Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book
Rate this book
All Richard Hadlow wants is a happy family and a peaceful home. Having built the perfect house deep in the Kent countryside, now all he needs is a wife. He's about to discover, however, that even the most perfectly-laid plans can go horribly and tragically wrong.

The year is 1689 and England is in the grip of turmoil. A pretender is trying to take the throne, but Richard has no interest in the affairs of his country. He only cares about finding the perfect wife and giving her a perfect life. But someone – or something – at his newly-built house has other ideas. Is Richard's new life about to be destroyed forever?

Hadlow House is brand new, but already there are strange whispers in the corridors and unexplained noises at night. Has Richard just been unlucky, is his new wife Rebecca simply imagining things, or is a dark secret from the past about to rise up and deliver Richard's worst nightmare? Who wins when the past and the present collide?

1689 is the first book in the Haunting of Hadlow House series, which tells the story of one haunted house over the centuries from its construction to the present day. All the lives, all the souls, all the tragedies... and all the ghosts.

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 9, 2023

868 people are currently reading
2669 people want to read

About the author

Amy Cross

665 books1,687 followers
Amy Cross writes novels and short stories in a number of genres, mainly horror, paranormal and fantasy. Books include The Farm, Annie's Room, The Island, Eli's Town and Asylum.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
735 (29%)
4 stars
822 (33%)
3 stars
641 (25%)
2 stars
188 (7%)
1 star
84 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 272 reviews
Profile Image for Zain.
1,885 reviews286 followers
May 24, 2024
Surprisingly Delicious!

Lots of good eating in this story. The yumminess is exciting for everyone and so it will definitely be for you.

Just need to mention that a good man is the man who thinks that he is truly a kind man. So he takes a wife just like The Farmer in the Dell.

And he keeps on taking a wife to make his house a happy home. But it is just not fully satisfied, the house I mean.

The Baxters, servants, who are a large proportion of this story, are both in their own way, causing a lot of problems and confusion.

The story is a bit overwhelming at times, but it gives one the sense of horror and scariness that is often shown throughout this story.

Hope this series continues to inspire the other books to explore the terrifying nature of this world.

Would love to give this book five stars, but too many editing errors.

Four stars. ✨✨✨✨
Profile Image for Peter.
4,084 reviews795 followers
August 28, 2023
Richard Hadlow want to build a new home for him and his new wife. Then a tragic accident occurs and Catherine dies. Coming back to his estate with a new wife, Rebecca, sinister things are creeping in. What's the role of the Baxters, staff at his home? Is Fanny Baxter hiding something? Why is Oliver, her husband, so distracted, always looking to the old oak tree? How is Rebecca settling into her new home? Dark gothic horror with some extremely disturbing and twisty elements. The ending is exactly the way you want to pick up volume 2 of this series. Very eerie, very English, very gothic, in short highly recommended! Amy Cross does a great job here!
Profile Image for John Morris.
1,013 reviews79 followers
July 1, 2023
The start of a "must read" series!

That was quite a tale. The year is 1689 and the "Old Pretender", James Stuart, has been forced into exile, thus making way for the Protestant King William to ascend to the throne of England. As former supporters of the deposed James Stuart, the Hadlow family have fallen upon hard times. Desperate to regain the family's good name and fortune the one surviving son seeks a wife in order to bring a new family into the world. He marries and builds a great, but remote, house to resurrect the family's fortunes. However, fate intervenes and before she can bear him children, his wife is cruelly killed in a freak accident. Within a year he is married again and brings his new wife to the recently constructed house. However, as in the Daphne Du Maurier novel, Rebecca, the first Mrs Hadlow may not have left the building. This was a spooky and spine tingling tale, worthy of Amy Cross.
Profile Image for Marie.
1,121 reviews392 followers
August 29, 2023
Mysteriously Spooky!

Small backstory:

Richard Hadlow wants a perfect house built so that he can raise a family, but when tragedy strikes right away with his wife, Catherine and she passes away he grieves for a time.

Nine months later he has a new wife (Rebecca) who tries to be the perfect wife that Richard is looking for but something is haunting the house and property. The caretakers, Oliver and Fanny try to help Rebecca with getting her acquainted with the home and property but something is amiss which leads Rebecca to believe that something is not happy that she is there and whoever is haunting the house is seeking some kind of vengeance!

That is about all I can give on a small backstory so if you want to know more then go read this book and series!

