Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

This book just didn't work for me. I am not a huge fan of slow burn and this was just way too slow for me. I also didn't really like the characters so it was just hard to get through.

I hope others love this one.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and the author or giving me this novel. I meant to finish it sooner but I got wrapped up in my job (ugh) and my historical research. This was a really interesting read. I am so glad I got to read it. I didn't love Agnes but that might be the point. Love it. Thank you!

Someone hand me a megaphone…

Listen up, Carol Goodman, is coming at us strong with her newest thriller, Return to Wyldcliffe Heights.

Given my love for Goodman, I was able to snag an early copy and all I can tell you is, you have no idea what is in store for you. This fast paced thriller will have your anxiety at all time max and your tummy bubbling with nerves. What lurks in the next chapter? Proceed with caution…

The twist?

You will never see it coming.

Check out this teaser :

Losing yourself inside of a book can be dangerous. Not everyone finds their way out.

Agnes Corey, a junior editor at a small independent publisher, has been hired by enigmatic author Veronica St. Clair to transcribe the sequel to her 1993 hit phenomenon, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. St. Clair has been a recluse since the publication of the Jane Eyre-esque book, which coincided with a terrible fire that blinded and scarred her. Arriving in the Hudson Valley at St. Clair’s crumbling estate, which was once a psychiatric hospital for “wayward women,” Agnes is eager to ensure St. Clair’s devoted fans will get the sequel they’ve been anticipating for the past thirty years.

As St. Clair dictates, Agnes realizes there are clues in the story that reveal the true—and terrifying—events three decades ago that inspired the original novel. The line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred, and Agnes discovers terrible secrets about an unresolved murder from long ago, which have startling connections to her own life. As St. Clair’s twisting tale infiltrates Agnes’s psyche, Agnes begins to question her own sanity—and safety. In order to save herself, Agnes must uncover what really happened to St. Clair, and in doing so, set free the stories of all the women victimized by Wyldcliffe Heights.

When I read in the description of this book that it will appeal to people who loved The Thirteenth Tale, I had to read it. The Thirteenth Tale is one of my all time favorites and Return to Wyldcliffe Heights didn’t disappoint.

Agnes Corey has turned her life around after a troubled childhood. She has a new job working as a junior editor at a small publishing company. The publishing company’s best selling book was The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights by Veronica St. Clair but the company is struggling financially and will have to close if things don’t get better. For years everyone has been asking for a sequel to this book but the author has become reclusive in her crumbling mansion after a devastating fire that left her blind. Agnes and her mother loved The Secret of Wyldecliffe Heights and on a whim she writes to Veronica St. Clair asking her to please write a sequel. If the publishing company can get the sequel, they won’t have to close the business. When Agnes unexpectantly gets a response that Veronica St. Clair will dictate the sequel to Clair if she comes to her mansion in the Hudson Valley to live there while she takes down the story.

Agnes arrives at Wyldcliffe but soon realizes that things are not as they seem. The creepy caregiver isn’t happy that she is there and Agnes begins to have strange dreams as reality begins to blur. As Veronica dictates the twisted story, Agnes begins to see parallels with her own life and what really happened thirty years before at Wyldcliffe Heights.

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights has everything that a mystery with gothic elements should have: a creepy, crumbling mansion that was once a psychiatric home for young women, a sinister housekeeper, twists and turns, a reclusive writer, a burned out tower and fog. Lots of fog! Fans of Jane Eyre, The Thirteenth Tale and Rebecca will love Return to Wyldcliffe Heights.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the advanced reading copy.

If you've enjoyed the twists and turns Carol Goodman's previous books you are sure to love this one. The main character, Agnes, was multifaceted and as we learn more about her and her past we find out how much her life is intertwined with the owner of the crumbling estate where she begins working. All seems exactly as it appears...until it doesn't! Definitely a page turning. I'm looking forward to reading more books by this author.

A perfect read for fans of Jane Eyre, The Thirteenth Tale, Daphne du Mauriers's Rebecca, or Wuthering Heights.


