This was good but not great. This story was very atmospheric and I enjoyed the main character. However, I do feel like i've read a story just like this on multiple occasions. I wanted more of the history of the house and feel like the story could have been even more atmospheric and unsettling.

I have very mixed feelings about this book ... while it was a faced-past thriller, there were many things that very unfinished about it. Too many plot holes ... too many questions unanswered. Hannah and Julia are sisters who spent summers with their aunt and uncle in their "castle" in the Catskills. Julia goes missing and Hannah never returns to Brackenhill ... until her aunt dies. The plot gets a bit convoluted at this point. Strange things are mentioned and never fully addressed. And the ending was very unsatisfying and without a resolution.

This review was also published on Goodreads.

Kate Moretti you’ve done it again! Gosh this was so so good. I’ve been a huge fan of Moretti’s books for a while now so I was really excited to get my hands on this one. It starts out super fast paced and had me immediately hooked. There were a couple of slow spots in the middle, but the end picked up and I couldn’t get enough. I loved the characters and Moretti kept me guessing the whole time. I would highly recommend this one if you’re a fan of thrillers or moretti’s previous works. Thank you Netgalley for my free copy.

I love a good haunted thriller and this one did not disappoint. I will definitely be reading more by this author in the future. This book was fast paced, incredibly intriguing and I couldn't put it down. The characters were relatable and the story kept me hooked from beginning to end.

Girls of Brackenhill was a twisty and satisfying read with a mix of mystery, ghosts and teen years, I was invested in the story right from the beginning. There were more twists than I was expecting and the characters were engaging. Unfortunately, the ending was inconclusive and extremely unsatisfying. Thank you Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Moretti delivers another thriller leaving the reader confused and guessing until the end! I couldn't put this book down!

A missing sister, a creepy house, a woman’s search for the truth about her past and her family.

This book has it all. This is one you shouldn’t miss. Grab some warm pajamas and a cup of cocoa. Put your phones on silent, and turn the lights down low. Settle in for an atmospheric thrill ride that checks all the gothic goodness blocks.

Oh, and hold onto your socks because that ending will knock them right off. You won’t see it coming.

Highly recommended.

This book was fantastic! It’s creepy and full of suspense! It’s definitely one of those books you can’t put down. I love a good psychological thriller and Kate did not disappoint!

Do you really want to disturb the past? Do you really want to poke in the secrets? Do you? Be careful of what you do because you just might end up...
Girls of Brackenhill is so deceivingly colourful, so intricately twisted and so engrossing that you would not know what got you to read, swallow, inhale this book to the very end.
Hannah comes back to the place of her innocent summers to dot all the 'i' and cross all the 't' that keep haunting her. She is trying her best to organise her new life with the new job and a loving fiance, a life away from her hast, her pain and her secrets. And it seems to work... Until her aunt dies and leaves her Brackehill, almost a castle with spooky past and horrible secrets.
What comes out of Hannah time at the Brackenhill is a journey of self-disovery and self-destruction. Uncovering secrets of the past, Hannah unravels her life
You, as a reader, can't avoid to watch it all unfold... You want to scream at Hannah and stop her but you can't. And you keep on reading.
Girls of Brackenhill is a very yummy thriller. It has all the right componets and so many twists and turns, so many unexpected twists and turns that is, that they will leave you gasping for air. This story and its characters will haunt of a very long time. They are so well written and their development is so... like watching a train crash (you know it is wrong but can't help watching).
There are no 'goodies' and there are no 'badies'. There are people shaped by their choices trying to make the best of their lives, even if it means making more bad choices...
Five stars from me.

Girls of Brackenhill hooked me completely with the first line of the book - and then it started losing me with a pace that was much too slow for my tastes. The castle is definitely a creepy setting that would have worked much better had the story held my interest all the way through. Hannah is an unreliable narrator, which works well for this type of story, but she's also rather irritating. She comes across as childish more often than not, even the grown up version. I mean, we get teenage Hannah in the "Then" chapters, and I'd expect a teenager to sound childish, but an almost 30-year-old woman should sound a little more adult. There are secrets and things do pick up, but this one wasn't what I was hoping for. I will warn that the ending isn't exactly all tied up in a neat little bow, but then, that sometimes works well in the genre - just not so much when there are other issues already. I guess it's safe to say that this one is definitely not my kind of thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for a free galley of Girls of Brackenhill in exchange for my honest review. I definitely was intrigued from the very start with the line "I didn't mean to kill her..." I enjoyed the dual timeline, the atmospheric writing the made it quite easy to be drawn into the spookiness of Brackenhill, a creepy castle-like estate isolated in the Catskills. Unfortunately, I am not a ghost story person and just couldn't buy into the whole haunted house premise. I should have paid better attention when requesting because no matter how hard I try, I just don't enjoy suspense/thrillers like this. The book also left me with questions resulting in the book feeling a bit unfinished in my opinion. I think there are plenty of readers out there who thoroughly enjoy this genre and will love this book, however, I'm sadly not one of them.

I was disappointed in the ending and left with questions. This book is a page-turner and keeps you guessing. It's written in a dual-timeline. Typically, secrets are revealed when reading about the past. But in this case, particularly with Ellie and Julie some facts are revealed that if answered would have completed the story. I enjoyed this book but the unanswered questions were frustrating.

mysterious and thrilling keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting to solve the mysteries. If you enjoy thrillers I would say grab this one!