Thoughts:

I have read a few Amy Cross books and have been reading her for years. I have always felt that she excels in the haunting/ghost stories as every book she has written that has to do with ghosts and hauntings have spooked me silly!

This book was no exception as it took off right away and kept me glued to the pages. I read almost 40% of the book in just about two hours as I became caught up in the storyline and just could not break away from what was happening within the story!

This book is in a series and I will be continuing on with it soon as I want to see what else happens within this series as the Hadlow House is center stage for the rest of the series. Giving this book five "Hair-Raising Haunting" stars!
Profile Image for Jeffrey Caston.
Author 11 books198 followers
September 3, 2023
The best Cross book I’ve yet to read.

I am an Amy Cross fan. Some of the other, earlier work that I’ve read frustrated me a bit as a reader because they had—what I perceived to be—pretty glaring plot holes and questions and issues that came up that had no relevance or resolution.

I have come to respect and like the sort of escapist horror she puts out.

1689 seemed to have none of those issues, even though I have sort of just let the stories unfold without over-thinking it. But it still worked very well for me.

This book offers a haunted house tale that grabbed me almost from the beginning. We have some poor unfortunate souls who have bad things happen. Richard, is a product of his background. As seems to be the case throughout history, privilege creates solely by social standing kind of breeds stupidity. Richard, the MC, is sort of clueless and blind to that which he doesn’t want to see. That being said, I totally bought him as the land-owning gentleman in 1689 England. And that helped propel the story. A lot of time he is his own worst enemy because he simply cannot accept a reality that doesn’t comport with his desires and that leads him to bad decisions and opening up him—and those he cares about—to harm.

There were questions that cropped up to me as to why things were happening. One in particular was . But by the end it made sense and I felt like the resolution of that issue was totally consistent with tiny details earlier in the story. I found it very satisfying.

It has just the right amount of gruesome gore to fit the tone of the story without being over the top or needlessly gratuitous. The story clips along quite nicely. Cross reveals little nuggets as needed to keep the story interesting and heightens the tension as more and more of the underlying mystery becomes revealed.

This is part of a new series. As of the time of this review, I believe the last two are yet to be published. I very much look forward to the rest of the series.
Profile Image for MadameD.
585 reviews56 followers
September 3, 2023
Spooky!

1689 (The Haunting of Hadlow House Book 1) by Amy Cross, is a gripping, well written, and gory horror story!
I recommend it!
14 reviews
October 14, 2023
I went into this book expecting a ghost story. What I read was poorly edited, kind of ridiculous and full of gore. I’ve read fanfiction better than this.
Profile Image for Sally.
320 reviews101 followers
September 9, 2023
Cross nailed this one! A haunted house story done expertly. Creepy, perfectly paced, and a little twisty. Feels like this is going to be a great series!
Profile Image for kimberly.
663 reviews522 followers
July 10, 2024
”She watches… and she waits”

1689 is the first installation of the Haunting of Hadlow House series which follows Hadlow House from its construction to present day.

Let me start by saying that I love the premise behind this series: following the house itself through the years, through all of its different inhabitants, all of its different strange occurrences… Brilliant.

1689 is a tragic and gruesome tale that kicks off the series with a bang, following Richard Hadlow, the original constructor and owner of Hadlow House. He’s a quiet man, desperate for a happy life and is convinced that this perfect house will be the kickstart he needs.

”What use is a man if he leaves behind nothing of value once his mortal life is done?”

In the house with him are the Baxters—husband and wife pair that keep the grounds and the house—and his newly-domesticated wife, Rebecca, who was given to Mr. Hadlow by her father. Rebecca is struggling to settle in to the new house and her new life and the Baxters are acting strange, making Rebecca even more uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Richard is struggling to release the burdens of his past: a sudden death of a loved one and a family name that has been tainted from past generations.

This eerie, gothic haunted house story takes unexpected, gory turns and it certainly won’t be easy for those with a light stomach to digest. I’m not a fan of gore for gore’s sake and I generally don’t expect that in haunted house stories either which generally tend to lean more towards psychological horror and distress. That said I didn’t particularly care for it here.

In addition to some things being far-fetched (yes, even in a fictionalized supernatural tale), one of my biggest complaints though is that this definitely needed some tighter editing as there were many grammatical errors, instances of people being called by the wrong name, and other pieces of information that were overlooked.

