This was not a book I enjoyed. I usually like the books by the publisher but this has very unlikeable characters and I was not able to finish the book. Since I didn't read it all the way through, I cannot provide a more detailed review.

Cozy murder mystery with a twist that almost broke my brain.

Marigold Manners estranged parents died leaving her penniless, causing her to drop out of college and, temporarily, delay her plans to go to Greece for an archeological expedition. Instead, she has to rely on the hospitality, or inhospitality, of distant relatives who live on Misery Island-- a real place off the coast of the North Shore of Massachusetts.

Misery Island is packed with Marigold's miserable cousins but she is determined to make life on the island better, and when Marigold is determined, there is no stopping her. She makes quick work of cleaning the place up, making friend with her cousins, and winning over the people on the mainland.

This was a fun cozy mystery that starts with a dead body and ends with a... no spoilers. I loved that there was a little bit of romance and the colorful cast of supporting characters. There was a twist at the end of the book that pulled me out of the story but I think that many people may enjoy it more. Overall it was a fun read, perfect for a quiet afternoon, a warm blanket, and a cup of tea.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Elizabeth Hobbs, and Netgalley for the e-ARC of Misery Hates Company in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Elizabeth Hobbs for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Misery Hates Company coming out November 5, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I read this was supposed to be an adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm. I’ve only seen the movie and I was obsessed with that. I didn’t quite see the connection with this book. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, but then I wasn’t quite on board with Marigold’s character progression. There were some things I didn’t like about her character. The ending wasn’t my favorite. I would check out other books by this author though.

I did not know what to expect, but it wasn't a New England-ish Cold Comfort Farm with mystery and murder thrown in! What a cast of characters Marigold meets on Great Misery Island when she visits recently found relatives. She is a New Woman and is determined to forge her own path forward after her parents' deaths. Marigold is an interesting mix of Flora from Cold Comfort Farm and Emma Woodhouse from Emma. Great Misery is much more intimidating and dangerous though than either of those heroines experienced. This is a compelling story!

I know a number of reviewers enjoyed this book, I’m sorry but this wasn’t for me. I did finish the book and I must admit I found the latter part of the book to be more engaging. I did like the main character of Marigold, she was quite managing with her relatives but she did have their best interests at heart. There were some happy outcomes but I couldn’t understand why Marigold wasn’t told the secret earlier. On the whole though, I found it to be a bit depressing, which is not something I look for in a book, especially on a dull November day. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for this arc.

When I read and decided to request an arc for this book, the first sentence read “A young woman is invited to a mysterious relative’s estate and winds up entangled in a murder investigation in this witty historical mystery that pits the gothic eeriness of Crimson Peak against the comic absurdities of Cold Comfort Farm.” It was the bit about “Cold Comfort Farm” that reeled me in.

How readers take to Marigold will depend on how much they like managing characters. She is modern for her time, intelligent, well educated, and quickly sees beneath the outward camouflage of what people present to her. Or thinks she does. The inhabitants of Great Misery are just as astonished at Marigold as she is with them. But few are initially happy she came and not all of them are eventually happy at her interventions.

Marigold is adept at putting two and two together and realizing what is causing her relations to act as they do as well as devising solutions that will give them what they want. Her Boston friend mutters to her about her interference but Marigold shoots back that she is just facilitating things and giving her family the choice. After weeks there though, she still hasn’t learned what “great wrong” was done to her mother.

All along, there have been bits and pieces dropped about a missing woman, who turns up dead, and the possibility that there are more dead girls. The creepy atmosphere on the island gets creepier and finally a dead body appears. The list of people who wanted this person dead is wide but of course Marigold, with her interfering ways, is initially fingered for the crime. This is where the plot gets much, much darker. All the truly creepy elements are brought together to determine the murderer, the reasons for this murder, and what was done to the missing girls. Marigold finally (!) learns what the wrong done to her family is and it’s convoluted, sad, and one that truly reaches across generations.

