A big thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. Rounding up from 2.5 stars. I was not a big fan of the narrator and her whispery voice. I wonder if all the positive reviews are that readers who started the book did not finish it. I was very tempted to do the same, but since I received it as an ARC I felt I needed to plod through.

I was really looking forward to listening to this audiobook. I am a fan of historical Gothic themed books. I had a very difficult time getting into this book, partly due to the narrator. Her voice and the theme of the book did not go together well at all. She had a soft breathy voice that did not mesh with the storyline. Honestly, I had a difficult time getting through this book.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sofia Willingham and I thought she did a nice job of providing voice for the characters. The book was not exactly what I expected from the initial description, but I did enjoy it.It was great historical fiction and provided a lot of insight and commentary to the early 1900s. The story's inciting incident is a party, during which a guest died. The protagonist, Millie, hosted the party with her husband, Charles, but remembers nothing of it. She awakens weeks later with a pounding headache and no memory of what's occurred. From the beginning, everyone is very secretive, and it's instantly frustrating how everyone coddles Millie, refusing to tell her the truth. The story that follows seems more a question of whether she's a victim of gaslighting or whether Millie truly is mentally unwell. I liked Millie as a lead - she's quite intelligent, and not afraid to speak up for herself. She suspects wrongdoing and makes it known, but then is forced to face the consequences of not being quiet and meek and going along just to get along. I liked the plot and where the story took us. I found Millie's plight intriguing and infuriating at times, and felt that the author gave a great depiction of the bias and the horrible treatment many women faced. I enjoyed the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

"Secrets of Rose Briar Hall " by Kelsey James is an intense book. It's historical fiction and has a bit of mystery and thriller and romance.

If you've ever seen the movie or play called Gaslight, this is similar. It isn't the same exact story, but that's what is going on here. Gaslighting is when someone, usually a loved one, makes you stop trusting your own mind and believe that something else is going on. It's akin to brainwashing. The story is told in the first person point of view of the main female character (MFC).

This story is set in Long Island, New York, in 1908. Millie is a young bride married to Charles Turner. At one of their first big parties, something awful happens. Millie wakes up several weeks later with no memory of the party nor the time since. The house is cold and out of coal. Only a few staff members are still at the house. I can't tell you more without spoiling the story, but there is quite a bit of action.

The audiobook was narrated by Sofia Willingham. She used a breathy, whispery voice for Millie that I didn't really like. I listened to this at 2.0 speed, and it wasn't too awful that way.

Characters - 4/5
Writing - 4/5
Plot - 5/5
Pacing - 4/5
Unputdownability - 4/5
Enjoyment - 4/5
Narration - 2/5
Cover - 4/5
Overall - 31/8 = 3 7/8 rounded up to 4

This story is quite well written, and I recommend it to those of you who like historical fiction and psychological thrillers. If you can physically read it, you may like it better than listening to it.

Thank you to Netgalley, High Bridge Audio, and Kelsey James for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

First time reading anything by Kelsey James. I love the gilded age and that time period. The narration perfectly fit that theme. I enjoyed the mystery throughout the book and the memory loss felt natural, which is not always the case. Many thanks to NetGalley for this opportunity!

This is a story of a woman, Millie, that is essentially being gaslit into thinking that she is mentally unstable — hysteria. As is custom for the time, the men in her life, her husband, and father have the right to decide what to do with her and access this power over her very liberally. As she slowly realizes that she is being drugged and held against her will, she has to somehow figure out how to get out of this predicament. The problem is that the actions taken against her sound so ludicrous, it is almost impossible to tell anyone without being perceived as hysteric. It is shocking how easily Millie essentially looses all her rights, her station in society and no one believes her accounts over those of the people doing the gaslighting and this story is only set a little more than a hundred years ago – and women are still not taken seriously and are even being referred to as hysteric, an illness made up by men to control women, to this day.

This book is an excellent example to showcase that some men might be worse off than a select amount of rich women, but women coming from the same position as their counterpart man will always be worse off than that man, and this will be true until we have reached equality.

