This book was quite different to what I was expecting, but overall I liked it. Though the main character was hard to like (a little too Belle Gibson, though I’m sure this was deliberate), I was invested in her quest to find out what exactly is going on at her ancestral home. Cochran does well in giving an eerie and uncomfortable atmosphere throughout, and the tense finale had me guessing until the end.

What an extraordinary book this is! The writing style reminded me of Daphne du Maurier. With plot twists throughout it was impossible to see who might be friend and who might be foe and I couldn’t wait to find out. As with all good books however, this one kept me guessing till the end. Following Miranda’s story was utterly engrossing. At times I couldn’t believe she could be so stupid and at others I applauded her for her bravery. This story is beautifully told and definitely one to be put on my “to be reread” shelf.

‘A toast to Miranda.’

Miranda Courtenay once had a successful career as a social influencer. She’d developed a new app, a diet which she claimed would enable and encourage fertility, but it all came crashing down around her. Forced to refund money from sales of the app and to suspend her social media accounts, Miranda is broke. Miranda’s wealthy father has called in some favours to arrange a new job for her.

But on the eve of starting this new job, Miranda comes across a letter from a young cousin in England whom she’s never met. Miranda decides to leave Australia for England: she’s always wanted to visit Barnsley House on the English west coast. It’s where her late mother came from, where her estranged family (including her cousin) live. Miranda’s mother, Tessa Courtenay née Summers, wrote a best-selling biography called ‘The House of Brides’ set in Barnsley House. Miranda hopes to learn more about her mother. But as Miranda soon discovers, Barnsley House is full of secrets.

‘Everyone seemed to be hiding something.’

If you like gothic fiction with its menacing landscapes and sinister settings, with complex and convoluted storylines and tragedy you may enjoy this story. There are a few twists, a couple of heroes (relatively speaking) and some thoroughly unlikeable characters. Unfortunately, for me, Miranda is one of the unlikeable characters. I found her impulsive and capricious, self-centred and difficult to relate to. And yet some of her actions (especially later in the novel) made me feel that she was not beyond redemption. Consequently, I have mixed feelings about this novel. I can’t recommend it unreservedly: some elements worked well for me, others did not.

‘Some things—some people—are better left in the past.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin HQ for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The House of Brides: 3.5/5 Stars
Miranda is going through a difficult time in her life. She attends a dinner she had no desire to be at, she is starting a job she couldn't care less for and is overall unenthusiastic with the direction her life is taking.
That all changes when she discovers a letter from one of her distant cousins addressed to her late mother seeking help.
In this thrilling novel, former social media influencer turns detective.
Miranda embarks on a journey to England to seek answers about her mothers past and the 'House of Brides'. Miranda acts as a stand in Nanny for the Summers family and soon begins to unravel secret after twisted secret about the Summers family.
I would highly recommend picking up this book if you are a fan of eery mysteries and twisted family secrets.

EXCERPT: It's easy to remember what it felt like to see Barnsley for the first time. Not in a photograph but in the flesh, the grand house appearing in front of me. The beauty of the limestone is hard to see in a photograph, and harder to explain. The stone is different to that of other houses in the area, softer somehow, and in the summer, Max said, it felt warm for weeks on end. Some days, when the sun was not strong enough to warm Daphne's cold antipodean bones, she would lean up against the wall and hope that the warmth would penetrate through her summer dress and cardigan. That was before my time. It has only been cold, bitterly cold, since I have known it.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Miranda’s life and career has been a roller-coaster ride. Her successful rise to the top of the booming lifestyle industry as a social media influencer led to a humiliating fall after a controversial product she endorsed flopped. Desperate to get away from the hate-spewing trolls shaming her on the internet, she receives a mysterious letter from a young cousin in England that plunges her into a dark family mystery.

Miranda’s mother Tessa Summers, a famous author, died when Miranda was a child. The young woman’s only connection to the Summers family is through Tessa’s famous book The House of Brides—a chronicle of the generations of women who married into the infamous Summers family and made their home in the rambling Barnsley House, the family’s estate. From Gertrude Summers, a famed crime novelist, to Miranda’s grandmother Beatrice, who killed herself after setting fire to Barnsley while her children slept, each woman in The House of Brides is more notorious than the next. The house’s current “bride” is the beautiful, effervescent Daphne, her Uncle Max’s wife—a famed celebrity chef who saved Barnsley from ruin turning the estate into an exclusive culinary destination and hotel.

Curious about this legendary family she has never met, Miranda arrives at Barnsley posing as a prospective nanny answering an advertisement. She’s greeted by the compelling yet cold housekeeper Mrs. Mins, and meets the children and her Uncle Max—none of whom know her true identity. But Barnsley is not what Miranda expected. The luxury destination and award-winning restaurant is gone, and Daphne is nowhere to be found. Most disturbing, one of the children is in a wheelchair after a mysterious accident. What happened in this house? Where is Daphne? What darkness lies hidden in Barnsley?