Still, Cross can undoubtedly create tense, distressing scenes and is capable of eliciting a mournful response from readers. I am certainly interested in the next installment to see what direction this series takes.
19 reviews
January 24, 2024
This book was poorly written and edited. So many missing words and incorrect words, very difficult to read. The worst thing is no color to the book. 1689? it could have been any time. Except for a few mentions of carriages and flintlock pistols, it could have been the US South last Tuesday (yes, they still treat women like that).

Rebar being used for private residence construction in the 1600s? As the description was not great, the metal bars used in the house construction sounded suspiciously like rebar which wasn't widely or commonly used for hundreds of years after this time. For me, historical accuracy in setting and scene is a must even in ghost stories!

The story had promise, it was interesting and scary but the blatant laziness of writing a book and slapping any date on the time period without supporting details turned me off. I know there are several other books in this series, not even interested. blah.
Profile Image for Diane Yoder.
15 reviews
October 18, 2023
This book was full of gratuitous violence and gore that added nothing to the story. I love a good gothic horror story and to have a haunting series about the owners of a house is a great idea, but the desecration of corpses, cannibalism and just outright sick grossness of this book detracted so much from the story I quit reading it and won't read the rest of the books in the series. There was also one unintentionally hilarious moment where one character says to another that they've seen a photograph. Never mind that photography wasn't even a thing in 1689.
Profile Image for Zoé-Lee O'Farrell.
Author 1 book244 followers
February 6, 2025
I am at a loss with this book. I was hoping for a good little ghost story. This wasn't that, although it's implied at the end, and although this took such a random turn, I have no idea where it came from. I am invested enough to find out what goes on in the next 12 books!!

I do hope I find out why Rebecca goes down the path she does. There was no preamble to what instigated it. To why she was the way she was. And I couldn't figure out her head problem at the end! And I want to know why Richard would go to hell as Catherine repeated. See so much intrigue!

Fanny Baxter what an evil little woman! When you read what she and her husband did, you want a painful end to her existence!

The audiobook was only 4 hours so easy to blitz through in an afternoon and it was an entertaining, yet disturbing read. I am looking forward to seeing where Amy takes this series. I would love a bit more ghosty in the books and I am hoping we get that and more in the next books. I want and need the answers. I am excited to delve into the next book!
68 reviews3 followers
June 17, 2025
great book. i don't read many horror books but this book i couldn't put down.
Profile Image for Danielle T..
144 reviews39 followers
October 8, 2023
@ rebecca, immediately: you in danger, girl.
Profile Image for Alorah.
54 reviews
January 28, 2024
This is possibly one of the worst books I’ve ever read. It started out promising but the editing is quite poor and it’s generally just kind of disgusting.
Profile Image for Amy.
12 reviews
May 3, 2024
Basically five hours of my life I'll never get back.
Profile Image for Letícia Peregrino.
36 reviews3 followers
April 4, 2024
This short book managed to stir in me such strong emotions related to the main characters. From pity, to hatred and of course, lots of sorrow.

This isn't a hopeful story, in fact, it gutted my heart just a bit, but what would you expect from a haunted house story? 😅

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this and I'm rushing to the sequel to get some more of this horrible, horrible house.
Profile Image for Alexandra.
29 reviews
July 11, 2024
Amazing concept, terrible execution. If you're going to write a historical fiction horror novel(la) you should probably put more effort into establishing a contemporary setting beyond reading a couple wiki pages so random nobodies can exposition the political context of seventeenth century England. This would help with silly mistakes like the idea that a 17th century servant could force her mistress to learn how to skin a rabbit for a meal and then slap her in front of the master of the house with zero repercussions. If you can't manage that, then you could at least make an effort to create some tension that would make your readers feel like they were actually in a story instead of watching someone just go "how do I make every bad thing that happens more cartoonish and gratuitous than the last?"

The last thing I'd mention is probably more of a personal pet hate than anything else, but human biology in this book is so bad it's genuinely painful and distracting to read if you happen to have a medical or health background. I actually did a little disbelievingly laugh at the final "twist" reveal that was apparently supposed to be horrifying because it was so absurd and fundamentally implausible.

