Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
0.5 🌶️
3⭐️ narrator

This book was such a rollercoaster and had such a great time reading it! I read almost exclusively romance books and for the first time in a long time I was so thoroughly invested in the mystery/plot that I didn’t even mind that the first half of the book had no romance.

The gaslighting going on in the beginning of this book was absolutely terrifying. She believes in her husband so completely, I just wanted to scream at her to wake up and run. The identity of the murderer was fairly obvious from the beginning, but there was still plenty of mystery and tension.

The first half of the book the FMC is very much an unreliable narrator. She doesn’t have memories of the night of the murder and is being gaslit by literally everyone around her so neither her nor the reader have any idea what’s really going on. Once she gets her memories back no one believes her and she’s constantly terrified for her life, so there’s still a lot of tension and mystery as to what’s going to happen.

The romance is a sub plot but still very sweet. The MMC is very sweet and protective. I would’ve liked more romance, but that’s just a personal preference. I really don’t think this book should be shelved as a romance, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Overall loved the book and would read more from the author in the future

Many thanks to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the free e-Audiobook in exchange for my honest review. This is narrated by Sofia Willingham.

Unfortunately, the narration of this audiobook was not great, and the story overall fell flat for me.

I found the narrator's higher pitched, breathy voice distracting from the overall story. It was like having Marilyn Monroe read it, which for a gothic or victorian setting, that just does not work.

Also, it did not help that the story itself is underwhelming. Yes, gothic mysteries have a too-handsome husband marrying an heiress a month after meeting her and secretly he is a manipulative jerk. But there is not much more than that here.

2.5 rounded to 3.

Secrets of Rose Briar Hall
Kelsey James
Millie and her husband Charles threw a lavish party. Weeks later Mille wakes up with no memory of what happened at the party. The house is quiet, too quiet. The house is extremely cold for there is no coal for heat. She discovers her husband has dismissed all of the servants except one. Her husband has her under a doctor’s care for be hysterical. The doctor has ordered sedation which is why she has been asleep for weeks. Millie struggles with her lack of memory. She notices expensive paintings missing from the walls. Most of the rooms are closed off with dustcovers on the furniture. Her beautifully decorated house has changed. The one remaining servant shows disdain for Millie and tries to poison her. Slowly Millie’s memory returns and with it she realizes she must escape.
She turns to her parents for their help but her father refuses. The only person she can turn to is a journalist. They draw closer together and eventually admit their love, but she is still married to Charles. How will she ever escape the nightmare she is living.
I love this book. The plot is wonderfully written. It was creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat. Charles was manipulating Millie to question her own sanity. The dog and his handler in the story had me terrified and I love dogs. The housekeeper/servant was a terrible person. Charles should have been hanged but he got his in the end. Millie’s father proclaimed love but did not support his daughter. This tale has a gothic feel and yet is a psychological thriller. The ambience is perfection. The setting is in the early 1900s New York. Great read.

Thank you NetGa;lley for providing a copy for review.

Secret of Rose Briar Hall is a mix of historical fiction, thriller/ mystery, and romantic suspense, with a very gothic feel. I requested the audiobook via NetGalley because I figured it would add a lot more intensity to the novel, however it was a great disappointment. The story itself is quite flat and nothing how I expected it to be, but the story paired with the audio was disastrous. The narrator whispered throughout the entire reading, which made listening almost unbearable. 2.5 stars, rounded up.

Thank you NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for this audio!

Unfortunately the narration was robotic and unnatural sounding at times but the plot was good, a historical fiction mystery. Easy read.

Sadly, I couldn't listen to this audiobook because of the narrator, she was just hard for me to listen to! I will wait for the print copy because I am still interested in the story line.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced audiobook. All options are my own.

Alright, I've been procrastinating on writing this review. Sometimes I get this unreasonable guilty feeling when my Goodreads friends love a book and I end up not loving it so much.

To be fair, I received the audio arc and not the kindle. A good part of my lack of enjoyment was due to the narrator. She was horrible. The best way I can describe it - is she was doing this gentle, soft, whisper voice. Often high pitched in a way that it seemed like she was trying to come across as some soft spoken and fragile woman. She really just came across as sounding inauthentic and wrong.

