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The Wildling Sisters
Four sisters. One summer. A lifetime of secrets.
When fifteen-year-old Margot and her three sisters arrive at Applecote Manor in June 1959, they expect a quiet English country summer. Instead, they find their aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their daughter, Audrey, five years before. As the sisters become divided by new tensions when two handsome neighbors drop by, Margot finds herself drawn into the life Audrey left behind. When the summer takes a deadly turn, the girls must unite behind an unthinkable choice or find themselves torn apart forever.
Fifty years later, Jesse is desperate to move her family out of their London home, where signs of her widower husband’s previous wife are around every corner. Gorgeous Applecote Manor, nestled in the English countryside, seems the perfect solution. But Jesse finds herself increasingly isolated in their new sprawling home, at odds with her fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, and haunted by the strange rumors that surround the manor.
Rich with the heat and angst of love both young and old, The Wildling Sisters is a gorgeous and breathtaking journey into the bonds that unite a family and the darkest secrets of the human heart.
When fifteen-year-old Margot and her three sisters arrive at Applecote Manor in June 1959, they expect a quiet English country summer. Instead, they find their aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their daughter, Audrey, five years before. As the sisters become divided by new tensions when two handsome neighbors drop by, Margot finds herself drawn into the life Audrey left behind. When the summer takes a deadly turn, the girls must unite behind an unthinkable choice or find themselves torn apart forever.
Fifty years later, Jesse is desperate to move her family out of their London home, where signs of her widower husband’s previous wife are around every corner. Gorgeous Applecote Manor, nestled in the English countryside, seems the perfect solution. But Jesse finds herself increasingly isolated in their new sprawling home, at odds with her fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, and haunted by the strange rumors that surround the manor.
Rich with the heat and angst of love both young and old, The Wildling Sisters is a gorgeous and breathtaking journey into the bonds that unite a family and the darkest secrets of the human heart.
327 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 25, 2017
419 people are currently reading
4008 people want to read
About the author
Eve Chase
11 books1,379 followersEve Chase is an internationally bestselling British novelist who writes rich, layered and suspenseful novels. Including R&J pick, no.1 kindle bestseller The Midnight Hour, The Birdcage, The Glass House (The Daughters of Foxcote Manor, US) Sunday Times top ten and Richard and Judy Book Club pick, The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde (The Wildling Sisters, US) longlisted for the HWA Gold Crown Award, and Black Rabbit Hall, winner of Paris' Saint-Maur en Poche prize for Best Foreign Fiction.
Say hello @evepollychase on Instagram, X, and Facebook
Say hello @evepollychase on Instagram, X, and Facebook
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 210 reviews
October 21, 2017
5+ stars!!! I adored this novel!
This story was such an enjoyable and delicious treat! I lapped up every word and savoured every sentence. The writing was superb! I am still hugging this book to my chest hours after finishing it. It was so atmospheric and compelling that upon finishing, I immediately started to ‘miss’ these characters and setting.
The story is told in two timelines, one the summer of 1959 and the other over fifty years later. The plot revolves around Applecote Manor, a grand mansion surrounded by fields, river and forest in the sprawling English countryside. This manor house property is where a young girl went missing in 1954, never to be found. The mystery behind her disappearance floats throughout every page and chapter of this captivating story.
The 1959 storyline follows the four enchanting Wilde sisters throughout their summer stay at their aunts’ manor house. I was completely captivated by these girls on the verge of adulthood. Their beauty and innocence radiated off the pages. Their fierce love, protection and loyalty to one another was mesmerizing. The second storyline, in present day, was equally intriguing, addictive and gripping following a new family leaving city life behind to nestle into a more relaxed and nature-driven lifestyle in the country.
I was highly addicted to this enthralling novel and didn’t want to put it down however, I also didn’t want to rush through it. I took the time to appreciate every word and truly experience the unforgettable characters and tale that was unfolding.
I read the author, Eve Chase’s, debut novel “Black Rabbit Hall" last year and loved it. I had been looking forward to Chase’s next book ever since and this story surpassed anything I could have expected! I highly, highly recommend this wonderfully captivating book! This is one of my favourites of 2017!
This story was such an enjoyable and delicious treat! I lapped up every word and savoured every sentence. The writing was superb! I am still hugging this book to my chest hours after finishing it. It was so atmospheric and compelling that upon finishing, I immediately started to ‘miss’ these characters and setting.
The story is told in two timelines, one the summer of 1959 and the other over fifty years later. The plot revolves around Applecote Manor, a grand mansion surrounded by fields, river and forest in the sprawling English countryside. This manor house property is where a young girl went missing in 1954, never to be found. The mystery behind her disappearance floats throughout every page and chapter of this captivating story.
The 1959 storyline follows the four enchanting Wilde sisters throughout their summer stay at their aunts’ manor house. I was completely captivated by these girls on the verge of adulthood. Their beauty and innocence radiated off the pages. Their fierce love, protection and loyalty to one another was mesmerizing. The second storyline, in present day, was equally intriguing, addictive and gripping following a new family leaving city life behind to nestle into a more relaxed and nature-driven lifestyle in the country.
