This was a most engaging story. I do enjoy a dual timeline story and this was based in 2013/14 and 1943/4. Normally, I prefer the older time but with this story I found them both to be equally enjoyable. In the latest time Meredith and Philip have bought a dilapidated house on an island in the Thames. During the war, the house was used to treat injured military personnel. A good deal of research was done by the author into the types of treatment endured by these men. Ellen is a nurse in the hospital, who has her own problems and I did wonder how it would link to the later story. Philip is away with his job quite a bit and Meredith is often left on her own. She is trying to forge a new life for herself and Philip but certain situations leave her wondering who she can trust. This story is very atmospheric at times and dangerous events happen. I liked the way the two times linked together. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own,

The setting of May Day Island is intriguing. The book has been narrated in dual timeline and dual perspectives. Some characters have facades and every character is harbouring a secret. The stories were deep, touching and evocative. This is a gripping historical mystery.

In 1934, the author has shared the backdrop of war. When Germans attacked on london. While in present, it is 2013. Presently, Meredith and Philip has bought the May Day House to renovate it and moved in while the island people still come across supernatural happenings. The house has its own history, myth and mystery. While in the past, Ellen, a nurse came in May Day House which was used as a hospital to cure soldiers. May Day House is a Victorian Mansion. The people of Island are not how they appear to be. In the past, Ellen was hiding something and Harry mysteriously died on an island. While Meredith finds something in the house that makes her suspicious of Philip. All the unthinkable happenings and hearing shocking things about the mansion from people of the island encourages Meredith to dig in the history of the house. The truths were shocking. The book is filled with unthinkable happenings, secrets, mystery and evocative past that connected the characters.

Many Thanks to the Publisher and Author.

The House in the Water by Victoria Darke is a wonderfully written story.
The characters are so well written and the storyline, which has a lot going on, holds your interest and flows together so seamlessly.
I was intrigued the entire time.

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

When I first saw the cover and title of The House in the Water by Victoria Darke, I was immediately drawn to it. The synopsis only heightened my excitement, as I have a deep love for historical fiction intertwined with mystery.

The author’s descriptive writing skillfully brought the setting to life. It felt as if I was seeing everything through her eyes, and visualizing both timelines was effortless. Her vivid descriptions allowed me to immerse myself fully in the unfolding events.

The dual timelines added significant depth to the story’s mystery. It was fascinating to see the different perspectives and anticipate how they would eventually converge. From the start, the Gothic atmosphere intrigued me, and the desire to uncover the house’s secrets kept me hooked.

As the narrative unfolded, I found myself more captivated by the past timeline. It was heartbreaking to delve into the mental health struggles faced by soldiers during that era and the harsh methods employed by doctors to get them back to the front lines. However, it was heartening to read about those who genuinely cared for the soldiers’ well-being, despite the risks. This element of the story highlighted the thorough research that went into the book, enhancing my appreciation for it.

Conversely, I struggled to maintain my engagement with the present timeline. I found it difficult to connect with Meredith. Despite understanding her past and present struggles, I couldn’t fully immerse myself in her and Philip’s story. The lead-up to the big reveal felt underwhelming and lacked the gripping tension I had anticipated. The actual revelation at the end didn’t meet my expectations; it seemed to unfold without much excitement. Additionally, the pacing felt slow at times, making certain parts of the story drag. The secondary characters weren’t given enough prominence to make their contributions impactful. More context regarding their backgrounds would have made their roles as red herrings more effective.

Despite these issues, the ending was beautifully crafted, seamlessly tying together the past and present events. I felt a sense of relief discovering how the characters were connected to Ellen and the resolution provided closure. However, the revelation didn’t give me goosebumps or leave me in awe. Nonetheless, I appreciated the portrayal of Meredith and Philip working on their relationship, emphasizing the importance of communication and individual growth.

While The House in the Water wasn’t a life-changing book for me, I appreciated the story it aimed to tell.

I'm rating this 3.5 stars.

A spellbinding tale that had me utterly mesmerised. It's a seamless mix of genres as a ghostly mystery had me entranced. Going from past to present with glimpses of the war. My heart goes out to young nurse Ellen as she helps the charges in the hospital while dealing with her own demons. The story I can tell has been well researched and the writing is just as good. I know that lovers of historical fiction will have a hard time putting this one down!

