I was excited to read a spooky/scary book for Halloween, so when I received a copy of Jane Lawrence, I got super excited! However… I did not really care for this book. The beginning held so much potential for me but as it continued on, it became more confusing and harder to keep everything straight. While I believe that was part of the point, leaving your audience thoroughly confused on what exactly is happening for the last 60% of the book doesn’t bode well for me. Not awful, but I wouldn’t pick it up again.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an Advanced Listener Copy of "The Death of Jane Lawrence". Albeit the narrator was pleasant, I think I would have preferred to have the actual book to read. The story is lush with details and atmosphere, and I generally enjoy reading those books more, so I can really immerse myself. Audiobooks get played when I am driving or cleaning, and while I do pay attention, I just am not as fully absorbed.

That being said, I did greatly enjoy the story as a whole. I love a good spooky tale, particularly during the time of year when the darkness of night creeps earlier and there's a chill in the air. I loved Jane's character - her inquisitiveness, her willingness to take risks, and how she didn't quaver at the sight of gore. (Of course, the gorey scenes did make me quaver because I am not always good with that sort of thing myself.)

Later in the book, at a little over the halfway point, I did feel that the story began to get muddled. There was too much going on for me to easily follow, and I had to go back and relisten only to still find myself a little confused. I think this dragged down the pacing of the tale for me, and this slowness decreased my enjoyment.

I also found Augustine kind of a spinless bore and not worth all the fuss.

This book is a great re-telling of Crimson Peak. Pacing was super exciting and I couldn't put it down - until the climax. I wonder if I was getting suspense fatigue as it kept ratcheting up but then plateaued right before the climax so it lost all of the tension. Still a good book

I got very invested in the story right from the beginning. It was foreboding and atmospheric and I was genuinely interested to see what was to become of Jane and Augustine. The majority of the story is intriguing and creepy, but the last quarter of the book goes slightly amiss for me. It wasn't enough of a hindrance for me to not enjoy the entirety of the story though. I liked the ending, and that is often a rarity for me in this genre. The narrator was excellent. I'm glad I had the opportunity to listen to this one.

What an amazing gothic horror to sink your teeth into. If you took Crimson Peak, the haunting of Hill House, and the magicians, mashed them together, you might get this book. This one has a bit of everything to suit your needs: haunted house, curses, body horror, medical grotesque, magic, marriage of convenience-turned-romance, a splenectomy….kinda.

Jane needs to get married for business purposes only, which leads her to Augustine Lawrence, a surgeon who doesn’t want a wide, but is drawn to Jane and her proposition. He agrees with the understanding she never sleeps in his family mansion, and he ALWAYS does. But naturally circumstances force her to spend their wedding night there. Things, of course, take a turn from that point.

Spooky visits, mathematics, theoretical physics, magical workings, and good old fashioned manifestation. The twisty and mind-bendy acrobatics will keep you scratching your head until the end, but it was definitely worth the brain food for me!

The narrator of the audiobook was incredible. She set the tone and you forget it’s one person throughout reading the story.

Jane Shoringfield is a driven woman with a mathematical brain who decides her best course for her life is to marry the towns Doctor, Augustine Lawrence. She proposes the marriage to him as a business transaction which he reluctantly agrees to. Augustine does have conditions to this arrangement one involves her never visiting his inherited family home. Due to circumstances beyond their control the newlyweds are stuck together in the family home to spend their wedding night. Jane begins to realize that Lindridge Hall holds many secrets and horrors within its walls.
This is a great setting and the atmosphere is depicted with great detail and a realistic gothic feel. The premise is great and I absolutely loved the first half of the book. The last half lost me. It becomes hectic, and fumbles around into chaos. It is like a fevered dream that you wake from and try to piece together but just can't quite understand what is happening.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

My reading experience with The Death of Jane Lawrence is a roller coaster. At the beginning I was like, "yes I love historical medical thrillers" as Jane begins to help Augustine in surgery. For some reason, I love historical medical stories so much ever since I visited a museum in Edinburgh. What can I say! And then I was getting some serious Jane Eyre vibes especially as her name is Jane and she goes to this kind of haunted house with dangerous secrets. The parallels are there okay?

But then The Death of Jane Lawrence introduced MAGIC?! And maybe I had forgotten the synopsis when this happened, but I was like wow. One of my favorite elements of The Death of Jane Lawrence is the supernatural/gothic. I loved the vibes, the tension in the suspense, and the danger in the supernatural. That being said, I have no idea how the magic works at all. So I kind of just had to go with it and do a lot of assuming. But I ended up enjoyed the last 1/3 so much.