I was highly addicted to this enthralling novel and didn’t want to put it down however, I also didn’t want to rush through it. I took the time to appreciate every word and truly experience the unforgettable characters and tale that was unfolding.
I read the author, Eve Chase’s, debut novel “Black Rabbit Hall" last year and loved it. I had been looking forward to Chase’s next book ever since and this story surpassed anything I could have expected! I highly, highly recommend this wonderfully captivating book! This is one of my favourites of 2017!
August 6, 2017
3.5 Sometimes it's all n the atmosphere , and this gothic tale has atmosphere in spades. Dual story lines, separated by fifty years, connected by a missing you girls named Audrey, and of course an old house called Applecote Manor. The story's opening packs a big punch but then slows down considerably, doesn't pick back up again until almost halfway.
Sisters and secrets, four sisters who will spend the summer at the Manor, after their cousin goes missing, will have a summer that goes terribly awry. The story in the future will be impacted by the past in a different albeit strange way. As with many of these dual plotlines, there was one I liked better than the other. We get a limited understanding of these characters, and while I didn't actively dislike any of them, I didn't really feel connected to any one of them either.
So a good story to spend a little time with, always attracted to these gothic, atmospheric reads. Old houses and secrets, another huge attraction. Enjoyed this, but I sometimes feel in these dual story lines that too much is attempted, and both stories don't quite feel fully fleshed. Could just be me though.
ARC from publisher.
Sisters and secrets, four sisters who will spend the summer at the Manor, after their cousin goes missing, will have a summer that goes terribly awry. The story in the future will be impacted by the past in a different albeit strange way. As with many of these dual plotlines, there was one I liked better than the other. We get a limited understanding of these characters, and while I didn't actively dislike any of them, I didn't really feel connected to any one of them either.
So a good story to spend a little time with, always attracted to these gothic, atmospheric reads. Old houses and secrets, another huge attraction. Enjoyed this, but I sometimes feel in these dual story lines that too much is attempted, and both stories don't quite feel fully fleshed. Could just be me though.
ARC from publisher.
September 12, 2018
”We’d all be destroyed if we could remember everything…”
this is, for my tastes, a perfect vacation book.
i know the whole idea of a “beach read” is that it’s a book so unchallenging that it’s barely there; something to doze over on the plane, a prop to hide behindif when you get caught checking out someone’s…swimsuit, a cheap waterlogged paperback that can be left behind in a hotel room because both the book and the reading experience itself are meant to be 100% disposable.
well, i hate the beach.
and my escapist books tend to be in the vein of “look at this dog sitting on this thing!!”
by the way, look at this cat sitting on this thing!
naughty vacation cats!
i remember my vacations by what i was reading at the time, so for me, a vacation read needs to at the very least leave an impression on me, and preferably be as interesting as the vacation itself.
this was the perfect balance between “keeping my interest” and “not being so unputdownable that i miss mealtimes.”
i wasn’t sure about it before i began. after all, aren’t there already one million historical novels about english country homes and family secrets and ways in which past events haunt the present?
yes.
but this is one of the good ones.
the story is split between events of 1959 and events “over fifty years later.” the earlier timeline is a slow unrolling of a summer four teenage sisters spend with their aunt and uncle while their effervescent mother is abroad. their cousin audrey vanished five years earlier, and applecote manor is heavy with memories; their aunt still deep in her grief. the summer is a compressed coming-of-age experience for the girls - left largely to their own devices, they come together and grow apart, they test their sexual currency, they reassess their choices, and fifteen-year-old margot becomes consumed by the mystery of audrey’s disappearance.
plus, the novel opens on the girls dragging a dead man's body across the grounds, so there's that.
in the “now,” a family moves into applecote manor, a bit of a fixer-upper after all this time, but then, so is the family (oooh, you see what is being done here??) the point is driven home in another architecture-based analogy, concerning the property’s orangery:
theirs is an imperfectly blended family - jessie married will, a widower whose 16-year-old daughter bella is still not happy about jessie’s presence in their lives, even though they’ve been married long enough to have a three-year-old daughter together. she still misses her “perfect” mother, and has been misbehaving back in london, precipitating their move. will is commuting between applecote manor and london, often leaving his womenfolk rattling around for long stretches of time in the big house, whose past seems determined to pop up alongside the tensions of the present-day.
the earlier storyline was more interesting to me - i enjoyed seeing the separate personalities of the sisters develop and clash while still retaining their deep sisterly bond, and the pacing was absolutely perfect for a slow summer simmer. as for the “now,” i’m a little who-caresy about sullen teenage girls and anxious, hand-wringing stepparenting in general, but the distribution of the two stories never felt uneven, and i was never resentful when it returned to present day - which is a stronger statement if you knew how frequently i groan when split-narrative books return to their less-interesting thread.
i am looking forward to reading more from this author, whether or not i am on vacation at the time.
