The House on Biscayne Bay by Chanel Cleeton

We meet Anna Barnes when her husband first presents her with Marbrisa, a not yet finished massive estate on Biscayne Bay. As much as Anna enjoys fine things and the luxuries that her husband's wealth provides, she is shocked and fearful of this massive expense and change of lifestyle that her husband is fully embracing. She knows this isn't really a gift to her, a present she never would have wanted. This is her husband doing what he wants to do and then acting like he's doing her a huge favor. Still, after twenty years of marriage where Anna bows to Robert's wishes in everything, she has to accept this forced move as graciously as she has accepted everything else Robert does.

Years later we see Marbrisa through new eyes. Eighteen year old Carmen Acosta arrives on the grounds to live with her sister and brother in law after the sudden death of her parents. Never close to her sister, she's greeted with indifference by her. Having been thrust into adulthood so quickly and now hoping her only close relative will welcome her, she's perplexed by many of the things going on at Marbrisa.

There are so many parallels between the two timelines. Is it the house that causes similar events to take place? Is the house haunted or cursed? No one seems safe in either timeline and we go back and forth in time to get an idea of just how NOT peaceful life at Marbrisa can be. Carmen starts digging, hoping to find out more about the past of Marbrisa, especially after a tragedy makes the house a crime scene. But then, this house was a crime scene long ago, too. Are events from back then connected to what is happening in the present?

This is my first book by the author and I enjoyed the mystery and the gothic feel of the story. I also thought both timelines were balanced well. And I liked that Carmen gets called Nancy Drew a time or two, she's a tough girl, handling herself very well at a time when women weren't allowed to be so forthright and to the point.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC.

Secrets, twisty plot points, mystery and historical fiction combine for a successful story centered on a Miami mansion. Told from two time periods, I was hooked from the first page. I just didn't want this one to end. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Historical Florida provides the background to Chanel Cleeton's newest novel which is a departure from her more straightforward historical fiction works. Opening in 1918 with the flood of northern folks grabbing up real estate near Miami, we meet Anna Barnes and her wealthy husband Robert. Robert is determined to make a huge splash in Miami's society and constructs the biggest and most opulent home named Marbrisa. Anna doesn't care for the showing off of wealth and hates the Florida climate. But when a woman drowns at an extravagant party, suspicion of murder falls on almost everyone. Flash forward to 1941 and Carmen is visiting her sister Carolina who is now owner of Marbrisa following Anna and Robert's deaths. Strange things still occur as animals are killed on the property and the house's legacy seems to repeat itself. Cleeton has formed a nifty gothic mystery with mysterious noises, secret passages, odd workers who hide secrets to say nothing of financial greed. The old time Florida vibe fits the story including alligators, humidity and the ocean waves crashing near Marbrisa. Cleeton's fans will be satisfied.

4 gothic Florida story

I’m a huge fan of Chanel Cleeton, so I eagerly read this one. It’s got elements of historical fiction like her previous books, but this one adds some different things, too.

There’s definitely gothic flair, and a house plays a character in this one – Marbrisa. There are two storylines in this one, with Anna Barnes and her husband Robert in 1918. Then, we have the storyline with Carmen and her sister, Carolina, in 1940.

The house has some sort of presence and seems to be cursed or haunted, or maybe both! Peacocks and alligators seem to rule the grounds.

Robert goes all out, building the house for Anna. He’s found an architect who creates the luxury mansion with all the trimmings. He creates beautiful gardens for Anna. This storyline is set when lots of people are moving to Miami, and glamour is all the rage. A mysterious accident (or is it murder?) threatens Robert, Anna, and Marbrisa’s fate is up in the air.

Carmen leaves Cuba with the death of her parents and comes to Marbrisa, where her sister, Carolina, lives with her husband, Asher. Carmen wants control of her inheritance from Asher, who is acting as the trustee. Carmen is uneasy at the house, and strange things keep happening with the wildlife and noises in the walls. Another tragedy occurs, and Carmen is desperate to escape.

There’s a bit of a mystery to unravel, and I loved how this one ended. The different storylines kept me interested throughout the book. I’m not sure I’d like to be a guest at Marbrisa!

This is the seventh novel by Chanel Cleeton that I have read and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed this Gothic mystery with the estate, Mabrisa as a character in the novel. While the timeline involving Anna and Robert Barnes was more interesting, I enjoyed Carmen's as well. Although, I don't know that killing Carmen's sister, Carolina, was necessary, but it does add add to Carmen's isolation. And, I did not even guess the ending. While it did drag a little in the middle, overall I really enjoyed this novel.