The blend of some true WWII events and unfolding fiction on an island setting, spooked and spiked with a somewhat nail-biting tale that was mysteriously interconnected, fascinated me, keeping me ever more captivated as I read. I cannot say that I totally enjoyed it though due to some of the heartbreaking incidents that are angst-producing, keeping the reader on edge and even with a tissue in hand for weep mopping. The story did keep me coming back for more as the dual time lines and narrations between Ellen of the earlier years and Meredith of the more 'recent' times moved towards each other. I like the diary idea which helped to bridge the years.

~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

May 2024

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent by Net Galley and the publisher.

3 Stars
One Liner: Got potential but tries to be too many things

1942
Ellen is a young Irish nurse who arrives at the May Day House to help soldiers recover from the trauma of the war and send them back. However, the treatment methods are doubtful, and Ellen is not sure. She also realizes that she has to sort her life first.
2013-14
Meredith falls in love with the half-damaged May Day House. She and Philip put all their money into buying the house and hope for a fresh start. However, things aren’t going as per the plan. Meredith finds comfort in reading a lost notebook from the WWII times but what happens when reality knocks on the door?
The story comes in the third-person POV of Meredith in the contemporary track and Ellen in the past timeline.

My Thoughts:
I enjoy books with dual timelines, even if one track works better than the other. This book promises a blend of history, mystery, drama, gothic atmosphere, and some romance (it is marked as general fiction, historical, and romance on NetGalley).
The results are mixed, so here’s what I liked –
The setting has terrific potential. The initial vibes of an ancient house on a small island in the River Thames are spot on. It is chilly, darkish, and alluring.
The historical timeline deals with war patients but with a twist. Here, those suffering from psychological trauma are ‘healed’ and sent back to fight the war. The focus is not on healing but on doing anything that would make the soldier eligible enough to fight again.
The prologue hooks the reader with a promise of paranormal and mystery. Also, the prologue is not an extract from later chapters but the beginning of the book. That’s how it should be.
The book deals with heavy themes but doesn’t make things graphic. We get enough information about what happened. I appreciate this. No excessive detail to shock the readers.
However, there are quite a few aspects that could have been better –
Characters are the core of the book. We need to connect with or at least feel something for the main characters. Here, it was impossible to do so with Meredith and Philip. I could feel a little for Ellen, but even that wasn’t much.
Most of the time, it seems as if they are mediocre actors enacting a script on the stage and mouthing dialogues for the sake of it.
Contemporary thrillers specialize in TSTL heroines. While the book doesn’t belong to that genre, the FMC does. My eyes got more-than-good exercise from all that rolling.
The setting’s potential is not fully exploited. After the gothic feel in the beginning, it becomes just another dilapidated house with too much mess. I couldn’t see why someone would love it so much.
The paranormal touch is another aspect. It’s there but not there, but still there. Confused? Yep, that’s how it is; as if no one was sure if the book should go that route or not. Deciding on this would have helped the book (a lot).
The connection between the two timelines does make sense, but it could have benefitted from more emotion for the main characters. This could have been achieved if the previous aspect had been better handled.
The pacing is uneven, with a slow beginning. Moreover, some characters have a 180-degree change by the end, which almost comes out of nowhere. Similarly, the reveals were just okayish.
The author’s note is informative, though.
To summarize, The House in the Water has an intriguing premise but doesn’t translate to the final output. It tries to be quite a few things at the same time, which dilutes the core. I’m a bit on the outliner island now, so this may appeal to you.
Thank you, NetGalley and Boldwood Books, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
*******
Links will be updated after the tour on 2nd June.

This was beautifully written but I didn’t realise that it was a Gothic novel! I found it extremely creepy and dark. One reviewer called it ‘unsettling’ and that’s the right word.

It involves a time-slip story. Meredith, recovering from the death of her parents and several miscarriages, finally buys the house that she has always dreamed, May Day House. It is a very dilipaditated mansion in the middle of an island in the Thames. The house is quite creepy and Meredith starts to think that she is going mad when she sees ghosts and hears voices. Her pilot husband Phillip has his own mysterious past to deal with and is not much help. Also, he begins acting oddly.

