In true gothic fashion, "The Curse of Morton Abbey" is replete with creepy, mysterious characters, peculiar deaths, and potential ghosts. Told in the first-person, this narrative follows heroine Vaughan Springthorpe's travails at Morton Abbey, where she's staying in order to do legal estate work for the absentee owner, Sir Peter Spencer.

This novel has villains and protagonists, while others fall somewhere in the middle. There are two potential love interests, disagreeable Nicholas Spencer and eternally cheerful Joe Dixon. There are satisfying twists and turns in this novel, and most were quite unexpected by this reader (that is a good thing!) Netherton itself has an eerie "Twilight Zone" atmosphere.

The historical aspects of divorce and the prejudice against female professionals are enlightening. This novel is clean, and I plan to read more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this absorbing novel.

I have to say, this novel wasn't what I was expecting but it is better than my first impression. The beginning started off a little slow but I was able to keep going. It was unputdownable. The ending left beyond speechless and I'm so glad it ended the way I was hoping it would. I highly recommend if you love historical fiction. You won't be disappointed.

Ooooooooooo this book was so good!! This book has all of the elements needed for success. The main character Vaughan is a determined young women who wants to have a more fulfilling life than the one she is expected to live. She accepts employment from a suspiciously absent employer who expects her to succeed in her mission despite all who may be opposed it. Vaughan is subjected to a dark, sinister house that is home to even more disagreeable residents. The house unveils more than just an invalid and uncooperative staff. Unexplainable noises seem to come from everywhere making Vaughan second guess herself. She rallies by making allies but is it enough to unveil the truth behind the job she's been hired to do and to solve the mysteries she has unearthed? Harwood has found a niche genre for herself and I hope that she continues to write many more in this style.
I received a copy of this title via NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a spooky read, with a feisty main character and a shabby old mansion set out on the moors, several handsome men who may or may not be who they seem...just a fun read that I flew through in 2 days. If you enjoy gothic mysteries, you will like this one. Definitely an author I would like to read more from!

I’m back on the gothic novels now we’re sprinting towards autumn and I think my latest one is wonderfully atmospheric for the cooler months 🍂

The Curse of Morton Abbey by @clarissajharwood - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Thanks so much to @victoryeditingngc & @netgalley for the advanced copy!

A solicitors daughter, Vaughan Springthorpe - neither as beautiful as her sisters and born with a physical deformity that has left her with a limp - acted as her fathers legal assistant until his death. Whilst her mother wished for her to move in with her and her sister, desperate for freedom Vaughan takes a job offer that seems too good to be true: to live with a staggering salary for a couple of months at Sir Peter Spencer’s family home Morton Abbey in order to prepare the necessary paperwork for it to be sold. Vaughan finds Morton to be a forbidding, austere place where someone or someones unknown seem set on preventing her work and driving her away, creating noises in the uninhabited wings and leaving the toys of a deceased child about the place. That, combined with Sir Peter’s ornery younger brother who she is supposed to find in residence makes her new employment a formidable task as she gradually unearths the families - and Morton’s - secrets.

You know I love a good gothic read like this with twisted, aristocratic families and old houses big enough to contain all their secrets and this is one of the good ones - engaging, atmospheric, with a satisfying ending, a good thread of strong but not over the top romance, complex mysteries that are not at all guessable and a heroine who is both relatable and admirable. Do pre-order a copy (it’s out on 26th October) if this sounds like it’s for you, or if you at all enjoyed The Quickening, The Animals at Lockwood Manor, or Lying with Lions.

This story has such a classic gothic feel to it that is masterfully done. It was shrouded in darkness and gloom and the atmosphere on the pages was intense. I really enjoyed reading this book

Amazing gothic novel! This reminded me of Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey. Vaughn is trained in law by her father and at his passing takes a job at Morton Abbey. Vaughn attempts to ready the Abbey for sale and discover it's mysterious secrets. She is thwarted at every step of the way, first by the owner's ill borother who lives at the Abbey, and an unknown spectre. If you love gothic mysteries don't pass this book by.

With shades of ‘The Secret Garden’ and a bit of ‘Jane Eyre,’ this book delivers a solid, enjoyable gothic suspense novel. Vaughan Springthorpe, a refreshingly different sort of heroine, is a young woman trained from early youth by her solicitor father and knows as much about law as any man in a time when women solicitors were a scarcity. The youngest of four sisters, with a physical deformity, she’d always been told that she was unattractive to the male sex and would never ‘secure’ a husband, things she took as fact. So she set out for more intellectual pursuits, determined to support herself as a solicitor rather than do the expected, which was to move in with her eldest sister after their father’s death, along with her recently widowed mother.