Just a massive let down all around.
Profile Image for Leanne Gonsalves.
188 reviews
February 5, 2024
The concept of a haunted house and following its story over every 100 years really caught my attention, like it was going to be Haunting of Hill House vibes. It definitely was not! The story it self was just all over the place in my opinion and a lot of times didn’t make any sense to me or follow any kind of path. It was just not enjoyable at all.
Profile Image for Megan.
26 reviews1 follower
March 1, 2024
Spooky but dumb.
Profile Image for Katherine.
957 reviews180 followers
October 21, 2025
1689 is a historic horror novel with dark, uninviting, sinister twists and turns. This macabre bone - chilling storyline follows Richard, a wealthy estate owner who wants to built a mansion that fulfills his dream of happy family.

When in Kent, he finally has everything he wanted, a tragedy strikes and not long after that he he gets married. Hadlow House is his pride and joy and he wants nothing more than he and his wife, Rebecca to be happy forever.

But Hadlow House has a sinister force that is slowly but deliberately creeping its way into their lives. When dark buried secrets and truth is revealed and revenge is served, will there be any living soul left to appreciate the house?

Amy Cross brings quite an extraordinary horror book that will grip you right away. Hadlow House's foundation was built on rotten, deceived and torturous cover-up that later on unleashed uncontrollable evil and rage. Tainted with misdeeds and concealed acts of injustice and purpose, Hadlow House won't see a ray of happiness for sure. The themes of cannibalism, gore and vengeance are some of the persistent elements in the story. I really hated Mrs. Baxter and I know I should say that considering the timeline is different than present but she was absolutely wicked. The story itself is fast-paced and I didn't find a single dull moment in the narration.

I haven't read much historical horror novels however I will be picking up more books from the author as she has surely piqued my curiosity with her engaging writing and storytelling.
Profile Image for Horror_Reader1973.
329 reviews9 followers
September 10, 2024
Not great

This novel started off quite well, with some interesting characters. A tale of a man wanting to build his own home, in seclusion, away from the burden of a tarnished family name. He and his new wife travel by horseback to oversee the foundations and lay the first brick. Tragedy strikes and his young bride meets a grisly demise, of which Richard is unaware of some hidden, insidious details.

Richard marries again and brings his new bride to the, now finished, secluded home. This new bride, Rebecca, is a reluctant one and takes time to warm to Richard.

Richard’s servants Mr and Mrs Baxter have a nasty secret about Richards first wife, Catherine. Mrs Baxter isn’t as nice as she first appears.

About half way through the story begins to seem quite amateurish, the writing takes a downward turn and feels a bit silly. I began to skim through because it was just a bit like Scooby Doo.

There are some really gross developments that just don’t seem to fit or flow. I began to lose interest but continued to skim. The crescendo brings the elements together in quite gory and sickening fashion! Which could have been really cool but the middle ground was a washout (pardon the pun - if you read the book you will understand the pun!!).

Anyway I was disappointed and felt there were some elements of good story, but not many.

Profile Image for Kim Schneeberger.
110 reviews2 followers
August 25, 2024
Overall, a good book. It moved at a very fast pace and kept me interested, but it was very gory, and there were times I had to skip passages because it was grossing me out. That being said, I am interested to read the rest of the series and see, the different families that move into the same haunted house.
Profile Image for Wendy Fern.
53 reviews2 followers
August 14, 2024
Eerie scary makes you shudder with uncomfortableness. A quick good haunted house first book in a long series.
Profile Image for Lisa Anders.
103 reviews
September 16, 2025
3.5? I listened to this on audio. I think it may have been good, but the narrator was annoying. This is a 13 book series. So I'll shall continue.
Profile Image for Marina.
103 reviews20 followers
December 30, 2025
My first Amy and what a surprise! Dark, mysterious, merciless, eerie. Neeeeext please!!!
Profile Image for Mae Linn.
30 reviews
January 15, 2026
✨Nechutný v tom nejlepším smyslu. Chtělo se mi zvrečet✨ Hvězdičku ubírám za lehce komický konec, při kterém se Mrtvá nevěsta setkává s galaktickým mozko-červem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Susan.
2,349 reviews460 followers
April 6, 2024
Hmm, I'm not too sure about this.

It was kind of creepy, but I didn't really like the characters and I wasn't expecting .

11 reviews1 follower
December 3, 2023
Two stars is generous

Don't waste your time with this book. It starts out well enough but it quickly turns rushed, jumpy and feeling like it was written by a teenage boy. There's only four characters and the author couldn't keep them straight. Several times the wrong name was called. There's no build up or background of the characters. It really reads like a middle school short story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 272 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.