Another consuming Gothic mystery by Carol Goodman, with an old asylum turned house where a dark tragedy occurred and the main character is seeking to unravel what happened there years ago, why Agnes St. Clair, the author of her favorite book never wrote a sequel, and why now, finally, she’s chosen to dictate it to her. Agnes Cory grew up hearing her mom read The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. Now estranged from her vagabond mother, and trying to keep her job at a tiny, struggling book publishing company, she sends a letter to her favorite author (who published her book here years ago). She receives not a reprimand, but a summons to listen to the elderly, blind author (who was blinded in a fire one fateful night in the same asylum she now calls home) dictate the sequel while she writes it and sends it to be published. Agnes will be the first to hear the sequel, which sounds very much like certain events that happened before she was born, perhaps the true story of the tragedies that have happened in this place, including the explanation of a murder generations before and the legend of Red Bess.

Set in fall in the Hudson Valley, this is the perfect fall book for fans of Gothic fiction, interwoven timelines, explained legends/tragedies, and for those who’ve ever wanted a sequel to their favorite book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are solely mine and do not reflect the publisher's views.

This was one of the more enjoyable literary industry gothics I've read. A fun ride, even if I did not enjoy the ending as much. I feel like it's not necessarily something I'd recommend to everyone, but for anyone who grew up with the books mentioned here, it will be a fun ride!

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me this chance to read this novel early.

I am in the minority here, but I won't be finishing this book.

Agnes is just so freaking mopey, and about every other page she was "turning away before they could see the tears in her eyes."

I also had a hard time remembering who was who, and where they were in the timeline of things. The smattering of info doled out in little proportions just made the story feel disjointed.

This is the Carol Goodman I love. I am not sure what happened with the last couple books, but this book is an excellent read. I enjoyed the creep factor. This is a must-read!

The summary caught my attention, and the story did not disappoint. I had a difficult time putting this one down! There are numerous twists and turns that add to that Gothic suspense. It is cleverly plotted, and there is solid character and storyline development. It is easy to connect with the characters and become totally pulled in to the mystery. The reader will likely start to question what, and who, is fact and what is fiction. This is the first book I have ever read from this author, and I look forward to reading other books by Goodman.

Those with a taste for gothic thrillers with interlocking generational storylines need look no further than Return to Wyldcliffe Heghts. A job at a failing publishing house spurs Agnes Corey to contact reclusive author Veronica St. Clair in hopes of persuading the author to write a sequel to her 30-year-old gothic tale, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights, which ends on a literal cliffhanger.

Agnes' bleak childhood with her unbalanced mother and placements in various "homes" has made her resourceful and independent but a touch naive as well. Being invited to work with Veronica St. Clair on the much longed for sequel seems like an opportunity to prove herself and further her career. Once at Wyldcliffe Hall, its twisted history and generational hauntings come together in ways that Agnes could not have anticipated.

The novel is brooding and atmospheric as behooves the genre; however, the multiple storylines and characters are sometimes difficult to keep up with. Nevertheless, a definite must for Goodman's fans and those who love a good gothic tale.

Full Disclosure--NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

3.5 Stars

Agnes Corey landed her dream job at a small publishing company in New York. She has turned her life around, but now all her plans could be dashed. The company is having financial problems and may have to close its doors. There is only one hope: if the reclusive Veronica St. Clair agrees to write a sequel to her popular book, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. Veronica has always denied requests for a sequel, but she unexpectedly changes her mind. Agnes gets the chance to write down the sequel as Veronica dictates it. Still, time will tell if this is a great opportunity or a dangerous, fateful assignment for the junior editor.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and it’s very clever. It’s a Gothic mystery/psychological thriller and has a story within a story. The notes Agnes takes are included in the book, so there are really two stories being told. Veronica’s book seems to be based on actual events, so the lines between fiction and reality are blurred in a few different ways. This is intriguing, but it’s often hard to distinguish between real and fictional events. Following the main plot becomes even more challenging when Agnes’s narrative includes things she has only imagined. Agnes is often too impulsive, but she is intelligent, and you want her to succeed. There are some pacing issues, and the middle part of the book was a slow read for me. However, things pick up at the end when some surprising truths are revealed. I appreciate the creativity of the story and love the moody, mysterious atmosphere that the author has created.