With the help of her ambiguous first name (a handy middle name, really), she applies for, and receives, the position of solicitor at the rambling Yorkshire estate of Sir Peter Spencer. He hires her sight unseen to handle the sale of Morton Abbey while he is away on the Continent, where he lives the majority of the time. Once Vaughan reaches the remote, crumbling estate cared for by only two servants, one of whom is an aging butler who dislikes her instantly, and sees the monumental task ahead of her, she begins to second guess her choices. Further hurdles include the fact that someone seems intent on scaring her away with frightening nighttime happenings, as well as the presence of Sir Peter’s younger brother Nick, a middle-aged, bedridden, ogre of a man (or is he?) who is determined to dislike her as well. Vaughan sets her mind to the task at hand, stubbornly refusing to give in and bound to fulfill her agreement with Sir Peter. A glimmer of light appears when she meets and befriends the gardener, Joe Dixon, and slowly learns to appreciate the beauty of Morton’s landscape. And possibly the horrid Nick Spencer seems to be unthawing a bit as well?

Looming over all, though, are the secrets Morton Abbey contains, past and present, as Vaughan gets closer to unraveling the truth and completing what Sir Peter hired her to do. I guessed a few things but was still taken by surprise by twists at the end. A bit melodramatic towards the end, but not enough for me not to enjoy this book very much.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review ‘The Curse of Morton Abbey.’

A gothic mystery which is brilliant. Vaughan and Nick are the lead characters, but also Joe, the gardener and to a lesser extent Joe's mother, and the servants, Mrs Wilson and Bedford, all have a role to play. Why is Vaughan disturbed in the night by crying, a gunshot and laughing? These are questions that can only answered by reading the novel, since I will not spoil the novel, but recommend it highly to readers. This novel will appeal to anyone who relishes a good mystery, and it kept me guessing until the very end. There is also a little bit of historical research involved, concerning a Miss Orme. Altogether a most enjoyable read.

I was gripped from the very beginning! The creepy setting, vivid descriptions, complex characters and the mysteriousness surrounding it all. I was gripped. There were aspects of the book that reminded me of Beauty and the Beast and The Secret Garden. The build-up to the end and all the unanswered questions was riveting. The romance didn't detract from the story, instead it enhanced it. Very pleased with the ending:)

This was my first Clarissa Harwood book and she won me over for giving me not only a spooky tale, but a tale where the romance was truly earned and well-developed.

Ugh. That romance. The romance snuck up on me. I was worried while reading it to find out who exactly will turn out to the the romantic interest? You have the invalid, the brother, and the caretaker. At first the book was going in one direction and I kept telling myself 'god, this guy is boring... is this really going to be the love interest'. Imagine when I discovered who it was? Perfect. Absolutely slow building and very, very sweet.

The mystery / gothic story was also well done where I couldn't tell who or what was 'haunting' the estate. The twists and turns were not things I could easily guess and I love that with a book, especially with an author I've never tried before.

If you're looking for a clean, gothic romance set in the early 1900's, this is the book for you!

#thecurseofmortonabbey #netgalley
Thanks to netgalley for letting me read this book. This book was mysterious, suspenseful, creepy, adventurous, heart wrenching and romantic. I enjoyed the storyline and the in depth characters.

This is a very good gothic mystery and one I enjoyed very much. Writing was very well defined and flowed nicely from chapter to chapter. Characters were both interesting and entertaining. The story itself contained lots of twists and turns that resulted in a very satisfying scary summer read, highly recommend!!!

I'm definitely seeing where the likening to The Secret Garden comes in,it feels very much like the adult version.
(In a respectable way)

An interesting female lead, a spooky isolated house, strange goings on.
It's a recipe for a good story.
I liked this book a lot,despite being able to predict where a lot of it was going.
There were some dramatic turns that surprised me though.
Very much a book I'll be recommending to others.

Vaughan is an unusual woman in the Victorian era. An attorney with a man’s name, she’s lucky to be hired by Peter Spencer to help with the sale of his tumbledown Yorkshire estate. With the name Vaughan, Spencer has assumed the attorney he has hired, but never seen, is a man.Arriving at Morton Abbey, Vaughan quickly discovers that someone does not want the estate sold, and they’ll do anything to keep it from happening. Creepy noises, things that go bump in the night and an intruder in her bedroom are all attempts to scare Vaughan away. She relies on the help of both gardener, Joe and Nicholas Spencer, her boss’s brother. But can she trust them or is one of them behind the attempts to scare her away? A delicious gothic for reading while wearing your long white night dress and caring a candlestick

The Curse of Morton Abbey by Clarissa Harswood.

Vaughan Springthorpe is a solicitor in all but name only having been trained by her father, now he is dead and her mother is moving out of the family home into her married daughters , and expects spinster Vaughan to go with her..
Vaughan has other ideas and takes up a post at spooky Morton Abbey . Her boss Sir Peter Spencer is not a home and the place is looked after by a housekeeper and butler . The house also contains Nicolas Spencer , the brother of Sir Peter.
Lots of happenings , in the dead of night , and locked parts of this crumbling gothic home add to the atmosphere of this book.
It definitely reminds you of an adult version of The Secret Garden , and for me that is a good thing. .