Marigold learns not only things about her family’s past but more about herself. To say that all this shocks her is an understatement. And yet there she also remains true to a core element of herself. I was both pleased as well as frustrated about this. Most of the characters will probably alternately entertain and annoy readers. The book took awhile to fully engage me but once I was, I zipped through it to learn its secrets. B

Though Marigold Manners family is an old one, she is not surprised to learn upon her parents deaths that they have left her nothing. So her lawyer sends out letters to the furthest reaches of her family and a letter comes back from her mother's cousin, Sophronia, inviting Marigold to Great Misery, an island near Salem. Once she arrives though, things start to become eerie. Almost everyone she meets on the way out to the island tells her she shouldn't want to go there. And she immediately starts to wonder when she gets there. There are arguments and talks of a curse. And something in the ocean that looks like a woman. It very well may have been a woman because it seems like there have been many dead young women washing up on the shore.
With a family that is as antagonistic as they are "not right," Marigold has a hard road to climb.
This story was set up as a mystery and it was more of a thriller. Marigold and the atmosphere were both well-developed but other characters felt a bit thin. The ending was a bit out of left field for me but I overall liked the book more than not and think later books by Hobbs may be more enjoyable.

Three stars
This book comes out November 5, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

I really wasn't sure what to make of this story. It just seemed more silly than anything and not eccentric or quirky as the author seemed to be trying for. Also I just didn't take to the characters including Marigold who was just so awful and full of herself. This meant I lost interest and didn't really care who died, who the murderer was or what happened in general. A total miss for me I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Broke after her parents’ deaths, Boston socialite Marigold goes to stay with estranged relatives on a gothic New England estate. Her attempts to modernize her reclusive family’s lives lead to chaos, murder, and accusations against her. With eccentric friends by her side, Marigold must solve the crime and confront shocking secrets that threaten her very identity.

I liked Marigold and the ironic tone of the book. The combination of irony and the Gothic setting didn’t work for me. The setting was less Gothic and more strange and off-putting. It was difficult to understand the motivations of the characters.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

When her parents die of influenza, Marigold Manners learns that they have left her penniless. She is forced to withdrawal from school and abandon her plans to join an archaeological expedition in Greece, and at the attorney’s suggestion, she writes to relatives. With no desire to live off the generosity of her dear friend Isabella Dana, Marigold accepts an intriguing invitation to visit her mother’s cousin on the island of Great Misery, Massachusetts. Marigold has never heard of Sophronia Hatchet, but the island is not that far from Boston, and she can’t ignore the cryptic message Sophronia sent her.

She optimistically sets out for Great Misery but was totally unprepared for the cold and even hostile reception she is met with from the family nor the filthy and desolate house. But ever the problem solver, Marigold doesn’t let their behavior affect her and sets out to clean the house and get to know her cousins. Slowly Marigold breaks though the walls her family has erected and then sets out to help them achieve their dreams. She is further surprised when she finds her old friend (and something of a secret crush) Jonathan “Cab” Cox on the mainland. Cab is there to help his uncle with a legal matter, a request he took knowing Marigold was staying nearby. But it turns out that Marigold will be the one in need of his legal assistance when a body turns up in her garden and she is the prime suspect!

This was a very well written novel, but I don’t know if I would really call it a mystery, it read more like historical women’s fiction with a murder and lots of surprising and interesting twists, along with a budding romance. Overall, this was an interesting, well written story with lots of intrigue, wonderful characters, complex relationships, lots of twists, shocking revelations and a murder. I would definitely read the next installment and would happily recommend this title to those who enjoy a slightly dark, intriguing read.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

Hobbs' début is funny and written with great wit. I should have loved it, but I didn't, even though it's lauded as a combo of Crimson Peak (don't know this) and Knives Out (meh). I would disagree: I think Hobbs is definitely nodding to Stella Gibson's Cold Comfort Farm here, à la New England. Quite clever and well done. So, what turned me off my read? I think the style is so clever, so witty, it is distancing. I never could approach the story, or be immersed in it because I kept thinking how clever its author was. Which, you know, it's a compliment and take it. But I still didn't enjoy reading this as a sink-into I love it book. And I really thought I would.