#vacationreading
2/7
come to my blog!
this is, for my tastes, a perfect vacation book.
i know the whole idea of a “beach read” is that it’s a book so unchallenging that it’s barely there; something to doze over on the plane, a prop to hide behind
well, i hate the beach.
and my escapist books tend to be in the vein of “look at this dog sitting on this thing!!”
by the way, look at this cat sitting on this thing!
naughty vacation cats!
i remember my vacations by what i was reading at the time, so for me, a vacation read needs to at the very least leave an impression on me, and preferably be as interesting as the vacation itself.
this was the perfect balance between “keeping my interest” and “not being so unputdownable that i miss mealtimes.”
i wasn’t sure about it before i began. after all, aren’t there already one million historical novels about english country homes and family secrets and ways in which past events haunt the present?
yes.
but this is one of the good ones.
the story is split between events of 1959 and events “over fifty years later.” the earlier timeline is a slow unrolling of a summer four teenage sisters spend with their aunt and uncle while their effervescent mother is abroad. their cousin audrey vanished five years earlier, and applecote manor is heavy with memories; their aunt still deep in her grief. the summer is a compressed coming-of-age experience for the girls - left largely to their own devices, they come together and grow apart, they test their sexual currency, they reassess their choices, and fifteen-year-old margot becomes consumed by the mystery of audrey’s disappearance.
plus, the novel opens on the girls dragging a dead man's body across the grounds, so there's that.
in the “now,” a family moves into applecote manor, a bit of a fixer-upper after all this time, but then, so is the family (oooh, you see what is being done here??) the point is driven home in another architecture-based analogy, concerning the property’s orangery:
…Jessie tracks the paned glass as it climbs to its geometric peak, a feat of Victorian engineering that promises tangy Mediterranean fruit in the English climate among the woolly pippins. Something about that optimism - control through enclosure, a sort of forced nurturing - whispers in her ear: isn’t she trying to do something similar, only with a family?
theirs is an imperfectly blended family - jessie married will, a widower whose 16-year-old daughter bella is still not happy about jessie’s presence in their lives, even though they’ve been married long enough to have a three-year-old daughter together. she still misses her “perfect” mother, and has been misbehaving back in london, precipitating their move. will is commuting between applecote manor and london, often leaving his womenfolk rattling around for long stretches of time in the big house, whose past seems determined to pop up alongside the tensions of the present-day.
the earlier storyline was more interesting to me - i enjoyed seeing the separate personalities of the sisters develop and clash while still retaining their deep sisterly bond, and the pacing was absolutely perfect for a slow summer simmer. as for the “now,” i’m a little who-caresy about sullen teenage girls and anxious, hand-wringing stepparenting in general, but the distribution of the two stories never felt uneven, and i was never resentful when it returned to present day - which is a stronger statement if you knew how frequently i groan when split-narrative books return to their less-interesting thread.
i am looking forward to reading more from this author, whether or not i am on vacation at the time.
#vacationreading
2/7
come to my blog!
July 15, 2017
“Houses are never just houses; I’m quite sure of this now. We leave particles behind, dust and dreams, fingerprints on buried wallpapers, our tread in the wear of the stairs. And we take bits of the houses with us. In my case, a love of the smell of wax polish on sun-warmed oak, late summer sunlight filtering through stained glass. We grow up. We stay the same. We move away, but we live forever where we were most alive.”
Houses can be as significant in a story as any character. After all what would Rebecca be without Manderley? Or Gone with the Wind without Tara? In The Wildling Sisters, Eve Chase has fashioned another memorable structure, Applecote Manor, set deep within the rustic English countryside. The home of the Wilde family and witness to unimaginable tragedy.
Newlywed mother Jessie Tucker instantly falls in love with the crumbling Applecote Manor and lovingly envisions it as a fresh start for her fractious step-daughter Bella. She perceives an “unbroken thread, a pulse of energy, running through the lives of the historic owners, the Wilde family, and their own. It feels like they’re picking up something loved but broken, putting it back together again.” And she’s right. The Wildling Sisters utilizes Kate Morton’s now recognizable format of alternating between present and past. In that past, we see the four Wilde sisters delivered to Applecote Manor by their bohemian mother. There they expect to remain the entire summer with their aunt and uncle; the days stretching endlessly into a vast stream of nothingness. Except when they arrive at Applecote much has changed.
Years before their summer sojourn, the Wildes’ cousin Audrey abruptly disappeared. Since then, Aunt Sybil “imprisoned herself behind her own floral swagged curtains.” With the country police botching the investigation, Audrey’s vanishing remains a mystery. Her spectre forever haunting the halls. Sybil maintains that Audrey is sure to return and manifests this delusion by meticulously preserving Audrey’s room. Margot, our narrator and closest to Audrey, is unable to resist the draw. Searching for answers and encouraged by Sybil’s grief, Margot begins to inhabit Audrey’s life. To dreadful consequence.