MY THOUGHTS: Give me an old house full of family secrets and lies, and I purr like a cat with a dish of cream. Add a dysfunctional family and I am enraptured. Throw in a letter, a hidden notebook, a housekeeper reminiscent of Mrs Danvers, and a missing wife....nirvana!

The writing is hauntingly atmospheric, the characters perfectly drawn, and the plot gripping.

I read this overnight, and even while catching up on the housework today and listening to an audiobook, I couldn't stop thinking about the characters in House of Brides.

One of my favourite passages is: 'The truth is what you make it: add a little here and there, take away what you need. It's a work in progress.'

💖👀💌😯.5

#TheHouseOfBrides #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Jane Cockram was born and educated in Australia, where she studied Journalism at RMIT, majoring in Literature. The House of Brides is her debut novel.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harlequin Australia via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The House of Brides by Jane Cockram for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system, please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon and

"Mesmerizing, engrossing and unexpected. This story will shake you, twist you, turn you around and tip you upside down.
The House of Brides is everything for everyone: crime story, mystery, thriller, love story, family saga, tour guide, psychological thriller and self-help book. The story will take you from Australian shores to English countryside and you won't even notice the jet lag.
I do not think I ever came across a literary debut that could have ticked as many boxes as this book.
Who is bad? Who is good? Who deserves readers' sympathy and who does not? I have no idea. I won't tell you. This book is so good, it lets you make all the choices. It simply takes you on a cold, sloppy sea ride in Cotswolds.
The House of Brides is the story of social media fraud running away from everything and everyone to discover her roots only to uncover some very unpleasant truths about herself and her background. Running away from oneself never works. Miranda is the living, just, proof of this truth.
Disappearing brides, secret hideouts, illicit affairs, stolen authorship (ooops) and an sprawling estate with murky history are some of the attractions of this book.
I could not put the book down. I read it everywhere and all the time. My eyes gone sore as if I, myself, was under the salty freezing water of the North Sea.
A very enjoyable read. "

“Everyone seemed to be hiding something. There were things that seemed not quite right, parts of the story that didn’t quite ring true. Things only another storyteller would notice.”

After her social media career implodes in a rather spectacular manner, Miranda Courtenay is left reviled and broke. Though her wealthy father has arranged a fresh start for her, a letter from a young cousin she has never met sees Miranda flee Australia to her late mother’s ancestral home, Barnsley House, on England’s west coast.
As the setting of a best selling biography, ‘The House of Brides’ written by Miranda’s mother, Tessa Courtenay née Summers, Miranda has always wanted to visit Barnsley House to meet her estranged relatives, and learn more about the mother she never really knew, but she soon discovers the house is a maelstrom of secrets, resentments, tragedy, and scandal.

I’d describe The House of Brides as contemporary gothic, with what I thought were obvious echoes of genre classics such as Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, with perhaps even a nod to the works of V.C Andrews.

Cockram certainly creates an eerie atmosphere in The House of Brides. Barnsley House is an isolated rambling stone mansion on a cliff’s edge, half shuttered due to the temporary closure of the hotel and restaurant operated by Max Summer, and his bride, Daphne, inhabited by a group of reticent residents. As documented in Tessa’s book, it has also been the site of both triumph and tragedy, especially for the women of the Summers family, and is rumoured to have the ghost of a ‘House’ bride lurking in the East wing.

Unfortunately I really didn’t care much for Miranda. I may have been more forgiving of her character if she was aged closer to 16, rather than 26, as it was I found her to be painfully immature, self centred, and occasionally wilfully obtuse. At times I didn’t understand her behaviour at all, and that made it difficult to connect with her. As for the rest of the characters, they are suitably enigmatic for a gothic novel, most of whom have an edge of menace, or madness, or both.

While overall I thought The House of Brides had a decent premise, I did find it was a little messy and disjointed in places. Some of that, I think, had to do with the poor formatting of the e-arc. With plenty of intrigue, and atmosphere I do think most of the elements were there for a great story, but it didn’t quite all come together for me.

My attention was grabbed the moment Barnsley House was mentioned. Many years ago, I saw a picture of Barnsley House in a country gardens book and wanted to know more about the house.
I loved the descriptions of the house and gardens and the people living in the house. Miranda lives with her domineering father and stepmother and two half- sisters. Miranda was very young when her mother died and she only fleeting memories of her mother.
Miranda’s mother lived at Barnsley House as a child and wrote a book about the woman who married into the Summer family. Miranda’s father will not talk about Barnsley House and Miranda knows nothing about her relatives on her mother’s side of the family.
When a mysterious letter arrives from Barnsley House, Miranda decides to go to Barnsley House to find out the family secrets against her father’s wishes.
This was set mostly on the coast of England’s West Country.
I loved the way Miranda stumbles into the developing mysteries of Barnsley House and poses as the advertised Nanny while she tries to find out about the family secrets.

