A good story with suspense running through it. Grace was a very likeable character and the story kept me interested until the end.

I enjoyed parts of "The Belladonna Maze" by Sinead Crowley immensely and some other parts not so much. The two timelines started off really strong and I was interested in both Deirdre and Grace. However, like a maze, I felt some of the plot lines went off in a tangent and some parts could have been really developed, like the maze and the tower more. Still, it was an enjoyable read.

I was given an ARC of this story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I particularly liked how it switched from past to present, each gradually unfolding the plot and the reasons behind it.

The past highlighted how badly women were treated – no money, no inheritance and constantly under the control of men. It certainly demonstrated that females were not valued. The present showed that women do have more control and yet men can cause so many problems because of their ego and how they feel entitled to whatever they want. Having said that, not all the men in this story were awful.

I enjoyed the mystery and the paranormal touches, while the tension and suspense kept my interest from beginning to end. It was a sad yet engaging story, very well written with a great sense of place. The characters fitted well into the plot and the tie between past and present was excellently done.

No spoilers but I will say that this is a brilliant story and one I would highly recommend.

Story well written, captivating unpredictable mystery & great characters. Page turner & easy to read.

I am voluntarily reviewing a copy I received free from NetGalley .

This story opens in 1825. Hollowpark Hall is owned by the Fitzmahon family, and is a beautiful house in an idyllic setting. Dierdre is the feisty young daughter of the family, and she loves to play in the grounds, particularly the maze. Jump forward to 2007, and Grace, a nanny/children’s club rep, is working the summer season in Greece. The two worlds collide when Grace meets an ancestor of Hollowpark, and the story develops from there.

Written across years from 1825 to 2008, this is an enjoyable book, if a little cliched at times. It is part ghost story, part family saga, and the two are interspersed well. In the main I liked the characterisation, but found Grace a bit bland. Although I read the book quickly, it does drag on rather and could have done with being more succinct. The ending was as expected, a pity as the book had more going for it than it’s predictably.

3.5* rounded up to 4*.

Thank you NetGalley.

ooh if you want a gothic and creepy feel of a novel set in Ireland then this is the book for you. The house in the novel is dark and mysterious and it has a maze with belladonna in it which is poison! Oh now there is a great premise!

Grace moves to Hollowpark to work as a nanny for Skye FitzMahon'. There is something supernatural and not right at all in the house.

There's two timelines in 2007 and in 1840s , the latter of which mentions the Great Famine, An Gorta Mór and other real life events which really helps to ground the novel.
I love this kind of feel of a book and the writing really helped captivate that.

Hollowpark House has a maze named after the poisonous plant Belladonna. It can either be a exciting adventure or a scary experience where on Halloween a young girl went missing.
Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny but is soon seeing a face at a window but what is it trying to tell her and can she find out the answers to the many questions that she is faced with?

A story set in the countryside of Ireland in multiple timelines from different perspectives. The good points first, it was atmospheric, well written story of mystery, murder, the Irish famine and a little ghost story thrown in for good measure. The less positives: I found I enjoyed the older timeline chapters more enjoyable than the ones that centred around Grace. There were a number of somewhat implausible situations, especially in the first few days when Grace first goes to Hollowpark to take up the nanny role, for example a number of strangers inside and out of the family are oversharing highly sensitive and damaging information to her and an improbable explanation of how the owner of this stately home was able to pay off the debts and renovate to a standard acceptable to take guests. At times Grace's narrative felt like an opinion piece for the newspaper. Somewhat drawn out but I think a lot of readers would enjoy this, especially as a light summer read. Overall 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

3.5 stars rounded down

An old house can hold many secrets. Hollowpark in the West of Ireland certainly does. At the heart of the gardens is an intricate maze. named after a deadly poison, Belladonna. If you know the way through, it's magical, a hiding place and playground like no other, If you don't, it's a place of fear and sinister riddles., where a young girl once went missing and was never seen again. Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny to young Skye FitzMahon. soon the mysterious past of Hollowpark has seduced her.

This mystery has a supernatural element to it. The book is descriptively written and told from Grace's perspective. Grace is Skye's nanny. With it's dual timeline we learn of events taking place in the present day, 2007 and some of the house and grounds history in the 1840s, told in the past. The characters are well drawn, believable and likeable. There's a nice couple of twists. I did feel parts of the book were a little drawn out. The pace is steady throughout.

I would like to thank #Netgalley #HeadofZeus and the author #SineadCrowley for my ARC of #TheBelladonnaMaze in exchange doe an honest review.

When Grace accepts a job as nanny to a young Irish family, she doesn’t expect to end up living in a stately home. And she doesn’t expect that home to be haunted.

The past and present are cleverly woven together in this story about the residents and staff of the house. I enjoyed reading about the estate’s history and the belief held by many generations of inhabitants that “Hollowpark looks after its own”. Although I wouldn’t normally choose to read a ghost story, and while the ghosts play an integral part in the story, the emphasis is very much on the living, human inhabitants.

I received a free advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a challenge for me to read, and I am in two minds about what I thought.

First, I loved the main character, Grace. She had wonderful character development and had an interesting backstory. She was fun to read about and kept me engaged with the story. I also loved the description, and the author did a great job of showing us various settings and situations wonderfully.