Similarly Jessie’s coping with her own ghost. That of Will’s deceased wife, and Bella’s beloved mother, Mandy. Just as Sybil used Audrey’s untouched bedroom to sustain her delusion, Bella does the same. Bella, housed in Audrey’s former room, regularly dresses in Mandy’s glamorous clothing, clings to her parents love letters, and fashions her new dwelling as a shrine to her mother. Instead of Applecote being a new beginning, Mandy’s presence looms larger than ever. “Something powerful holds Jessie in that room of her own dark imagining, transfixed by the woman she was hoping to escape.” The parallels to Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca are unmistakable. With Sybil & Bella alternatively playing a version of the obsessively grief-stricken Mrs. Danvers and Margot & Jessie, the intimidated Mrs. DeWinter who are both attracted to their charismatic predecessors, yet struggling to escape their shadows.
The parallels between the past and present narratives continue throughout the story. Bella attends the same private school as the Wilde sisters, like Margot she fanatically seeks answers to Audrey’s disappearance, even the summer weather is in direct contrast. The past and present inevitably bleed together as secrets from the past are revealed in the present. And ultimately the timelines converge in the same location around a second disappeared girl.
Eve Chase is a skillful writer. Her prose is lush and languid, echoing the Wilde sisters’ deliciously scorching summer. Yet, a sense of unease is established early. Hints of violence on the horizon seem stark, purposely so, interrupting both the summer idyll and new home enchantment. It reminds the reader to not make themselves too comfortable. Don’t be hypnotized by Applecote’s pastoral abundance. Darkness awaits.
And while I did enjoy this story and Eve Chases’ writing, there are times she focuses on constructing beautiful, melodic prose at the expense of pacing. Not every passage needs flowery description. A balance has to be struck. Otherwise a narrative gets bogged down in purposeless detail and the central thread is lost.
Ultimately, The Wildling Sisters is a treatise on sisterhood. About the bond that you share, which cannot be broken, even in the direst of circumstance.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of the book for review.
Houses can be as significant in a story as any character. After all what would Rebecca be without Manderley? Or Gone with the Wind without Tara? In The Wildling Sisters, Eve Chase has fashioned another memorable structure, Applecote Manor, set deep within the rustic English countryside. The home of the Wilde family and witness to unimaginable tragedy.
Newlywed mother Jessie Tucker instantly falls in love with the crumbling Applecote Manor and lovingly envisions it as a fresh start for her fractious step-daughter Bella. She perceives an “unbroken thread, a pulse of energy, running through the lives of the historic owners, the Wilde family, and their own. It feels like they’re picking up something loved but broken, putting it back together again.” And she’s right. The Wildling Sisters utilizes Kate Morton’s now recognizable format of alternating between present and past. In that past, we see the four Wilde sisters delivered to Applecote Manor by their bohemian mother. There they expect to remain the entire summer with their aunt and uncle; the days stretching endlessly into a vast stream of nothingness. Except when they arrive at Applecote much has changed.
Years before their summer sojourn, the Wildes’ cousin Audrey abruptly disappeared. Since then, Aunt Sybil “imprisoned herself behind her own floral swagged curtains.” With the country police botching the investigation, Audrey’s vanishing remains a mystery. Her spectre forever haunting the halls. Sybil maintains that Audrey is sure to return and manifests this delusion by meticulously preserving Audrey’s room. Margot, our narrator and closest to Audrey, is unable to resist the draw. Searching for answers and encouraged by Sybil’s grief, Margot begins to inhabit Audrey’s life. To dreadful consequence.
Similarly Jessie’s coping with her own ghost. That of Will’s deceased wife, and Bella’s beloved mother, Mandy. Just as Sybil used Audrey’s untouched bedroom to sustain her delusion, Bella does the same. Bella, housed in Audrey’s former room, regularly dresses in Mandy’s glamorous clothing, clings to her parents love letters, and fashions her new dwelling as a shrine to her mother. Instead of Applecote being a new beginning, Mandy’s presence looms larger than ever. “Something powerful holds Jessie in that room of her own dark imagining, transfixed by the woman she was hoping to escape.” The parallels to Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca are unmistakable. With Sybil & Bella alternatively playing a version of the obsessively grief-stricken Mrs. Danvers and Margot & Jessie, the intimidated Mrs. DeWinter who are both attracted to their charismatic predecessors, yet struggling to escape their shadows.
The parallels between the past and present narratives continue throughout the story. Bella attends the same private school as the Wilde sisters, like Margot she fanatically seeks answers to Audrey’s disappearance, even the summer weather is in direct contrast. The past and present inevitably bleed together as secrets from the past are revealed in the present. And ultimately the timelines converge in the same location around a second disappeared girl.
Eve Chase is a skillful writer. Her prose is lush and languid, echoing the Wilde sisters’ deliciously scorching summer. Yet, a sense of unease is established early. Hints of violence on the horizon seem stark, purposely so, interrupting both the summer idyll and new home enchantment. It reminds the reader to not make themselves too comfortable. Don’t be hypnotized by Applecote’s pastoral abundance. Darkness awaits.
And while I did enjoy this story and Eve Chases’ writing, there are times she focuses on constructing beautiful, melodic prose at the expense of pacing. Not every passage needs flowery description. A balance has to be struck. Otherwise a narrative gets bogged down in purposeless detail and the central thread is lost.