Honestly… This book... Let me just recap the first couple of chapters to get you in the mood...

As an Insta famous social media influencer, Miranda develops a fertility app. Soon, however, the public discovers the app is not only a dud but potentially dangerous and Miranda finds herself with no likes, no income, and… totally the worst… recognised as a fraud in an activewear change room. Never fear, her rich father bails her out and finds her a job. To repay his generosity she leaves his car parked under the tree that will drip sap and bird droppings, decides to ditch the job he’s paid someone else to give her, and steals his credit card details to buy a plane ticket for England and her [late] mother’s childhood home, a mansion which is now owned by Miranda’s uncle, Max.

Arriving at the house, Miranda pretends she's there to be a nanny to Max’s children. Max is pretty cool with that, despite never actually corresponding with anyone called Miranda for the position, and let’s her have the job. He decides it’s best his sister, Elizabeth (Miranda’s aunt), comes to give Miranda the nanny induction.

Elizabeth arrives and decides what Miranda, as the newly arrived nanny, really needs to know is how much the baby!mummy Daphne drinks and enjoys drugs, and that maybe Max is doing the dirty with his housekeeper, Mrs Mins. Not to mention that vitally important information when it comes to childminding, that Miranda’s grandparents and great grandparents were bits of party animals. Miranda cries that she just wants to know about the school run and lunches but Elizabeth’s gotta go. She lives out on an island and no, no one can come visit her because it’s all really rough and scary out on the water.

W.T. actual F.

Meanwhile, Mrs Mins is being all creepy in the garden and talking about the mysterious Mr Mins. Plot twist, Mr Mins turns out to be her brother. And, in 2019, everyone just calls them Mr & Mrs Mins for… affect? It’s obvious Cockram was a big fan of Rebecca (right down to using the name Max and the housekeeper being addressed as Mrs Mins) and maybe even Hitchcock in general, and she was trying to emulate a gothic novel. May I suggest you actually read/watch Rebecca instead of this?

I’m not sure about Cockram’s age but I’m confused as to why Miranda had to be the most immature and ignorant person on earth. Oh, and let’s not forget dramatic.

For most of the book the only real leading man or love interest for Miranda is Max. Yes, her uncle… This makes for a weird incestuous vibe through the book that was probably more creepy than the attempted horror.

Cockram doesn’t understand ‘show not tell’. Pretty much none of the action happened in real time; it’s all óff screen’. Characters tell Miranda what has happened before her arrival at the house, either in person, a letter, a diary entry, the book her mother wrote, and even a bloody recipe book. All conveniently written in great detail by people who witnessed something (which, unless they can see through space and time can’t have witnessed anyway) and who leave their informed scribblings around somewhere that Miranda conveniently finds them.

I read this as an uncorrected proof and I hope - at least - they have amended the glaringly obvious plot inconsistencies. There’s so many examples of contradictions, timeline errors, and generally things being so incorrect that they make zero sense… For example, there's Miranda having an inner thought regarding her uncle’s behaviour (the sentence is something like, ‘it’s just like Max to act like that’) the very night she meets him. I mean… How did she know how he always acted when she’d only just met him for the first time?

My absolute favourite is the climactic scene, however. I can’t actually go into details without spoiling (if you’re tempted to read, that is) but it’s such a mess I actually couldn’t stop wondering if I’d get to the end and there’d be a page just saying ‘surprise!’ and an admission the whole thing was some kind of social experiment.

Yes, I did make it to the end (sadly, no ‘surprise!’ page was found). I guess I wanted to see if there was any sort of shock twist that might raise my rating. There wasn’t.

Look, this review is savage, yes, and I've thought about toning it down but this book is not some 99 cent self published piece with a photoshopped cover. And frankly, unless there’s been MAJOR changes from my version to the final version, I am shocked someone had the audacity to publish this, let alone expect me to recommend it. I cannot give it more than 1 out of 5.

I was very excited to receive an advanced copy of this book. I had the pleasure of meeting Jane a couple of years ago at a writing retreat. I didn't know it at the time but she was probably working on this, her debut novel. I loved it. It contains all of the ingredients I love in a novel - a fantastic setting and in this instance an old English manor house named Barnsley, secrets - so many secrets, tragedy, loss, mystery and unforgettable characters. A bit of romance thrown in and I would have loved it more! I loved Miranda the main character and her current day drama that is very relatable and real and the ghastly Mrs Mins, oh how I hated her! Plus the interesting other members of the Summer family, particularly the women who were strong characters as is revealed through The House of Brides an actual book in the story and that ties the female characters together. It's haunting and deeply atmospheric and a great read.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Harlequin Australia and the author, Jane Cockram, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The House of Brides in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Truly, I am lost for words after reading this book. I thought it provided an enthralling read.
The storyline was well thought out and beautifully written. The settings were rich in their descriptions and the characters intriguing. I was hooked from the start and cannot wait to read more from this author.
This is one hell of a debut novel.
Well worth a read.