A tragic, violent daisy chain. Brackenhill hadn't killed anyone: they'd all done it to themselves, consumed and isolated.

Growing up, Hannah and her sister Julia loved vacationing at their Aunt Fae's Brackenhill Castle. The castle had a history settled in the mountains. It was full of mystery and intrigue and 2 young girls from a dysfunctional home were drawn to the Castle for different reasons. Until Julia suddenly disappeared and 17 years later Hannah is brought back to the castle after another family tragedy.

The narration is done in present time and in the past as Hannah comes back as adult engaged and wanting to put closure of that part of her life. It brings up what is broken in her life and challenges her new life with her fiancé. Hannah is well developed character and you are turning every page to find out what happened to her sister. The prose gave me chills. I could not read at night and it somewhat reminded me of the Shining. It was different but it was very spooky thriller.

A Special Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

The moment I started this book, I knew I was in for a wild ride. The first line is jaw dropping and hooks you... from that first page, you know you're in for something good.

As you read the first few chapters, there was just so much to digest, so much that you knew was coming. We knew there was a mystery about Hannah's sister's disappearance, something was definitely up with the way her aunt died, and the situation with her uncle seemed a little off.

I felt like Hannah knew more than she was letting on, which was true... she had repressed a lot of memories but it felt like a little more than that. I struggled with rooting for her and wanting her to just get on with it. The home, Brackenhill, was such a central point in the novel which really adds that extra layer of plot. What happened in those walls? What were those walls hiding? It was extremely intriguing and that's the past that reminded me of another book I recently reviewed, The Last to Know.

The story was very slow but in a very good way. It didn't bore me, it didn't feel like it was dragging on for no reason. The pace was very intentional and I can appreciate that. Every word counted.

Of course, there was a love story intertwined with the gruesome plotline and that is where police officer, Wyatt, comes in. Wyatt & Hannah had a past and it stirs up some trouble in her current relationship, but also in the investigation into Hannah's aunt's death, and in turn, her sister's disappearance.

I can't write much more without giving most of the story away but things are discovered, leads are tracked down and secrets are uncovered... secrets about Hannah, Wyatt, Brackenhill, and Hannah's family.

The ending was intense. I sped through it (in a good way) because I simply couldn't wait to find out how it played out. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat and I held my breath for a lot of it. The ending, for lack of a better word, was creepy and wonderful.

As I said, I read this book a while ago and if my memory serves me correctly, I felt satisfied at the ending. Questions were answered, mysteries were solved and we got a solid 'The End' feeling.

I truly loved this book... I'm comfortable putting this in the top five thrillers/suspense/mystery novels I read this year. If you enjoy a slow burn story, with more than one plotline, and a protagonist who has her own secrets you will LOVE "The Girls of Brackenhill."

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas&Mercer for my review copy, all opinions are my own. Holy gothic thriller, batman. This book is literally the stuff of paranormal legend. Missing girls, ghosts, murder, and a legit creepy castle where it all goes down? Cue images of me staying up past my bedtime as I tried to get over the scary things happening in this book. I had chills a few times while reading. I wish I had a few more answers at the end, but I think that’s part of the point, to leave the reader to decide what they think happens next. 4 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the digital advance reading copy of this book.

I have seen a lot of mixed reviews about this book and I have to say that I really enjoyed reading this book. Kate Moretti did a fantastic job of making Hannah a scatter brained individual, dealing with multiple childhood traumas that was unsure of the validity of her own memories. I loved all of the twists and turns as we learned more about Hannah's past.

I hope there will be a second book so that I know if the basement ever reveals any secrets. :)

The haunted house and its people.

Hannah returns to Brackenhill after years. She loved to go there as a teenager, it was her escape both from abusive home and to a certain dreamy guy. But after that particularly bad summer when both her bond with her older sister was broken and then Julia went missing, she had never went back - until now, to bury her aunt. Then the bones of a girl are found. Hannah needs to remember and reveal her family mysteries and the the acts of that one summer.

This looked so good! The book contains many interesting plots and motives; among them the secrets of the house itself are key. What truly happened and to whom? And really?
The sister situation with all of its pains, hurts, betrayals, but also love and hope; is portrayed well. The psychological characterizations are not bad the authoress’s imagination is vivid.
Hannah is unreliable narrator, which can spice up the game. And there might be something about people’s sayings...or not.

Unfortunately, there is too much motives in my opinion. I understand the authoress’s trying to build the world, but this makes the pace uneven and makes the parts of the novel prolonged with many unnecessary subplots. The story also ends quite abruptly with some open/unsolved questions.

I’d say that this novel has a very good ideas behind it, but the execution should be sharper.

I really loved the premise of this book, but ultimately the execution of the timelines and writing style made it hard for me to get into and keep up with.
Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I loved the atmosphere in this gloomy, Gothic thriller. Hannah is drawn back to that last summer of her childhood, and the mystery of what happened to Julia, as the evidence mounts in the present that her aunt's death was not an accident. There were lots of secrets and surprises!

As children, Hannah and Julia had idyllic summers at Brackenhill, their aunt's castle in a small village, far from the drama and neglect of their family home. As an adult, Hannah is returning after her aunt's accident, entirely against her will. She hasn't returned since she was a teenager, and Brackenhill was the last place she saw her older sister. Hannah has worked hard to be the woman she is, and she's afraid Brackenhill will take all of that away.