Ultimately, The Wildling Sisters is a treatise on sisterhood. About the bond that you share, which cannot be broken, even in the direst of circumstance.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of the book for review.
January 27, 2019
Pretty much perfect, this lovely novel is Eve Chase's second book and I am flabbergasted by her enormous talent. Black Rabbit Hall, her debut, was a tribute to mothers and how their love shapes us, here she delves into sisterly love and how we look to our sisters for guidance, comfort, and support and the ache you feel when it's not there.
As in her first book there are two story lines, one now and one in the 1950s and the past story is the more riveting one, to me at least. Her books are spot on in their settings, crumbling estates, and the wide, open countryside and glories of nature, but more importantly she is a master of describing the inner lives of girls and women, their desires, some inarticulate, and below the surface. It is the story of 4 sisters on the cusp of adulthood and of their cousin who disappeared at age 12 and how the truth of her disappearance comes out eventually with the help of the modern day family.
As in her first book there are two story lines, one now and one in the 1950s and the past story is the more riveting one, to me at least. Her books are spot on in their settings, crumbling estates, and the wide, open countryside and glories of nature, but more importantly she is a master of describing the inner lives of girls and women, their desires, some inarticulate, and below the surface. It is the story of 4 sisters on the cusp of adulthood and of their cousin who disappeared at age 12 and how the truth of her disappearance comes out eventually with the help of the modern day family.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2017
I read Eve Chase debut book, Black Rabbit Hall last year and it was such a great book! So, when The Wildling Sisters showed up on NetGalley didn't I hesitate to request the book. Now, I have to admit that this book's cover isn't really a favorite of mine and if not the name of the author had been familiar had I perhaps not have been interested in the book. I just think that the three faces on the cover so oddly placed, like why are the third girls face under the other two's? It's puzzling!
However, the cover is the only thing that I have to complain about for the story is superb. Even better than Black Rabbit Hall and that book was really good. I was instantly pulled into the story and I loved both timelines. Eve Chase has an ability to write that makes it hard to stop reading the book, it feels like you just breeze through the pages, and loved both the story in 1959 about the sisters who are living with the aunt and uncle on the Applecote Manor during the summer after their mother has decided to work abroad. The time has practically stood still in the house since the day five years before when their cousin Audrey disappeared. What happened to her? In the present story has a Jessie and her family moved into the house. For Jessie is this a dream house and a chance to start over fresh after they have lived in a house where her husband lived with his first wife who tragically died. But, soon she wonders if they made a mistake when her stepdaughter tells her that 50 years before a young girl disappeared from the house and was never seen again...
I love books with two timelines, and The Wildling Sisters is a fabulous story. I liked both the story in the past and the present and I found the ending very emotional. It's such a beautifully written story, filled with both happiness and sadness.
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!
However, the cover is the only thing that I have to complain about for the story is superb. Even better than Black Rabbit Hall and that book was really good. I was instantly pulled into the story and I loved both timelines. Eve Chase has an ability to write that makes it hard to stop reading the book, it feels like you just breeze through the pages, and loved both the story in 1959 about the sisters who are living with the aunt and uncle on the Applecote Manor during the summer after their mother has decided to work abroad. The time has practically stood still in the house since the day five years before when their cousin Audrey disappeared. What happened to her? In the present story has a Jessie and her family moved into the house. For Jessie is this a dream house and a chance to start over fresh after they have lived in a house where her husband lived with his first wife who tragically died. But, soon she wonders if they made a mistake when her stepdaughter tells her that 50 years before a young girl disappeared from the house and was never seen again...
I love books with two timelines, and The Wildling Sisters is a fabulous story. I liked both the story in the past and the present and I found the ending very emotional. It's such a beautifully written story, filled with both happiness and sadness.
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!
August 3, 2017
The Wildling Sisters is an atmospheric tale about the bonds of sisterhood and family set against the backdrop of a mysterious house with a dark secret. Told via dual narratives, the story’s timeline alternates between the summer months of 1959 and the “present” setting a little over 50 years later. Both narratives are linked together by what I feel is truly the main character in the entire story: the looming Applecote Manor in the English countryside town of the Cotswolds. In 1959, the teenage Wilde sisters Flora, Pam, Margot, and Dot are shipped off to Applecote Manor to spend the summer with their Aunt Sybil and Uncle Perry while their mother sought out a job opportunity in Morocco. Sybil and Perry lost their only daughter Audrey 5 years ago when the teenager disappeared one day without a trace – devastated, the couple cut off ties with the outside world and shutter themselves inside their house, clinging constantly to the hope that Audrey will some day return. In the present day narrative, Jessie and her husband Will want to move with their daughters -- teenager Bella and little two-year old Romy -- out of their home in London to a more idyllic, quieter place in the countryside in the hopes that it will give Bella – who is still trying to come to terms with the death of her mother several years ago -- a chance at a fresh start. Without knowing much about its history, Jessie and Will decide to move into Applecote Manor, the beautiful, sprawling country house recently put up for sale by the Wilde family. Soon, the past collides with the present when Jessie and her stepdaughter Bella start to dig into the house’s secrets and learn the story of the previous owners’ past, including that fateful summer of 1959.
