Millicent Foxboro Is Haunted. A Past Of Abuse, Running From A House of Murder.


Dark Academia is a genre that takes a special place in my heart, and this novel hit every desire my little dark heart desires - you have the gothic, tragic house. There is the brooding professor who lives in a giant estate all alone. There are grueling visions of the previous wife, who she is told met a tragic end (very Rebecca, at the start).

The year is 1928, and Millicent is offered a job as an assistant. This is a nice surprise, as long as Millie can hide the fact that her past is covered in darkness. Millicent suffers from traumatic amnesia, waking up in a ward without a single memory to date.

The amazing salary is appealing, but Millie refuses to hold her tongue. My favorite thing about this main character is that she is opinionated, even with someone that employs her. She is confident, unashamed, takes what she wants, and does not take no for an answer. Millie refuses to be bullied.

Millie is cautious to take what seems to be too good to be true, but the Professor of Mythology draws her interest more and more. The Professor Callum Hughes and his manor, Willowfield, is more than anything she had expected. The lavish estate sings in her blood, even with the dark crevices marring its interiors.

Willowfield is alight with sprawling gorgeous gardens with homely parties. Millie can tell it is a shell of what it once was. The housekeeper and employed warn her not to mention the late Mrs. Hughes. The happiness and glee and happy aura diminish following her death.

The house is a maze of bittersweet memories, spicy journal entries, rumored changelings, and faceless ghosts. The grim, intense man is quick to change from angry to cheered, from sweet to bitter. The instability of the professor's emotions refuses to temper Millie's growing interest in the widowed man, and the interested gleam in his eye when she is near him.

Dangerous secrets come out, so many twists messing with my perspective. I was surprised and delighted and amazed by the end. Very very good read, any dark fantasy readers, you must not pass up this beautifully haunting tale! 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 Stars!

The cruel dark by Bea Northwick, In The book we meet Millie, for reasons later explained in the book she went to an insane asylum for two years but for the past couple of years has been working for an elderly bookseller and then she gets a job with Professor Hughes. The book started great I was intrigued especially with the professors subject of mythology something I thought was going to play a bigger part in the overall story. Professor Hughes is a widow and it isn’t long before the creepiness settles in Millie starts seeing a ghostly apparition and at first she is scared to follow it but once she does it seems to lead her to Professor Hughes‘s bedroom. That isn’t the only place it leads her and that isn’t the only creepy thing she sees. She also finds diaries it seems all his wife talked about was the times they had sex and it seems the diary entries only heighten Millie‘s yearning for the professor, who she doesn’t always see Eye 2 Eye with. She’s also haunted by the memories of her own abusive mother couple that with the secrets in the home the ghostly apparation and all the unknown entities and this should make for one gastly ghostly story and at first it did but once again the ending seemed like everything was fast forwarded and rushed. I listen to the audiobook and the narrator Madison mitts seems to want to evoke emotion and every single word she says and at first it didn’t bother me but for 11 hours it started to get on my nerves she couldn’t even say my ill gotten gains without sounding like just the thought of it was going to make her pass out. Her mini emotions were just a bit much I get evoking emotion Wild the characters talk with doing it during the storyline just all became too much as I said. I thought the guy narrator did a great job. I think for the most part I do recommend this book although I will say there were some things that happened inside the book that didn’t jive with the ending but if you like Rebecca then you will definitely enjoy this book. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Gothic Horror, dead wife, amnesiac FMC, a large mostly abandoned mansion falling apart, this book has it all.

As is typical for the genre, there are mysteries along the way and nothing is as it seems. A twist or two thrown in for good measure and you have The Cruel Dark.
Good book, really atmospheric.

This was the first audiobook I have listen to I enjoyed it and thought it had a good storyline however I would have preferred if it was just read by one person rather than having the two separate voices

A dark and very spicy adventure full of secrets to be revealed in the reading. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC/audiobook the leading man sounded like a monster!