~ Christine

I was drawn in by the cover and promise of a gothic story but unfortunately this one didn’t work for me and I decided to DNF. Thank you to the publisher for the free book to review.

I dearly miss Carol Goodman’s academic mysteries, but she also writes a mean modern gothic, and this is a fun and entertaining story.

I’m not sure anybody builds atmosphere better than Goodman, and this story is rife with it right from the start. We have a mysterious, crumbling manor, of course, but even the way she discusses the locations in New York City are delightfully creepy and gothic, and the sense of place remains tremendously evocative throughout the novel.

The plot is a bit shopworn and tropey, but I’m not sure that mattered much. The twist at the end is very similar to something we’ve seen in a recent Riley Sager novel, though Goodman puts her own spin on the trope and I’m not super caught up in plot originality in gothic fiction.

In all, this is just a great story, well-paced and immersive, and the atmosphere can’t be bear.

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman is billed as Jane Eyre meets The Thirteenth Tale, and it definitely achieves that!
Junior editor Agnes Corey boldly asks reclusive author Veronica St. Clair to write a sequel to her blockbuster novel, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. Surprisingly, Ms. St. Clair says yes, but demands that Agnes must act as her amanuensis, living with her in a deteriorating country mansion and transcribing the novel for the blind author.
The characters are fascinating—Agnes, the plucky protagonist, has her own childhood trauma revealed. Veronica St. Clair is a Jane Eyre-like tragic figure. More gothic-type entities are Bess Malloy, known as the ghostly murderer Red Bess, and of course the suitably dour and severe housekeeper, Laeticia, and the taciturn caretaker, Syms. All play out their parts in the mansion, with its dark environs and history.
This is a very entertaining, intricately plotted novel that cleverly straddles the line between classic Gothic mystery and contemporary suspense. The prose is engaging and suits the style of the story. What begins as slowly evolving suspense ends with astounding revelations and twists cascading onto the reader!
I recommend this novel to lovers of classic Bronte-esque brooding suspense entwined with an atmospheric psychological thriller.

Thank you to William Morrow/HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Losing oneself in a book can be dangerous.