I’ve been reading a lot of dual timeline books recently but this one definitely felt different. Despite the gap in timespan, the two narratives had a “continuity” about them that didn’t make me feel like I was being taken out of one time period and placed in another. Yes, part of this has to do with the common setting of Applecote Manor as well as some of the characters from the past narrative still having some involvement in the present narrative, but I think a large part was also due to the writing, which had an atmospheric, elegant feel to it that was consistent in both narratives. The author Eve Chase captured the essence of time and place well, especially with the narrative of the Wilde sisters and their coming of age during those summer months alongside the mystery of Audrey’s disappearance. Chase did a great job giving us vivid descriptions of the house and its surrounding area so as to make us as readers feel as though we were right there at Applecote Manor – in the past narrative, right alongside the Wilde sisters trying to fill up the long, idle days of summer with anything exciting and in the present narrative, right alongside Jessie and Bella as they try to mend their rocky relationship while also trying to make sense of their surroundings. What I appreciated most was that Chase was able to do all this without sacrificing characterization, as each of the characters in both narratives came alive for me and I found all of them quite endearing, despite their flaws. I also loved the way the author tackled the theme of sisterhood and family, showing the ups and downs of those relationships in a realistic way.
One thing to note is that this is more of a character-driven story (I’m including Applecote Manor as one of the “characters”) than a plot-driven one, so the pace is a bit slow, which is a little ironic given that the story starts off with an absolutely attention-grabbing scene involving the Wilde sisters and something that happened at the end of their summer at the manor. After that initial scene, the rest of the story is a slow buildup to that day, as events unfold one by one in both past and present, until we eventually find out what truly happened. I actually felt this was a clever way to tell the story, but the “slow burn” aspect might be an issue for those who prefer a more action-filled plot. Also, I’ve seen this book categorized as “gothic”, which I guess is true to some extent given the mysterious undertones and the haunting, gloomy feel to the setting, but this one wasn’t dark or dreary like some of the classic gothic tales we may be used to reading -- this one had more of a lightness to it, which I appreciated. A lovely read that I definitely recommend!
Received ARC from G.P. Putnam and Sons via Penguin First-to-read program
I’ve been reading a lot of dual timeline books recently but this one definitely felt different. Despite the gap in timespan, the two narratives had a “continuity” about them that didn’t make me feel like I was being taken out of one time period and placed in another. Yes, part of this has to do with the common setting of Applecote Manor as well as some of the characters from the past narrative still having some involvement in the present narrative, but I think a large part was also due to the writing, which had an atmospheric, elegant feel to it that was consistent in both narratives. The author Eve Chase captured the essence of time and place well, especially with the narrative of the Wilde sisters and their coming of age during those summer months alongside the mystery of Audrey’s disappearance. Chase did a great job giving us vivid descriptions of the house and its surrounding area so as to make us as readers feel as though we were right there at Applecote Manor – in the past narrative, right alongside the Wilde sisters trying to fill up the long, idle days of summer with anything exciting and in the present narrative, right alongside Jessie and Bella as they try to mend their rocky relationship while also trying to make sense of their surroundings. What I appreciated most was that Chase was able to do all this without sacrificing characterization, as each of the characters in both narratives came alive for me and I found all of them quite endearing, despite their flaws. I also loved the way the author tackled the theme of sisterhood and family, showing the ups and downs of those relationships in a realistic way.
One thing to note is that this is more of a character-driven story (I’m including Applecote Manor as one of the “characters”) than a plot-driven one, so the pace is a bit slow, which is a little ironic given that the story starts off with an absolutely attention-grabbing scene involving the Wilde sisters and something that happened at the end of their summer at the manor. After that initial scene, the rest of the story is a slow buildup to that day, as events unfold one by one in both past and present, until we eventually find out what truly happened. I actually felt this was a clever way to tell the story, but the “slow burn” aspect might be an issue for those who prefer a more action-filled plot. Also, I’ve seen this book categorized as “gothic”, which I guess is true to some extent given the mysterious undertones and the haunting, gloomy feel to the setting, but this one wasn’t dark or dreary like some of the classic gothic tales we may be used to reading -- this one had more of a lightness to it, which I appreciated. A lovely read that I definitely recommend!
Received ARC from G.P. Putnam and Sons via Penguin First-to-read program
July 8, 2017
Past and present, family drama at its best. The book starts present day and the unkept condition of Applecote Manor and a body. The four grown sisters each with their own problems and the past where sisters close as one unit become divided by the disappearance of their cousin and who is ultimately responsible for that event is only hinted at thru most of the story until the reveal. Great read about family dynamics and how one event can change your life forever. I would like to thank the Publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read this ARC.
July 12, 2017
This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.