I enjoyed this book a lot! I feel a little silly that I didn't see some of the twists and turns at the end but it definitely made it a more enjoyable listen. I really enjoyed the audio, I liked that they had a male voice for male characters and it wasnt (to the best of my knowledge) a female narrator trying to sound manly. I definitely would be curious to read other novels from this author.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the audio ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.



“Strange things bloom where grief lives”



I ate this up so quickly. It was everything I needed in a spooky vibes book. I am still wowed and shocked. Although I suspected the twist at the end, it still left me speechless. The book is well written, charming, and haunted that I was so spellbound from the very beginning to the end. The writing, imagery, the characters, and the romance were perfect. I never believed I could listen to it in just one day, my 8 hours were well spent listening to it.



I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone so I’ll just say this, expect ghost, psychological thriller, dark academia, Irish folklore, and gothic historical romance.



If you enjoy books in the above-mentioned genre, then you need to read THE CRUEL DARK!

I really liked the book, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to listen to the audio book. I really enjoyed listening to it, the narrators did a great job of drawing me in and keeping me entertained from beginning to end.

That was intense! Romantic psychological thriller with a shocking twists. Beautifully written & amazingly narrated.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ALC.

I had read so many raving reviews about The Cruel Dark, so I was thrilled when I received an advanced listener copy thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Cruel Dark was a hauntingly beautiful gothic romance that took place in the year 1928. The story surrounds Millie, who is hired as the assistant to Professor Hughes at his estate. There is mystery, intrigue, angst, and dark romance in this story. I loved the relationship development between Millie and Callum, and found myself fascinated by the story line. The prose was almost lyrical and the author did a wonderful job at drawing an image of the scenery. Though I wasn’t sure what to expect from Callum at the beginning, I grew to love the various sides of him (including the 🌶️ side). There were several plot twists; however, due to a great deal of foreshadowing, several of them I had expected. Nonetheless, this was an enchanting read that takes you on a historical journey. Would definitely recommend if you’re into dark gothic romance with some mystery/thriller 🖤

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

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️.5
5⭐️ narration

So I absolutely loved this book, it was amazing and made me confused, happy, upset, annoyed, happy again. Basically all of the feelings. I usually write my reviews as I’m reading the book and try to avoid spoilers, but this book had plot twists that made me have to go back and edit things and I don’t think I can review without spoilers, so….

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD (kinda)

Overall I LOVED this book. I really like the light horror where you don’t know if the paranormal is real or not for most of the book. Are there ghosts or are these people just superstitious? The mystery was there the whole time and I read the whole book in one sitting because I wanted answers. There was a significant part of the book where I was questioning if he was actually human or not, and the mystery was fun for me.

It did make me uncomfortable in the beginning that there were obvious allusions to the FMC looking like the MMCs dead wife and that he likely gave her his dead wife’s clothes and didn’t tell her. The way everyone reacted to her wearing them and how she looked before there’s even any romance kind of gave me the ick and was going to be the reason for the book losing a star rating for me. I was really not into reading a romance where the man was so obviously still in love with his dead wife that the FMC looked like, but I’m SO GLAD that the non romance part was interesting enough that I kept reading.

Once it got towards the end and all the little things started coming together the romance was absolute perfection. And the plot twist as to who did it and why was not at all what I guessed.

I’m actually really excited to reread this book because I think knowing what was going on the whole time I’ll pick up on more foreshadowing and a lot of scenes will look different in hindsight.

The female audiobook narrator was great, but the male narrator was ✨perfection✨his voice was the perfect amount of growly and I’ll be looking up more books he’s narrated.

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓒𝓻𝓾𝓮𝓵 𝓓𝓪𝓻𝓴
𝒷𝓎: 𝐵𝑒𝒶 𝒩𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽𝓌𝒾𝒸𝓀

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

“𝐼 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓊𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝒹𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑒𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓅𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝓃𝓈𝓅𝒾𝓇𝑒𝓈. 𝐼𝓉 𝓈𝒾𝓂𝓅𝓁𝓎 𝓂𝑒𝓁𝒹𝓈 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓌𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓅𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝒸𝓉𝑒𝒹, 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑒.”