My problem with this book was that although very accurate for the time, the portrayed misogyny, sexism, and oppression of women was very infuriating to read about and therefore took a lot of enjoyment out of the experience for me. It upset me so much that I could only listen to it a little at a time and had I not been given an ALC, I would probably not have finished this audiobook. The writing was exceptional, and it says a lot about the author’s capabilities that this book brought out so many emotions in me, but as I picked this book out for enjoyment, it was just not the experience I was looking for.

I unfortunately did not like the narrator’s performance in this audiobook. She delivered the whole book in a soft-spoken, almost breathy manner that maybe suited the character and the story but was just not enjoyable to listen to at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for gifting me this ALC of the audiobook to review. All opinions are my own. I was not paid to leave this review.

Thank you to Kelsey James, Highbridge Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sigh. Once again the marketing was misleading. Don't see the title and cover and think you're in for a spooky tale of old secrets and haunted halls. Nope. I'm not familiar with the Ingrid Bergman film the blurb references, but "gaslighting" is this book in a nutshell. I would actually liken it to contemporary psychological thrillers--the protagonist's entire world has tilted off axis and she can't trust anyone while she struggles to discern truth from lie. But someone, whether the author or editor or marketing team, decided this was a gothic mystery and ran with it. Wrong. There's nothing gothic about this story, and there's little mystery. There's really only two suspects and they're both human garbage, so it didn't much matter which of them had done it. No horror, either. It's part psychological thriller and part legal drama. Yes, legal drama. And part romance.

It's not a bad read. It just really fucking annoys me when the PUBLISHER gaslights THE READER. Minus one star for that, and minus another because the irony pisses me off.

Here's a better blurb:

Millie Turner wakes up and finds out she's lost two weeks of her life following a house party. She can't remember any of it. What the F? She figures out she's been drugged, then discovers she's suspected of killing another woman. And that's only the start of the surprises in store for her--missing decor, servants acting like prison guards, fair-weather friends, empty accounts, mistresses. She wants out--out of her house, out of her marriage--but no one believes she's a victim. No one's willing to help her. She has nowhere else to go.

She devises a plan: expose her husband's lies, ruin his reputation, and sue for divorce. David, a childhood friend and now a journalist, is willing to help. But she has to step carefully, for her husband is campaigning against her, sowing seeds of madness and hysteria. What other surprises lay in store for her? Can she find evidence against her husband? Will she ever be free?

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Whatever promises he has made to you, Maisie, are lies. Please. Come to the courthouse tomorrow. Help me win my trial. I'm not asking him for alimony; he doesn't even have any money to give."


Secrets of Rose Briar Hall was a whirlwind. In this, you will meet Millie Turner. She is married to a powerful New York stockbroker and lives in Rose Briar Hall. Her life is nearly picture perfect until the day it all shatters around her. The morning after she throws a grand party, she wakes up with no memory of what happened. It also doesn't help that her society friends have completely shunned her either.

Her once happy home is now starting to feel like a prison and she's slowly trying to put all the pieces of what happened that night together. Along the way, she does find romance with a certain guy who isn't her husband. But if I'm being honest here? He's like five thousand times better than her actual husband. Charles, the guy in question, is a manwhore and had a baby with another woman. He's also probably the king of gaslighting. Long story short, we are definitely team David here.

As for the mystery, well it's easy to assume that this book will have many twists and turns. Each one was delivered swiftly and made the book so much better. Sure, things were a little predictable considering who was behind it all. Now that reveal wasn't super dramatic especially when things came out during a certain trial. And yet, the ending surprised me a bit.

In the end, karma entered into this family drama and justice was served. I definitely enjoyed diving into this audiobook and look forward to whatever Kelsey will write next!

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced audio copy of “Secrets of Rose Briar Hall” in exchange for a review.

I went into this book with no expectations. Immediately, the narration was a turn off. It was read like a breathy, mediocre, tela-novella. It was very difficult to get past. That said, the story was fine. I certainly didn’t dislike it, but I don’t think it’s a book I’d remember to recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an audiobook ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review.