I would say that this book was just okay for me. I decided to read this book because the premise sounded really interesting. The story opened with a bang and I was pretty sure that I had made a great decision in picking up this book. After just a few pages, things slowed down. All the way down. I found myself setting the book aside to clean and I hate cleaning. About a third of the way into the book, I seriously considered adding it to my dnf pile and moving on to something else. I decided to read just a bit more before quiting and it did pick up. The second half of the book was much more interesting to me and I am glad that I hung in there a bit longer.
This is a book that is told in two different periods of time. One story is set in 1959 and features Margot and her three sisters. The other story is set in the present time and features Jesse and her family. The connecting link is Applecote Manor. I knew that eventually the two stories would come together but it took a very long time for that to happen. I found the story that was set in 1959 to be much more interesting than the present day at least for the first half of the book.
I did really enjoy this book a lot more once the two timelines started to come together. Both timelines became much more interesting and I wanted to learn what happened to Audrey all of those years ago. I felt for her parents and thought that the way it impacted their lives was illustrated very well. Margot was an interesting character but I never got to really know her sisters very well. Jesse's story really focuses on the relationship between Jesse and her step-daughter Bella. I wanted to see them work things out and come to trust each other more as the story progressed.
I think that I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it had been told in with just one timeline. As soon as things would get interesting, the time would shift and it slowed everything down for me. I am glad that I read the book but it isn't a favorite. I would like to read more from Eve Chase in the future.
I received an advance reader edition of this book from G.P. Putnam's Sons via First to Read.
Initial Thoughts
I had a really rough start with this book. I seriously considered giving up on it around page 80 since I really wasn't enjoying it all that much. It wasn't bad but I found myself putting it down to do other things constantly. The second half of the book did pick up and I found myself more focused on the story. It was an okay read in the end.
I would say that this book was just okay for me. I decided to read this book because the premise sounded really interesting. The story opened with a bang and I was pretty sure that I had made a great decision in picking up this book. After just a few pages, things slowed down. All the way down. I found myself setting the book aside to clean and I hate cleaning. About a third of the way into the book, I seriously considered adding it to my dnf pile and moving on to something else. I decided to read just a bit more before quiting and it did pick up. The second half of the book was much more interesting to me and I am glad that I hung in there a bit longer.
This is a book that is told in two different periods of time. One story is set in 1959 and features Margot and her three sisters. The other story is set in the present time and features Jesse and her family. The connecting link is Applecote Manor. I knew that eventually the two stories would come together but it took a very long time for that to happen. I found the story that was set in 1959 to be much more interesting than the present day at least for the first half of the book.
I did really enjoy this book a lot more once the two timelines started to come together. Both timelines became much more interesting and I wanted to learn what happened to Audrey all of those years ago. I felt for her parents and thought that the way it impacted their lives was illustrated very well. Margot was an interesting character but I never got to really know her sisters very well. Jesse's story really focuses on the relationship between Jesse and her step-daughter Bella. I wanted to see them work things out and come to trust each other more as the story progressed.
I think that I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it had been told in with just one timeline. As soon as things would get interesting, the time would shift and it slowed everything down for me. I am glad that I read the book but it isn't a favorite. I would like to read more from Eve Chase in the future.
I received an advance reader edition of this book from G.P. Putnam's Sons via First to Read.
Initial Thoughts
I had a really rough start with this book. I seriously considered giving up on it around page 80 since I really wasn't enjoying it all that much. It wasn't bad but I found myself putting it down to do other things constantly. The second half of the book did pick up and I found myself more focused on the story. It was an okay read in the end.
December 13, 2018
Welcome to Applecote Manor in the Cotswolds. This is a lovely English home that has housed families who have lost and found love, relationships, and the sadness that secrets often leave in their wake. We meet two of the families who have resided and now reside there.
The Wilde sisters arrive in the summer of 1959 to a world that might offer them an escape. Their mother had left them to the care of their aunt and uncle who five years previous had suffered the disappearance of their beloved daughter, Audrey. The house seems mystic, their aunt and uncle seem to be caught in a tunnel of hopefulness that soon Audrey would reappear and their lives would return to the before. The four Wilde sisters come to this home with its secrets and its tragedy hanging over its head. Yet, they have one another and then two boys come into their lives and the story drifts to their interactions, some with grave consequences. It is, for the sisters, a time of growing, of coming awareness of who they are, a time of trepidation and unknowing.
Almost a half century later, a young mother falls in love with the house which is now vacant. She begs her husband for it but as she finds out there are many things lying underneath both her soon to be home and the fact that she is competing with her husband's dead wife for his love and the love of a daughter that had been born to the dead wife.
Will this house and its history bring them together or will it be the downfall of two families separated by fifty years?
This was a lovely tale, made more so because not only is the setting so beautifully detailed, but also the love and loss one experiences when there is a lack of closure to tragedy. It's a haunting tale told through the hearts and minds of its characters and definitely recommended to those who so enjoy mystery, imagery, and most of all family.
Thank you to my local library for having a copy of this book.
My reviews can also be seen here: https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpres...