Agnes Corey had an unusual and rather traumatic upbringing, going from life with an unstable mother to the foster care system, and ultimately being an inmate at an institution for juvenile offenders. She got her college degree from SUNY Potsdam and dreamed of working in publishing in NYC. Her mother did instill in her a love of reading, particularly for a modern gothic megabestseller of the 1990’s called The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights, and after working as a teacher at the same institution where she had spent several years as an inmate to accumulate savings, she heads to NYC. There she finds that being a graduate of a middling public university and from very modest beginnings is not going to open any doors for her at the major publishing houses. After multiple rejections, she lands a job at Gatehouse Books, the very small independent firm which is the publisher for her favorite book….The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. The author of that novel, Veronica St. Clair, has never written a sequel despite pleas from her multitude of devoted fans, and lives in seclusion in a small town on the Hudson River, Wyldcliffe-on-Hudson, in her family house…Wyldcliffe Heights. She survived a fire at the house which killed her father, who was running a psychiatric facility there, but was left blind and with damaged lungs. Agnes’ job at Gatehouse has been to sort through Veronica’s fan mail and pass along via the post all complimentary ones to Veronica. When she is summoned to the office of Kurtis Chadwick, the publisher in chief at Gatehouse, and told that the firm is in dire financial straits and she will need to be let go, she is panicked. She breaks protocol and pens a note directly to Veronica, adding her own plea for a sequel, suggesting that Veronica perhaps dictate the story to a sympathetic reader. She fully expects that violating the rules in that way will end her employment with Gatehouse quickly and with ill feelings, but instead Veronica tells Chadwick that she will do what Agnes proposed….with Agnes as her listener/transcriber, her “amanuensis”. And so the vulnerable and somewhat naive young woman ends up at the creepy, secluded stone mansion on a cliff, with a disapproving housekeeper devoted to the lady of the house, a surly groundskeeper, and the woman who wrote a fictionalized story of her own life that has obsessed young women for decades. How much of the novel was fiction, and how much was true? What happened to the fictional best friend (Jayne) of the Veronica character (Violet)? A female ancestor who tried to help disadvantaged women including a convicted murderer, the father who used the women in his care to explore his fascination with past life regression, and more disturbing facts and legends surround Wyldcliffe Heights. Before long, Agnes finds herself entranced by the stories that Veronica is dictating, less a sequel to the book than a retelling from Violet’s rather than Jayne’s point of view….and she may be losing her own grip on reality.
An interesting take on the classic gothic tale, with a protagonist who is naive but not quite an innocent and the mysteries of three different women….Veronica, her grandmother Josephine, and Red Bess…intertwined in a plot that includes a domineering father, a group of goth teenagers in 1990’s NYC, and a house that at various times has been a Magdalen refuge, the site of a progressive attempt to turn young women from rough lives into solid citizens, and a psychiatric treatment facility. I have enjoyed many of author Carol Goodman’s previous novels, and while I was intrigued by the premise of this one I didn’t love it. Too many threads competing for attention, maybe, and characters who didn’t completely engage my interest. Still a quick and enjoyable read, one that could appeal to readers of authors like Cate Quinn, Alyssa Cole, and Gilly Macmillan, as well as to those who love a good gothic tale. Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for allowing me access to an early copy.

Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman was a gripping story.
She has a way with writing that pulls you in and sets you right smack dab in the middle of the plot where you literally feel your palms sweating and heart racing along with the characters. 
Once I started, I couldn’t stop with this book. I had to know what was going on.
This was a satisfying thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you hooked and guessing the ending.

Thank You NetGalley and William Morrow for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I’ve been a fan of Carol Goodman for many years. This novel within a novel is very well constructed. It has all the elements of an excellent thriller—old mansion, creepy maid, scary secluded author, and a woman trying to make sense of her life. Well done, Ms. Goodman!

It was Ok, not my favorite book by the author and would give it 2.5 stars. I usually fall in love with the characters and love getting to know them. This one not so much. I had a hard time getting into the story. With all the different characters and timelines, I felt confused at times. I kept forgetting that Agnes's story was actually happening in present time. It didn't seem that way at all, except for the Apple computer and iphones. Nothing good ever happened at Wyldcliffe Heights. Would Veronica's dad have been able to get away with everything he was doing? Veronica and Jayne lived Josephine and Bess's story. Why did Agnes suffer with the nightmares and visions? She was prone to sleep walking and waking up in strange places, not to mention the scratching of herself at night. I didn't see the twist coming at the end. The best part of the book when the truth was finally revealed about Veronica, Jayne and what really happened to Bess.

Definitely recommend giving the book a try. I usually love Carol Goodman's books, but this one just wasn't for me. With all her books, after I read them I want to visit the Hudson Valley. Look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from William Morrow through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Carol Goodman brings a gothic mystery set in New York. Agnes didn’t have a happy life growing up, shuttled between foster homes and reformatories. Before her mother had to give Agnes up, She introduced her to the book “The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights.” It’s been 30 years since the book became popular, and it is the only hit that the publisher has ever had. Agnes is lucky enough to get a job at that publisher and eventually, a chance to work with the author of Wyldecliffe Heights, Veronica St. Claire. Agnes moves to the Hudson Valley and Works with Veronica on the prequel to her famous book. There are urban legends, mysteries, graveyards, and nosy town folk to deal with.

I thought this book was pretty good. It was a very easy read. There are a few twists at the end that are fun, and I did not figure one of them out at all.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.