I didn't love this book, but I cannot say I hated it either. I did however truly dislike the narrator. I had to restart the book multiple times as I just could not cope. It sounded like she was reading it semi-sarcastically in a constant breathy whisper, and I just couldn't take what she was saying seriously. It made it so hard for me to follow along with the story and truly immerse myself. Due to this I only really started to be engaged around chapter 7 or 8 (which for me is 6 chapters too late!)

The premise of this story intriguing me straight away. A historical fiction, thriller, mystery..and then with paranoia and murder thrown into the mix sounded right down my alley. I was however occasionally let down by the content. Sometimes I felt like it just didn't hit right and needed a bit of an extra oomph to just make it feel real and really keep me at the edge of my seat. On the whole I was rooting for the main character, and I did get quite engaged considering in the first half but then began getting bored again close to the end. The story didn't go the way I thought it would (- which was a pleasant surprise!) but it also didn't hit the spot.

For these reasons, I rate this book 3⭐ out of 5.

This author is new to me and I can't wait to read more from her! I listened to the audio version and felt like I was there along side the main character. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read and this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the audio copy of this book. The narrator wrecked this book. She did a horrible job. She sounded like she was on the verge of whispering the entire time. The story follows Millie, 24, who marries Charles Turner in a whirlwind courtship and wedding. She was given Rose Briar Hall as a gift from her parents and the house is in her name. This is a big deal in early days of the 20th century. At a lavish dinner thrown by the Turners, Millie’s rival for Charles affection, Gertrude, dies. Millie passes out and wakes up three months later. She has been kept sedated by the evil housekeeper Briggs. It goes on from there. Of course Millie falls for a childhood sweetheart. She attempts to divorce Charles but things don’t go as planned. This book has been done before, and, in my opinion, much better by other authors. Find one of those.

The narrator does not work for me and the 'style' of the storytelling

will read upon release and revise the review.

Go into this book knowing at this is more suspense related to early 1900s treatment of women by husbands who had ulterior motives. More a study of the use of hysteria in women than the murder mystery I was expecting.
This is a very tense story. Millie, the FMC, makes some incredibly frustrating decisions. I found myself wanting to scream at her “what the heck are you doing” so many times. If you have ever been a victim of gaslighting, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and/or forced isolation consider this a warning that this book may be difficult for you to read.
The narration for me (as other reviewers have mentioned) was difficult to get past. The narrators breathy voice combined with the sharp S Sound physically hurt. If you have any physical response to certain sounds you should probably grab a physical copy of this title.
I did finish the audiobook, but as a personal survivor of this type of abuse combined with my own phonophobia it was a difficult listen.
I received an ALC of this title. All opinions are my own.

Narrated by Sofia Willingham
Presented by HighBridge Audio

Not quite what I was expecting, so a little disappointing, but still some interesting ideas.

I thought this was going to be a murder mystery, but it was really more concerned with feminism and the treatment of women as objects during this time period (early 1900s).

The story's catalyst is a party, during which a guest died. Our protagonist, Millie, hosted the party with her husband, Charles, but remembers nothing of it. She awakens weeks later with a pounding headache and no memory of what's occurred.

From the beginning, everyone is very secretive, and it's instantly frustrating how everyone coddles Millie, refusing to tell her the truth. The story that follows seems more a question of whether she's a victim of gaslighting or whether Millie truly is mentally unwell.

I liked Millie as a lead - she's quite intelligent, and not afraid to speak up for herself. She suspects wrongdoing and makes it known, but then is forced to face the consequences of not being quiet and meek and going along just to get along.

I enjoyed that aspect of it - exploring the discrimination from someone willing to speak out against it, but also seeing those consequences of being so outnumbered. At the same time, I thought there would be more about the events of the party than there was, so I was a little disappointed in that regard. Still, I was kept curious about the truth of what had happened and was happening.

The romance didn't do a lot for me, and I was disappointed in Millie a bit for her actions at times. Some of it made her a little hypocritical I felt, even if it made sense.