A diary of a nurse Ellen who worked at May Day House when it was a convelescent home for soldiers in the war intrigues Meredith who starts reading it. This is another dark tale. Ellen falls in love with Harry, a patient, but when she finds out about the horrific psychiatric treatments that are carried out in the hospital, she attempts to save him…

Apparently, Victoria Darke writes uplifting novels under another name. They are probably more my scene at the moment, although this one was hard to out down.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Victoria Darke brings us the dual timeline historical fiction The House in the Water about a rehabilitation house on the Thames River for soldiers during WWII. Ellen has been reassigned to May Day House after a stint in Egypt during the war. May Day House treats soldiers who are traumatized (what we call PTSD today) and requiring treatment before being cleared to return to fighting in Europe. She meets and feels a spark for one soldier who arrives, leading to her questioning some of the techniques being used.

Meanwhile in 2014, Merry sees the abandoned May Day House for sale and convinces her husband, Phillip, that they should buy it and fix it up. After the death of her parents and suffering miscarriages, it gives a Merry a purpose. She meets some of the locals who aren’t all supportive of their plans for the island home. Then Merry starts to see and hear strange things. Thinking it is the unsupportive locals trying to get her to leave, she becomes more determined to turn May Day House into a showpiece for others to enjoy.

I found myself looking forward more to Ellen’s story and what happened at May Day House during the war. I was better able to visualize what was happening and more immersed in the story. Ellen was able to relate to the soldiers she was attending to based on her own trauma. Ultimately the fusing of the timelines comes together and looking back, it fills in gaps of things I wondered as I read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the advanced copy. Opinions expressed are my own. This book will be published on May 26, 2024

#netgalley #arc #bookstagram #TheHouseintheWater #VictoriaDarke #BoldwoodBooks

The House in the Water, a Gothic timeslip novel, by Victoria Darke is a very powerful stirring story. Drake, with her beautiful captivating prose, kept me totally engaged in both timelines of the unsettling world surrounding May Day House, on its own island in the Thames.

In 1943 May Day House serving as a Psychiatric Hospital for soldiers suffering mental trauma during WWII. Lieutenant Ellen Quinn, a nurse in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, witnesses some very gruesome treatments inflicted by the doctors, to get the men back to duty as quickly as possible. Ellen herself struggles with mental trauma, but back then only the men were treated. In 2013, hoping for a fresh start, Philip and Meredith purchase the dilapidated May Day House. Unfortunately, that remains to be seen, as their history, both separate and together, continues to haunt them.

Drake wrote a fantastic graphic Gothic novel, based on true facts, with ghosts, mystery, a villain, and disastrous floods. She handled with grace, some very serious issues, including PTSD, rape, death, miscarriage, and grief. I truly enjoyed reading The House In The Water, and hope that Victoria Drake will write more stories like this in the near future.

Thank you Boldwood Books for the complimentary e-copy of this awesome book via NetGalley. I was not obligated to write a favorable review, and all opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood books for inviting to review The House in the Water

This has everything I love in a book:
- Historical aspect
- Mysterious house
- Secrets
- Ghosts
- Romance
- Duel timeline

I loved everything about Darke's book, how Meredith is able to work through her grief by restoring May Day House, how they will not give up despite the set backs, challenges and even ghosts she meets along the way. There were some huge twists at the end, I love being kept guessing!

The setting and characterisation are exceptional, I cannot wait to read more by Victoria Darke

This is an amazingly intriguing tale alternating between two very different times. Connected by a common location, the story follows two headstrong women as they navigate through life to their best capabilities. While life during the war had its own set of difficulties, we still have enough shackles around us even now and this Gothic timeslip novel does exceedingly well to highlight not just the stark differences but the common grief as well.

“Their scars might be invisible, but they are no less real.”

At a time when mental conditions weren’t even considered important enough to be acknowledged, this is a tale of love making young Ellen brave enough to stand for the truth. Additionally, it is also a tale of Meredith’s grief and how she finds her way back to being herself. Though this journey takes us back to the war and through Meredith’s loss, it also ends on the sweetest note.

Thank you for my advance copy!