I really am not sure what I feel about this book! I have not read Cold Comfort Farm for many years but this seems to be a very close copy of that book right down to each of the main characters. Maybe this was deliberate. I will have to check!

Anyway Misery Hates Company is a readable book in its own right even if some of the characters, including Miss Manners, were a little too much to take. The Boston setting was well done as were the attitudes of the day to working women.

An entertaining historical read about the intrepid Marigold, who, upon finding herself both orphaned and penniless, takes off to Misery Island where she finds a cast of unlikely and unlikable characters. She's determined to make the best of it, though, and quickly asserts herself. And then there's a murder. This goes in multiple directions, with the mystery probably last on the list. That's not to say, however that it's not a good read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Hobbs is a good storyteller and I'm curious where she plans to take this next.

An Interesting Whodunnit.
A murder mystery set on the island of Great Misery, with a 1920’s feel even though set in 1894. Marigold Manners is a bright young thing, with ambition and goals which are stymied when she is left practically penniless by the deaths of her profligate parents. A letter from a stranger sets her on a course which will turn her life even more upside down when she uncovers some long buried secrets.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a delightful and twisted read! Misery Hates Company combines gothic intrigue with humor and mystery, making it feel like Crimson Peak meets Knives Out. Marigold Manners, the sharp and resourceful heroine, is everything you want in a main character—poised, witty, and unflinchingly determined. When she heads to the eerie Hatchet Farm on Great Misery Island, she’s met with murder, mystery, and a family full of secrets. The quirky cast and Marigold’s no-nonsense attitude add a fresh spin to the classic “whodunit” as she faces suspicion and danger. This book is clever, fun, and absolutely brimming with gothic charm!

I know I'm in the minority of readers/reviewers here, but this was a book that I just could not get into. I thought the premise sounded interesting/fun but most of the time I felt like it was just trying too hard to be eccentric and quirky. It did not help that I just absolutely could not stand the main character. She's equal parts self-righteous and self-important, and then every once and a while she would do something that made me think I had her all wrong only for her to go right back to being awful a few paragraphs later. And it wasn't just her, I found I really did not like any of the characters here. They were all so awful that I wouldn't have been that upset to find out that any of them had been the murder victim. The big twist at the end didn't make any sense to me - and the author tried for a second to redeem Marigold's mother's selfish behavior only to have that reasoning thrown out the window a couple of pages later. Given that other reviewers seem to have really liked it maybe I am just missing something or I am evidence that this book is just not for everyone.

1894, Boston, we meet Miss Marigold Manners and we learn that her parents are deceased and following the reading of the will, Marigold is surprised to discover she has no inheritance. She has to drop her ambitions of being a student of archaeology at a prestigious college. Her best friend Isabella Dana, couturier, takes Marigold out for a final party to cheer her up, where we meet Cab Cox. Soon afterwards, Marigold, receives a letter from her cousin Sophrinia Sedgwick Hatchet from Great Misery Island. Marigold arrives and takes a boat to the island to stay with the relatives. Marigold is a feisty, a modern woman, persistent and strong character. She takes the Hatchet family under her wing in order to help them. When a body is found on the island, poor Marigold is accused so she receives help from the family and her friends to learn who, why and how this was done. All the sub plots come together to a surprising conclusion.

"A young woman is invited to a mysterious relative's estate and winds up entangled in a murder investigation in this witty historical mystery that pits the Gothic eeriness of Crimson Peak against the comic absurdities of Knives Out.

Miss Marigold Manners may be steeped in the etiquette of her old-money Boston family, but she is also an accomplished, modern woman and an avid student of archaeology who can handle any situation with poise. When the death of her parents leaves her too destitute to pursue her academic career and she receives a letter from a distant relative on Great Misery Island, Marigold decides she must do what any person of superior sense and greater-than-average curiosity would: she mounts her trusty bicycle and heads up the craggy, fog-shrouded coast of New England for a date with fate.