This review is a little different because I simply cannot choose my favorite character! Once I finished the book it changed, and so I just don’t want to pick 🤷🏼‍♀️

I had no IDEA what was coming in this book! I thought we were dealing with all kinds of supernatural, and I truly could not pin point what it was.

The twists were fantastic, and I’m truly obsessed!

I’m reading the ARC novella ꪶꪮꪜꫀ𝕣 now which is a different POV and needs to be read after The Cruel Dark! I literally jumped to it the second I finished TCD and I am already 50% done! I’m loving this side of the story.

The Cruel Dark is available NOW!

Thank you @beanorthwick for this gorgeous creation of a book! 🖤

♡𝙰𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 &| 𝚎𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠♡
4 🌟
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𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬 :
•DUET narrator
•slow burn
•gothic romance
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Ummm, how do I describe this book? The audiobook production was done very well, with a duet narrator, which is a super huge plus in my option!I enjoyed that the book was super long and literally got straight to the point. It's worth the read during the spooky season! I really didn't start to get into the book until maybe 40% of the book, but once it started to get entertaining, i was hooked. The twist and turns, chief kiss. But once again, the audiobook is phenomenal.
𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎!
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Thank you, Netgalley and Victory, for the (ALC)audiobook for my honest review.

This was a bit of a spooky gothic romance with a lovely twisty plot. I'm so glad this had an epilogue that wrapped the story up.

Audiobook, dual narrations.

I did find the dramatic prose along with the dramatic way the narrator spoke them was at times a bit distracting. It took me out of the story making me really aware of it being dramatic rather than feeling it. If that makes sense.

Overall it was a good read. The ending was a huge surprise for me and I did not see it coming- especially the big twist revealing between the assistant and the deceased wife. I read this book through audio on netgalley and I enjoyed the female narrator, but I found the male narrator's voice to be very similar to readings of Edgar Allan Poe and I found it a little boring to be honest.

The hot and cold back and forth of feelings between the FMC and the MMC got a little annoying because they were so quick to flip their emotions between each other. But overall still a good book. Really good twist.

Reviewed added to: Amazon, Goodreads & B&N

The Cruel Dark is a mix of a few genres including historical fiction, gothic romance, paranormal and mystery. I was immediately drawn into the story and it's spooky atmosphere. I admit I didn't know where this book was going to lead but at around the 70% mark I did guess part of the mystery so it was a bit anticlimactic for me but I still enjoyed the story. Professor Callum is grumpy and grim and you can't tell me that he isn't Beast from Beauty and the Beast because I will not believe you.

This was a wonderful debut novel from Bea Northwick and I look forward to reading more by this author.
The audiobook narrators, Madison Mitts and Theodore Zephyr were perfectly cast and Theodore especially voices Callum with a deep, dark voice that matches the character's personality.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing an Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story is creepy and will have you continually wondering what you can and can’t believe with a twist that will have your head spinning. This gave me Verity vibes and I was suspicious of Callum, our main guy, the whole time as Millie, our main character, tries to figure out what is what. She is seeing things like her dead mother and Callum’s dead wife and it has her convinced that the house is haunted, but is it? For about 70% of the book I wasn’t sure how this would go but read other reviews saying to just trust it and keep reading. So I would say the same to anyone else it was worth it.

There are very few books that leave me speechless at the end, this is one of them.

Dang. Just. . . WOW!

The last chapter of this book is EVERYTHING. I thought I knew what was coming. I thought I could vaguely guess. I was wrong on SOOOOOOOOOO many levels. That alone is refreshing. I love to be surprised.

This book truly is a Dark Romance and has some wonderfully creepy imagery to go along with it. Since I am a very busy working mom of two, most of my reading is done at night after the kids go to bed. . . I can honestly say there was one night I was torn between being ok with how scared I was and my need to keep reading. Reading won out, but I woke my husband up on the sly just to not me along for a moment. BAHAHA!

I said it once, but It needs to be said two or three times more. This story is beautiful, the imagery is stunning, the characters are demential. I could honestly go on and on just listing the reasons this book is so jaw droopingly good.

5 freaking stars all the way around.

Thank you NetGalley and Northwick Books for the ARC.