This feels like a gothic murder mystery novel. I love how without seeing scenes the author can create a setting that just feels dark and creepy.

Here we are following the story of Anna and Carmen, both residents of the Marbrisa and both suspicious of the men around them and their surroundings.

Anna has just moved to Florida with her husband Robert upon the completion of their new home, when a woman drowns at the house warming party. Then years later Carmen moves to Marbrisa from Cuba upon the death of her parents to live with her sister and her husband, then a few days later her sister is discovered murdered.

Now they are both trying to solve a murder while also trying to avoid being the next victim.

Wow! What an amazing dual timeline historical gothic fiction that has elements reminiscent of Rebecca and Daphne du Mauier! The story timelines bounce between post WWI and 1941. Definitely a 5 star read! A fantastic atmospheric suspense full of intrigue and mystery! The House on Biscayne Bay will sweep you away! Another fantastic novel by Chanel Cleeton.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC opportunity.

One gothic mansion and it’s treacherous legacy connects two lives decades apart.

In 1918, Anna’s husband Robert reveals that he’s having a custom mansion in Miami built for her. During their time living there, word around town was that two people were murdered. Decades later, in 1941, Carmen moves from Cuba into the mansion with her sister and brother in law. Carmen immediately feels something off about the residence and the stakes become higher after another murder occurs while she’s there. Is the mansion haunted, cursed, or is something else going on? Carmen has to uncover the secrets before she’s the next to die.

The story started off slow, but the thriller/murder mystery plot of this historical fiction soon drew me in. I had to know what was going on. The answers connected the timelines in a way I wasn’t expecting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced eARC.

I loved this historical mystery set in Miami, Florida and the dual timelines of 1918 and 1941. The author did a great job with the sense of place in this novel. We can feel the Florida heat, and scary creatures like alligators that roam the grounds of a glamourous but possibly haunted mansion. I read it in less than two days because I couldn't put it down!. I will post a longer review on my blog closer to the publication date.

Another stellar historical mystery from one of my favorite authors, Chanel Cleeton. The House on Biscayne Bay focuses on a mysterious mansion in Miami during the Roaring 20s as well as the more subdued pre-WWII year of 1941. Anna and Carmen are beautiful women in danger as the wild nature of the newly inhabited Miami overtakes law and order. As people die and lives are ruined, who is the culprit, the cursed house set in the midst of savage wildlife or the ones they love the most?

Unraveling the threads of betrayal and intrigue through the decades as the house watches, Cleeton does a masterful job at keeping the reader guessing until the end. I loved learning more about the history of Miami during these challenging years and always enjoy the historical details that Cleeton shares. I highly recommend it for any historical fiction fan who wants to feel as if they’ve stepped into an Agatha Christie novel.

I absolutely devoured this book over the weekend. As a long time fan of historic gothic romance, this book was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would not have thought of setting a gothic romance in Florida, of all places, but the setting absolutely worked, and added an otherness to the landscape that was unexpected.

The book splits the timeline between Anna, the wife of a wealthy industrialist who builds Marbrisa, and Carmen, a young girl who moves to Marbrisa some decades later where her sister and her brother are both living. The large house has a reputation for being cursed, and no one seems particularly happy in their time there, whether it be Anna or Carmen's sister. As past and present unfold in the story, the connections become clear.

Atmospheric, with compelling POVs, I felt like I was a teenager reading Victoria Holt again, and that's the best compliment I can give a book.

I do so love a good gothic novel. All the elements are here, at this author’s hands, building into a hauntingly mesmerizing read that hits all the right notes, keeping this reader thoroughly hooked, - right up to an ending not unpredictable but so perfectly fitting it appears to almost write itself.

The story is told in the alternating first person POV voices of two women : Anna Barnes, a fortyish woman living after the Great War in 1918; and Carmen Acosta, an eighteen year old coming to adulthood in the WW2-infused days of 1941.

What both women have in common is a house, - a mansion really - situated on a remote and swampy chunk of Miami Florida, where alligators roam freely and huge tracts of pre-land-rush property could be purchased for a song and a dream.