Not to mention that Mandy Weston, the narrator of my audio book, was fabulous. Weston was able to communicate Jane's emotions, misgivings, and desire to believe so well. It almost felt like I was listening to someone recording her journal. At times it felt intimate, thrilling, and tense.

The Death of Jane Lawrence is a fabulously unsettling read for Halloween, or any time of year. Haunting and labyrinthine, with the chilling logic of a nightmare, Caitlin Starling's Gothic tale introduces a marvelously eerie setting in the maybe-haunted Lindridge Hall, and an intriguingly ruthless, brilliant heroine in Jane. The story feels classic and deliciously reminiscent of some of my favorite older haunted house stories, while being entirely fresh and inventive.

Mandy Weston, who reads the audiobook, has a pleasant voice and is consistently easy to follow, and she does good character voices - distinct but not caricatured. But I did find her reading a bit too slow and sedate for the more dramatic, nightmarish sections. Still, I loved every bit of this book, from the grotesque to the sublime, and highly recommend to fans of gothic classics like Rebecca and The Turn of the Screw or more modern options such as Mexican Gothic and The Little Stranger.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance review copy!

CWs include: Body horror, medical trauma, pregnancy trauma

Very interested story, great read for spooky time! It's like nothing I've read before. The ending is super interesting and not what I expected.

Advanced Reader’s Copies (I ended up with an egalley and the audiobook) that were provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook is from Macmillan Audio and the egalley is from St. Martin's Press.

3.5 stars rounded up. Caitlin Starling gives readers a perfect gothic horror for us to enjoy during the October spooky season.

Set in an alternate post-war England, Jane Shoringfield wants to be independent, skilled in mathematics, she knows that finding the right bachelor to agree to a marriage of convenience is the only way for her to achieve this. So she weighs the pros and cons of the local eligible bachelors and decides that the local doctor, Augustine Lawrence, is her best bet. While Augustine is hesitant at first, he ends up agreeing to Jane's proposition... on one condition. She must never visit his ancestral home, Lindridge Hall.

Of course on the day of their wedding, a miscommunication has the newly weds heading exactly to the one place Jane is never supposed to go. And after a dangerous storm stops her from being able to return to town, Jane spends an uneasy night at Lindridge with her new husband who isn't acting like himself.

Lindridge Hall is the perfect derelict gothic mansion for our Jane to hesitantly explore, Augustine and his doctor friends dabble in the occult, oh and Lindridge may be full of ghosts... including one that will turn Jane's world upside down. Just when you think you know what's going on, Starling throws in a curve ball to change things up. The ending will have you questioning everything that had previously happened.

THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE is a solid addition to the gothic fiction genre.

Mandy Weston puts in a great performance with the audiobook narration.

This book has all the elements of 18th century gothic fiction: a haunted house, awful weather, grotesque scenes…but that’s its pitfall. It checks all those boxes too neatly, as if the author read an article about Gothic horror and formulaically followed it to a t. There wasn’t really anything new or novel that stood out to me.

With that said, it is at least well written. The prose are lovely and spooky, and if this is a genre you love, it checks all the boxes.

This book is perfect for spooky season. So much mystery woven into the romance. It was a little slow at first, but picked up and I really enjoyed the story. The audiobook was awesome, perfect voice and temper for the rainy, October nights.

This was the perfect book to get me into the Halloween spirit! Its my staff pick for October at the bookstore that I work at. It was the perfect combination of spooky, intense, and skeptical. I enjoyed feeling confused and out of place as I tried to figure out if Jane was a reliable narrator. I really enjoyed the audiobook and felt that it added to my reading experience. Highly recommend this book and audiobook!

I have a feeling that The Death of Jane Lawrence is going to be hit or miss among readers. I ended up having mixed feelings about it, but I am glad that I read it and thought that it did some interesting things. I especially loved Caitlin Starling’s writing. She has this way of creating an atmosphere and tension that is truly special. I cannot wait to dive into her backlist, starting with The Luminous Dead.

If you are a fan of Gothic horror or novels like Rebecca and Jane Eyre, I think that The Death of Jane Lawrence is worth reading. I love the setting and the supernatural, though I did find there was a lot going on and it felt overwhelming at times. The first half had me hooked, but the second half lost me a little. There were a lot of characters and the story was harder to follow, and I noticed that a few Goodreads’ reviewers felt the same way. That said, I loved how the story came together and I think it has the potential to be a book that grows on me.