The narrator did a decent job of invoking sympathy for Millie, and differentiated the characters well. I did listen at 1.75x speed, so lots of pauses, but otherwise she read it okay.

This was an easy listen - not quite the murder mystery I was expecting, but an interesting historical fiction providing a glimpse into the discrimination women faced during the early 1900s.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

What I liked:
👧Millie gains her strength
🎢 Several twists and turns that made this a page turner
😁good cast of well-developed, supporting characters.
⭐️excellent example of gas lighting

What I didn't like:
🎧 this wasn't my favorite to listen to on audio, I think the physical book would be preferred for this one.

1908: Millie Turner, though not of knickerbocker bloodlines, is still a catch as her family has plenty of wealth. When she marries the young sought after stockbroker Charles, she believes all of her dreams have come true. Just in time for the high season, Millie finishes decorating her new mansion, Rose Briar Hall, in an up-and-coming area Long Island, rather than Newport. Her party is to be the hit of the season until only a few hours later a lady turns up dead.

Waking up in a cold and dreary house and snow on the ground, Millie finds that weeks have passed since the party, and she cannot remember a thing. Her friends have shunned her, her family is disappointed in her, and her already tenuous reputation is holding on by a thread. Quickly her home begins to feel like a prison as her husband convinces her she has had a breakdown, and she needs a rest cure and to stay isolated until she is better. It is only the gatekeeper’s son David, who happens to be a journalist in the city who believes Millie is innocent of any wrongdoing.

A high-profile court case and plenty of shading dealing makes the Turner drama fun to follow, though there are some loose ends in the plot that are annoying. Much like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” our heroine is trapped in a society run by the patriarchy—one that believes a woman who stands up for herself must be suffering from hysteria and let me assure you Millie comes across as downright mad according to her peers. If you are into gothic murder mysteries, this tale is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley, High Bridge Audio, and author Kelsey James for the advanced copy of the audiobook. Secrets of Rose Briar Hall is out now! All opinions are my own.

newlyweds, coercion, gaslighting, suspense, thriller, historical-fiction, gothic, mystery, Long Island, wealthy, 1900s, conspiracy, secrets, lies, memory-issues, infidelities, control-freak, atmospheric***

If you like dramatic Gothic tales where the heroine is endangered by her own husband, manipulated, and coerced, you will absolutely adore this one.
Sofia Willingham is the breathy-voiced dramatic narrator.
I requested and received a free temporary audio from HighBridge Audio via NetGalley.

Thank you HighBridge Audio for the gifted ALC! This well done mix of mystery, thriller, romance and historical fiction recently released on June 25, 2024.

You know those novels that make you angry for the protagonist but in the same breath you can feel the walls closing in? This is that type of suspenseful read. Set in 1908 where men found devious ways to get rid of their current wives, the reader experiences the underhanded actions of one husband's attempt to keep a name for himself at the deadly detriment of his wife and mistresses.

I found Millie to be an exceptionally well done character. A mixture of someone with a good heart but also flawed by societal norms and classes. Her husband, Charles, was crafted just as skillfully and watching the initial mystery and all the revelations come together made this an engaging novel. Even though I raged at the proverbial political machine of that era, when it came to the court scene, I can't deny how realistic it seemed. How women were treated and manipulated by those closest to them during that time, complications of divorce and the lack of medical assistance and understanding are all too real in relation to today.

I really liked this novel and the audio is read by Sofia Willingham wonderfully. Everything from the emotion to the climactic atmosphere came through her narration. I honestly can't recommend a favorite format, they are equally good!

I absolutely recommend this novel to those who love this kind of blended genre like myself. True rating 4.5/5.

As an audiobook listener who reads over 100 audiobooks a year, I know there are good narrators and bad narrators. Some voices irritate me in the beginning, but then the book pulls me in or I get used to the voice. I tried multiple times to listen to this book, but could not get past the third chapter because of the narrator. Her voice works if she's trying to read you a bedtime story, but not a novel. This is also not my normal genre and I was not connecting with the main character, I don't think I would have had much sympathy for her experience. I did not finish the book.