When Anna’s husband Robert, twenty years her senior, follows his midlife “folly” through to the construction of a Floridian pale-coral extravaganza, a European monstrosity (in Anna’s view), she has no choice but to vacate their home in New York and follow him. As the ostentatious Marbrisa is christened and completed, Anna’s life is irreversibly altered - trapped as she is amidst the stifling heat, screeching peacocks, and creeping sense of oppression now surrounding the house and its sweeping view of Biscayne Bay.

More than twenty years later, Carmen, an orphaned teen, will find herself in a remarkably similar situation - occupying the disconcerting Marbrisa (now owned by her sister and brother in law) - with a growing sense of its ominous opulence.

Fascinating and so atmospheric you can taste it - this slow-build read gets under your skin, weaving together two stories and two women, and an unsettling manse that may outlive them all.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book, all thoughts presented are my own.

Thank you to Bookbrowse for an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. I have read several of Chanel Cleeton’s books and just loved her last one, “The Cuban Heiress”. So, I was very much looking forward to her new book set in Miami. The author is a wonderful storyteller and she writes a very atmospheric story with this one. But, I must say the two connecting storylines didn’t draw me in as I had hoped and I didn’t care for the characters as much. It certainly was well told, but just not my favorite of hers.

Chanel Cleeton’s new novel, The House on Biscayne Bay, was a 5-star read for me. Already a fan of this author’s previous works, I was intrigued to see that she had written a gothic tale. The House on Biscayne Bay is perfectly done, just the right amount of atmosphere, great character development, and Cleeton’s strong historical elements woven throughout. The House on Biscayne Bay is a well-researched period piece of fiction that I did not want to put down. I highly recommend this novel for Cleeton fans and for those who love a good gothic and/or historical read. This novel would also appeal to book clubs as there is much to discuss and enjoy here. Thank you to BookBrowse, NetGalley, Chanel Cleeton, and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review an e-galley of this novel.

I love all of Chanel Cleeton’s novels and her latest The House on Biscayne Bay wow’ed me from page one! This historical fiction has more of an eerie, gothic vibe, and I. WAS. HERE. FOR. IT! This riveting novel focuses on two women, who both find themselves in the same Miami mansion, decades apart, both experiencing bone-chilling circumstances!

Wow, I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this book and I may or may not have kept the lights on lol! Fantastic suspense and brilliantly planned out twists and turns that had my adrenaline pumping! Considering that it’s a mystery/suspense novel I don’t want to give away any clues, but I will say you won’t be disappointed! The House on Biscayne Bay is a 5+++ star novel that everyone should put at the very top of their TBR list! As per usual, I can’t wait to read anything and everything Chanel Cleeton comes out with next!

As a former resident of the Biscayne Bay area of South Florida I was drawn to this book by its setting and title.

But, this gothic tale of a fictional historic property did little to convey the history or social ambiance of Miami during its development. The author concentrated on very successfully creating an environment of mystery and distrust, but didnt create characters or a setting that really came to life for me. It felt like we were just churning through a complex plot

. I definitely was interested in a resolution of the mysteries presented, but I didnt enjoy getting there. This was, in part, due to the style of the writing.

Chanel Cleeton's new novel is very different from her earlier novels which focused more on the political impact on Cuban families. I was intrigued from the beginning with the story.
This is a mystery with lots of unanswered questions. It has themes of wealth and downfall, dreams, infidelity, secrets and murder. I liked the setting of the story in the Miami area during the early boom times, the development of the characters spanning the two generations and the wrap-up. A very fitting ending.

I give this a 4-star rating.

I read The House on Biscayne Bay by Chanel Cleeton in one sitting and I think it's my favorite book of hers to date! Told in dual timelines, this atmospheric and rich novel held my attention from start to finish. I never wanted to put it down and I was invested in the characters lives. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Bookbrowse for this ARC from NetGalley. I love Chanel Cleeton’s previous books and am excited to get to read and review her newest book. She creates an atmosphere of suspense and intrigue. This gothic historical mystery revolved around a mansion in South Florida and 2 couples that lived there. Robert had the mansion built for his wife, Anna in the 1920s. Another couple lived in the mansion in the 1940s. The story is told between the two women alternating chapters. Overall, I loved the gothic atmosphere and the development of the dual storylines as they unfolded the secrets and mysteries of Marbrisa, the Miami mansion.

I absolutely loved this book! Well written by the author. I enjoyed how the book went between decades. A good book for book clubs. The characters were well developed and the twist at the end was perfect!