Marigold arrives at Hatchet Farm, a moldering, Gothic pile of a house inhabited by relatives so mired in the sins of the past, they have no future. She sets out to modernize the recluses with a brisk, ruthless efficiency, but her well-intentioned plans to manage their lives lead to malice - and murder. Marigold spies a body floating in the stormy waters surrounding the island, and her suspicions immediately turn to her hostile, weapon-wielding relatives when one of the local girls turns up missing. And she might not be the only one.

When another dead body is found in the garden of the estate, Marigold finds herself accused. She must enlist the help of an eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself - and everything she holds dear. As secrets are uncovered and lies exposed, the question of "who done it?" turns into "who didn't do it?" and Marigold must face a truth that shatters her steely poise and shakes her very sense of self."

Hopefully Marigold can keep herself in the "didn't do it" category and get out alive!

I really, really enjoy when a book has me stumped. This novel, while adhering to many of the rules applying to cozy historicals, in other ways completely upends them, to the point where I was about three quarters of the way through and I was not quite sure where the story was headed. (I was more than willing to discover where that might be, however.) As the book opens in 1890’s Boston, Marigold Manners has just lost both parents to the flu pandemic. And worse, she’s discovered they were broke. While Marigold had been a firm part of upper crust Boston society, it looks as though she will now have to leave Wellsley college, abandon her dreams of archaeology, and throw herself of the mercy of her relatives. She has a last night out with her friend Isabelle and the reader is made aware of the devotion of one hunky society stud, Cab. So far, so expected.

Of all the letters from far flung cousins and aunts the one Marigold chooses to accept is from her cousin Mrs. Sophronia Hatchett, who lives on a place called Misery Island, off the New England shore. Marigold has never heard of Sophronia, but she’s intrigued by her letter, which promises to reveal secrets and right family wrongs. From there, things get weird. It reminded me a good bit of one of my favorite girlhood books, Joan Aiken’s Nightbirds on Nantucket, and heroine Dido Twite’s stay with her Aunt Tribulation. Misery Island is all the reader might expect, as the well dressed Marigold arrives at the train station with her trunks to find that no one is meeting her. What she does find, after some asking around, is a drunk on the beach with a little boat who rows her over to the island (she has to help).

The island is desolate, her relatives, rather than being welcoming, are scattered around the island and often downright hostile when they do encounter her. Cousin Sophronia is cryptic beyond belief, and the only food to hand is the goopy stew made by the drunk, Cleon, who rowed her across. Marigold, not one to let things lie or to wallow, rolls up her sleeves the next morning and gets to work cleaning the kitchen. She also makes her way across the water to town, where she finds the library, retrieves her bicycle (a real novelty in the 1890’s) and forms a woman’s bicycle club. She’s truly the model of an independent female, or “new woman,” and as such finds very little solace in her new cousins.

She then gets to work disarming her cousins with charm and finds her lovely cousin Daisy has a secret beau; cousin Saviah has a talent for singing; and cousin Wilbert is looking to farm some sheep on the desolate island. The father, Ellery, when he sees her, rants at her and she remains pretty afraid of him; Sophronia remains aloof. To add to her dread, Marigold is almost certain on her initial voyage across that she’d seen the body of a young woman under the water. This body is almost ignored until toward the end of the novel.

The middle bit has a bit of a Cinderella feel as she helps her cousins begin to realize their goals, meanwhile reuniting with Cab at an actual ball, ballgowns supplied by her friend Isabelle, a couturier. She also makes friends with Lucy, a young black woman who provides meals for the matriarch, Alva, who never leaves her room. Lucy just leaves a tray outside the door for her.

That gets us through about three quarters of the book, which was in turns a story of identity (Marigold’s), a dysfunctional family, a bit of adventure, and gothic haunted house. As the three quarter point it becomes a straight up mystery as one of the family is discovered murdered and Marigold – and Cab – are the ones to solve it as the local constable seems totally unsuited for the job of detection. This was a charming, funny, and at times bleak story which has a surprisingly happy ending and a wonderful heroine. Marigold is someone I hope to encounter again.

Society girl left orphaned. New England. Estranged family members living like hermits?

Yes. Everything I love in a historical fiction novel. Marigold Manners is a plucky woman and I can't wait to keep reading about her solving crimes.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.