Now the thing I struggled with was the two timelines. I’m a huge fan of dual timeline stories. I think they’re always super interesting and I don’t normally have a problem keeping track. However, with this book, I did. Which was such a shame because I thought the underlying story was very interesting and up my street! There were some brilliant twists, but unfortunately my enjoyment on these was affected, as I kept getting confused.

Overall, a mixed bag for me, but I’d still recommend this book to other readers! I also wouldn’t hesitate to read more from this author in the future. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

This starts in Ireland, 1825. Hollowpark is located in the west of Ireland. Ciaran and Deidre are friends despite she being the only child of the owners of Hollowpark and he being the gardeners son. They spend most of their time playing in the Belladonna maze. In 1840 Deidre is grown up, drifted away from the childhood friendship with Ciaran, who now calls her ma’am, and a newlywed to Laurence, a man she loves but does he reciprocate her feelings? A death occurs but was it the accident it appears to be?

2007 and after saving her life on holiday Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny for Skye FitzMahon. She’s fighting her growing attraction to Skye’s father but is also mesmerised by the mysterious past of Hollowpark.

I have only recently started reading historical fiction and it’s a genre that I really do enjoy reading. I loved this book. It was atmospheric, creepy and I enjoyed the way it flitted between the 1800’s and modern times.

I found this an enjoyable ghostly mystery set mostly in Ireland in a manor house called Hollowpark and centred around the family that has owned it for many years.

The main character, Grace, is a nanny who moves around different countries looking after children, but doesn't stay very long in one place. But when she meets the FitzMahons on their holiday and is persuaded to come back to Ireland to be little Skye's nanny she gets embroiled in the mysteries surrounding Hollowpark in the past.

There's a couple of ghosts in the property, and Grace can see them, although tries to pretend they're not there most of the time. There's also a maze and a tower overlooking it, which is where a lot of the ghostly goings on seem centred.

The story is a dual timeline, which I always enjoy, and whilst I enjoyed most of the story I did find Grace a little bit irritating at times. But there was certainly a lot going on, and lots of twists and turns, and things I didn't see coming (one in particular), so in the end it was an enjoyable read for me with a satisfying ending.

I loved this novel.

Grace accepts to be the nanny of a nice little girl, she moves back to Ireland after a long time she has worked in England and Europe. When she arrives at Hollowpark Hall she is charmed by the big, historical mansion, but pretty soon she discovers there are more residents than she expected that want her help to solve a mysterious incident happened years before.

The strenghth of the story for me are the characters, they are well developped and realistically depicted, they have such a depth I could feel their emotions. They pulled on my heartstrings and they crept on my mind so much I couldn't forget them after I have closed my book.
My favourite is Deirdre, she was a smart and feisty woman and she was never scared. Her life was troubled but she never left her house.

The Belladonna Maze is a pretty long story, with a lot of fascinating descriptions of the places, a plethora of characters with their own stories to tell, and a good mystery to solve. I know it could be confusing but on the contrary even the smallest thing piqued my curiousity.

The author wonderfully tied the loose ends, with some twists and shocking revelations, she skillfully intertwined the double timeline, past and present stories and characters that inhabited Hollowpark Hall are essential for the pleasure of this read.

I wished a little more involvement of the ghosts because I love my paranormal mystery as much but this is the only criticism that I can do.

An enjoyable read that kept you guessing until the end. The author skillfully wove different timelines to unfold the story. All the characters were clearly drawn which made them easy to believe in.

I really enjoyed this story. Part mystery, part ghost story. It wasn’t an overly long story and was really well paced to keep youfully engrossed throughout and I would completely recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me access to an early copy.

Set mostly in Ireland at a country estate called Hollowpark, the main narrator of the novel is Grace, a twenty-nine year old nanny who surprises herself in altering her usual routine of work and agrees to take on the role of nanny to Skye, the three year old daughter of Isla and Patrick. She arrives at Hollowpark to find the big house is a whirlwind of activity as Patrick and his mother are preparing the place to open to tourists in order to earn enough to keep it going.
Meanwhile, in a dual timeline we learn some of the history of the house and grounds. Deirdre Fitzmahon was the granddaughter of the original builder and deeply loved the house, but when her husband died a clause in her father's will meant her cousin inherited it and ousted her to the gate house. However the house always looks after its own, and her eviction did not sit will with the place.
The places in the book are well described and present as tangible settings, full of atmosphere and more than a little darkness on occasion. There is a good twist near the end but the ending itself was a bit too pat and cliched for me.
Overall a readable, lightweight novel, which I'm sure will appeal to many readers.
With thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the arc copy in return for an honest review.

An exciting story which grips you through to the end. A mixture of family life in an old house in Ireland with a bit of supernatural woven in.. Gracie appealed to me as a person and I think I'd have liked to have her as a Nanny. The FitzMahon family never seemed to be quite in control of their lives.
I found the two time lines an interesting way to develop the story of Grace's time as a Nanny to the FitzMahons, with the backstory of the family woven in.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book.

Loved this novel, it’s a gripping dual timelines entwine in this heart-stopping story of old secrets and forbidden passion. WOW! What a rollercoaster ride this book was!… Totally gripped from the beginning…

I enjoyed this book, it had a great ghost story running through it, a great spooky vibe as well. It was a little bit slow but rather enjoyable.