It didn't work for me at all, I had to muster up quite a bit of will and strength to make it through to the end.

While the story was entertaining enough, I felt that it lacked some depth, a character to root for - because I wasn't a fan of the FMC or anyone for that matter. And I felt like it could have leaned more into the murder mystery, gothic and dark vibes and less on the romance side.

Thank you Kristina and Dab for putting this book on my radar!

I highly recommend avoiding the audiobook for this one.


╰⪼ 💙 Gothic Mystery
╰⪼ 💙 Historical Fiction
╰⪼ 💙 Dark Edge
╰⪼ 💙 Twists and Turns
╰⪼ 💙 Anxiety-Inducing Pace
╰⪼ 💙 New York, 1908

✨ Many thanks to NetGalley, HighBridge Audio and Kelsey James for the complementary audio copy, in exchange for my honest review. ✨

It's 1908 and Millie Turner is the wife of a New York Stock Broker. In a marriage she believes to be happy, the tide turns at a lavish party they held. Instantly, she feels alone, unsafe, and trapped.

I loved this book. It really highlighted the fact that in history, women had very little options to get help.

Many thanks to Net Galley and HighBridge Audio for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was fortunate enough to read the book, and I loved it. I was really excited when I was given the opportunity to listen to the audio book. I hate to say it, but the narrator sounded like an automated person announcing the time. I couldn't finish it. The story it self is excellent, but the narrator ruined it for me.

2.75 rounded up

The opinions expressed are honest and my own but I am thankful to NetGalley and the publisher for the audio ARC of this title.

I don’t even feel like I can review the book itself truly as my task is reviewing the audiobook and the narration is awful. The narrator has the most unnatural reading voice. It’s is this soft almost whisper that lilts for each individual word and. It in a good way.

It took all that I had to finish listening as I do not DNF ARC reads. Had it not been I definitely would have laid this down very early.

I will say that the author was very descriptive of the setting. It’s a bit too much at times where scenes felt flat as far as the action that was to be taking place. It got a bit convoluted in the second half of the book.

I didn’t want to root for the characters but again that may be different had I read the physical book.

So you may want to give it a chance if you are a suspense/ thriller person with a flair for liking historical fiction and the time period.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up. I did this time merely as not to tank the ratings due to the poor audiobook quality.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

<i>In this Gilded Age gothic homage to “Gaslight” starring Ingrid Bergman</i>.... so starts the description of this book and I was HOOKED! Our heroine (a rich socialite) wakes up dazed and confused and someone is obviously trying to keep her that way! I did love this book, but would have preferred to have left out the sex scenes. Nothing beats the power of imagination, but they left nothing to it. Criticism aside, I found it a very enjoyable story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC/audiobook and the lusciously smooth reading.

♡𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰♡
4.5 🌟
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𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•historical romance
•mystery
•horror | thriller
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𝑷𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒓 - 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝑨𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑶𝒘𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒔𝒌.
Honestly, the beginning maybe 5% had me questioning if I was going to enjoy this book or not, but I am so happy I continued on, because this book had me on the edge of my seat. I was anxious the entire time. The twist and turns had me on the edge literally! Millie's daddy made me want to punch 👊🏽 him in the throat. Millie's husband deserves EVERY BAD thing that happens to him.
The audiobook was good. The narrator did a good job bringing the story alive, but her voice almost sounded like she was whispering while narratoring the story.
𝑰𝒇 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝑴𝑬!
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 June.25
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Thank you, Netgalley, and RB Media for the (ALC)-audiobook for my honest review.

Apologies, I will not be able to listen to this. I meant to hit the button to not provide feedback. I had to add the narrator to a list of now 6 narrators that I can not listen to. She has some weird verbal tick where she is constantly raising her pitch for no reason. I have auditory sensory issues and every now and then I come across a narrator that I just cannot bear to listen to. I know that if I force myself to listen that I won't be able to be fair to the book's author. Many apologies again.