I love this cover!
Philip and Meredith buy May Day house. It’s pretty run down but they have big plans for it.
This book is told in dual timelines and has a bit of a gothic feel to it. There’s lots of secrets in both stories.
I did find the story in the present more interesting but that might have been because of the possible ghost.

This was a well-written historical fiction read, set in a run-down old house on an isolated island in the Thames near Weybridge, England. It’s set in two timelines - 1943 and 2013 - and is set in the same house in both time periods. The story is told from two points of view, Ellen in 1943 when she was a nurse in the house that was used as a hospital to treat injured soldiers with dangerous unproven therapies (ECT) and Meredith, who bought the same house in 2013 to renovate it and start over with her husband after a series of tragedies.

Both timelines are equally interesting and there are many parallels between them. The female characters are very likeable and the old creepy house and the river are themselves characters. The story moves along at a good pace although it did slow down a bit in the middle. There is lots happening in the story to keep the reader’s interest: a forbidden war-time romance, PTSD, hostile neighbors, secrets from Ellen’s husband’s past, a creepy house with ghost sightings, and natural disasters (dangerous flooding of the Thames - the latter actually happened in 2014).

This is engaging, easy to read historical fiction that would make for a great read this summer.

Thanks to Boldwood Books for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

The premise of this book sounded superb - a crumbling house on an island in the Thames and a couple with tragedy in their past. It was clear from the description that this was going to be one that kept me on the edge of my seat and I wasn't disappointed.

It's quite a slow burner to begin with as the scene is set and lots of hints are dropped about Merry's fragile mental state. With the benefit of hindsight, there were also lots of hints dropped about how events were going to unfold, but I was so caught up in the story that I failed to spot a single one of them. I was successfully misled right up to the moment of revelation and yet it didn't feel like a shock when the baddie was finally revealed.

In the other part of the story, I felt less of a connection to the characters, but their's was an important story to tell. In a society which is far more tolerant of PTSD and the effects of conflict on people, it is easy to forget how the people suffering these things were treated less than a century ago. It isn't just the attitudes - although these were bad enough - but the treatments were often far worse and caused far more damage than the original trauma. This is described here in vivid detail, through Ellen's eyes and it made me realise how traumatic it must have been for the nurses who witnessed these treatments as well.

Overall, this was a story that kept me reading and it's one I'll be recommending to my mum, which is always a sign of a good book, as we don't often like the same genres. I'm sure Victoria Darke is an author I'll be coming back to in the future.

My thanks to Net Galley, Boldwood Books, and the personal invitation I received to review this arc.

Unfortunately I could not finish. I found it slow, not engaging and confusing with the back and forth time lines.

I requested this due to the gorgeous cover and summary. I love reading about nurses during WW2 and anything gothic. I knew it would be the perfect mix for me. However, there was not a lot of character development, which I really need to get engrossed and enjoy a story. I did not connect to the characters for this reason. Also, the writing style was just elementary to me. The book did not live up to my expectations, which I am sad about. 3 stars.

The House in the Water draws you in slowly but surely to the story of May Day house located on an island.

In 1942 we have Emily a nurse who resided in the home when it was a hospital for men during the war. The treatments given for PTSD were shocking and experimental.

In 2013 Merry and her husband Philip have bought the dilapidated home by putting all their savings into the house.

May House comes with a history and if only walls could talk.

The dual time line works well and both stories have the reader in suspense with twists and turns.

Victoria Darke writes so well you feel you are right beside both Emily and Merry and I am certainly a new fan of this author.

I will certainly be checking out the other books by Victoria Darke.

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for a captivating read.

I was engrossed in the story from the start. May Day House is a rehab house for soldiers during WWII. They are cared for and sent back to war. Years later a couple buys the house which soon appears to be haunted by the soldiers who had been there. It is a great story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A wonderful fiction book although a few truths are set within this storyline. Most of the book splits into 2 time zones but it’s easy to follow. Ellen is an army nurse who is sent to look after WW2 servicemen who are experiencing PTSD in a large house on an island in the Thames. During her time she gets close to an airman but the question is can anything good come of it. Meredith and Phil buy the same place in 2014 but what happens as the two worlds collide. My first by this author but not the last. Thanks to Victoria and her publisher. Thanks also to NetGalley