reader of adult novels, but I am usually drawn to mysteries and thrillers every once in a while. I enjoyed the slightly abrasive main character, the standard brooding male main character, and the general mystery aspects. I was never quite certain if supernatural events were taking place or not, and I honestly really liked that aspect - it was almost like magical realism. I've recommended this book to a few friends who enjoy atmospheric mysteries.

I fell in love with this unusual mystery involving a very old family castle and its inhabitants.<br /><br />This story has scenes set in three different lifetimes: 1880, 1995, and 2015 and involves three different generations of the Gallagher family at Castle Deeprath in Ireland. The story flows seamlessly and the author blends the heartbreaking stories of each family together into the present. Here, Pride is a major character or character flaw, and instrumental in the family's ultimate fate.

Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an ARC; all opinions are my own.

I found The Darkling Bride to be a riveting read that had me sitting on the edge of my seat from start to finish! It's full of history, castles, tragedy, dysfunctional family members and set in a country I love ~ Ireland. Mix in ghosts, eerie unexplained happenings and I just couldn't turn down the opportunity to read and review this book.

Ms. Andersen penned an amazing story. I really enjoy books that keep me on my toes and this book did. So much so, this is one of those beloved books that I will visit and be swept away by again and again. Yes, it's that good!

I received this book for free. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are my own. Thank you to Ms. Andersen, Ballentine Books, Random House and Netgalley.

Atmospheric and suspenseful, this modern day gothic mystery has it all: a centuries old castle, a ghostly presence, family secrets, mysterious deaths, local legends, and yes, even a little romance.