I really loved Jane as a character. She is independent, strong-willed, and she doesn’t fall into a lot of the stereotypical tropes of this genre. I appreciated how much she loved surgery and seeing her and her husband bond over it was fascinating. I also wasn’t expecting the romance! I need to read more marriage of convenience turned real love type books. The characters balanced each other so well and though their story becomes very dark, I enjoyed the ride!

This book is WAY too scary for me. I really liked Jane, the main character, and I think this is a perfect Halloween read for someone who can handle gore and horror. But I cannot, sadly! I would definitely recommend this to horror-reading friends, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is unfamiliar with the genre generally. I liked the romance and sexiness, as it was.

I am very happy that I was able to read the Death of Jane Lawrence during SPOOKY SEASON :D It has a very large gothic horror kind of vibe, with promises to spook you along the way. I really enjoyed the first half of the story, especially once I understood the route that the book was taking. However, I felt like it ended up being a run-on "nightmare" if you will, becoming challenging to distinguish reality. The book has many gruesome scenes (I did read it for spooky season, after all.) I rarely give disclaimers for books but (and this is my disclaimer for the book) I would warn against reading if you have experienced pregnancy loss. Some scenes that may be very upsetting to read. Overall I was very interested throughout the first half but then it slowly started to simmer for me. I so much appreciate the opportunity to listen to this audiobook and the narrator is absolutely outstanding!

The end of The Death of Jane Lawrence is up there with that book about sleeping & w/spinning tops, with Leonardio Deception? Yeah. It derailed in Twin Peaks style, really.

I have never read a book that was so enthralling for the first 50% and spectacularly crashed and burned into an ending that must have been written by nostrodamus, and Bob Dylan.

A marriage of convenience. This book kept me up 3 nights ago. I couldn’t put it down. I had to think about it for a few days before I started a review.

It felt a little Rebecca, maybe due to the narration. It also felt a little Mexican Gothic with a dash of The Haunting of Hill House.

A young girl in Victorian England needs to find a husband as her foster parents (friends of her deceased parents) were going to travel the world & she didn’t want to impose on them so she makes a list of eligible bachelors.

She first proposes marriage to Dr Lawrence as a business arrangement. She as an accountant & he as a decade older surgeon. He initially declines but they are married a week later.

Well that was quick. What could possibly go wrong?! The story is so much more involved & multilayered so you will need to read it & find out if you want to know more.

Do you believe in ghosts and magic?

Thank you NetGalley & McMillan Audio for the opportunity to read this book. I loved it!!

This book was a wonderful spooky time novel to sit down and listen to. The narrator captured the essence of the characters and heightened the thrilling moments with great voice acting. In addition, I appreciated seeing an autistic coded character trying to live her best life and coming into her own power under dire circumstances. The ending lost me a little bit but it was still a great listening experience overall.

**2.5-stars rounded up**

Jane Shoringfield is a practical, independent woman, but she unfortunately lives in a time when that is sort of frowned upon; when it is expected for all women to marry and care for a home. In order to best get by, Jane decides she does need to find a husband, yes, but she wants it to be a marriage of convenience. One where she will still be able to work and maintain a portion of her current independence.

She sets her sights on a handsome, yet reclusive, doctor, Augustine Lawrence. Jane presents her plan to the good doctor and to her surprise, he accepts. He does have one condition, however, that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his decreipt manor on the outskirts of town. Jane agrees, but when a freak accident strands her on the manor steps in the middle of night, Augustine must relent and let her in.

Jane is disturbed by the state she finds him in. He seems a different man, scared and paranoid. What is going on here? By morning, Augustine seems to be back to his old self. Now that Jane has been introduced to the sinister mystery of Lindridge Hall, however, she wants to know more. What makes this place so frighteningly special to Augustine and why didn't he want her here?

As Jane goes deeper into her husband's history, as well as that of <i>Lindridge Hall</i>, she is introduced to whole new worlds she never even knew existed.

The Death of Jane Lawrence has a super intriguing premise. It's dripping in dark, gothic atmosphere and for that, I applaud it. I also appreciated the incorporation of occult ideas explored, as well as the build-up to the craziness.

With this being said, it got a little too crazy for my tastes. It felt too addled; like a non-stop fever dream. There was almost too much going on to be able to sink in and enjoy that rich gothic atmosphere. It just lost me. I will admit to being a bit let down by this one. I was so looking forward to it and wish I could have connected with it more.

In spite of my slight criticisms, Starling's writing style is quite pleasing. It has a nice flow and as mentioned before, it definitely delivers on atmosphere. I know a lot of Readers are really going to love this one.

Thank you so much to the publisher, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies of this to read and review. The narrator for the audiobook is fantastic, so I definitely would recommend giving it a listen if you have that option!