The Wilde sisters arrive in the summer of 1959 to a world that might offer them an escape. Their mother had left them to the care of their aunt and uncle who five years previous had suffered the disappearance of their beloved daughter, Audrey. The house seems mystic, their aunt and uncle seem to be caught in a tunnel of hopefulness that soon Audrey would reappear and their lives would return to the before. The four Wilde sisters come to this home with its secrets and its tragedy hanging over its head. Yet, they have one another and then two boys come into their lives and the story drifts to their interactions, some with grave consequences. It is, for the sisters, a time of growing, of coming awareness of who they are, a time of trepidation and unknowing.
Almost a half century later, a young mother falls in love with the house which is now vacant. She begs her husband for it but as she finds out there are many things lying underneath both her soon to be home and the fact that she is competing with her husband's dead wife for his love and the love of a daughter that had been born to the dead wife.
Will this house and its history bring them together or will it be the downfall of two families separated by fifty years?
This was a lovely tale, made more so because not only is the setting so beautifully detailed, but also the love and loss one experiences when there is a lack of closure to tragedy. It's a haunting tale told through the hearts and minds of its characters and definitely recommended to those who so enjoy mystery, imagery, and most of all family.
Thank you to my local library for having a copy of this book.
My reviews can also be seen here: https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpres...
September 27, 2017
Frankly, I’m surprised I had the patience for this book, because I am not lately a reader who appreciates slow-moving, thoughtful, atmospheric writing. Yet I was propelled toward the ending somehow, almost against my will. And when the quiet, reflective resolution came, I was strangely satisfied, even though part of me was hoping for a thunderclap of a finish. What sorcery is this?
The Wildling Sisters is a story of a summer heat wave that brought with it something weird and sinister, and how the twisted and tragic events of that summer reverberate into the future. It’s about two families living in the same estate in the English countryside half a century apart. It’s not, as I initially thought, a ghost story. There’s a creepy house, but it’s not haunted except by sad memories. And it’s only barely-kinda-maybe a murder mystery. Mostly, it’s about sisters and the bonds between them, which proves to be something that hasn’t changed much through the years.
So I guess you could say I grudgingly recommend this one. It won me over despite my typical preferences and expectations. Maybe the arrival of fall is making me contemplative. Maybe the book is just that good. The more I ponder it, the more I’m leaning towards the latter.
I should note that a sizeable portion of my enjoyment came from the quality of the audio version, fantastically read by two very distinct but equally talented narrators. It’s no trouble to keep track of alternating timelines when the narrators trade off; the voices signal to you which year you’re in. And of course, it goes without saying that British accents are dreamy AF.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
The Wildling Sisters is a story of a summer heat wave that brought with it something weird and sinister, and how the twisted and tragic events of that summer reverberate into the future. It’s about two families living in the same estate in the English countryside half a century apart. It’s not, as I initially thought, a ghost story. There’s a creepy house, but it’s not haunted except by sad memories. And it’s only barely-kinda-maybe a murder mystery. Mostly, it’s about sisters and the bonds between them, which proves to be something that hasn’t changed much through the years.
So I guess you could say I grudgingly recommend this one. It won me over despite my typical preferences and expectations. Maybe the arrival of fall is making me contemplative. Maybe the book is just that good. The more I ponder it, the more I’m leaning towards the latter.
I should note that a sizeable portion of my enjoyment came from the quality of the audio version, fantastically read by two very distinct but equally talented narrators. It’s no trouble to keep track of alternating timelines when the narrators trade off; the voices signal to you which year you’re in. And of course, it goes without saying that British accents are dreamy AF.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
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November 19, 2023This was a beautiful mood. Haunting, mysterious, scandalous…very cinematic details—review soon!
August 1, 2017
Reviewed on:5171 Miles Book Blog.
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin/Putnam for allowing 5171 Miles Book Blog to review this novel.
Let me tell you now, folks, The Wildling Sisters by Eve Chase is a summer release you are going to want to pick up. This book captivated me from the very first page. It begins in 1959 at Applecote Manor in Cotswolds, England with the Wilde sisters dragging a body through the landscape. This haunting tale combines past and present perspectives, diverging in the end, to reveal the story of a young girl who unexpectedly vanished. The walls of Applecote Manor haven't changed much in decades, but the secrets within are silently screaming to get out. It will only take the right person to uncover them.
I cannot rave enough about this novel, as it had numerous elements I loved. To begin with, the cover is instantly eye-catching. When I look at it, I want to know the story the girls are going to tell. What are they up to? What secrets lie behind their eyes? It has such an interesting mystery, just like the pages to follow. I'm also enamored by stories set in England, especially the countryside; I love the written prose of British English; and enjoy reading about the quirks of life in Great Britain. Though this story was set in a beautiful place, it had a haunted feel throughout. I imagined the house speaking the sounds, thoughts, and feelings of its previous occupants.
The alternation between the past and present allowed such an enticing story to follow, as both perspectives were equally interesting to me. In the past, the Wilde sisters, endearingly known as the Wildling's are spending an unpleasantly warm summer at their aunt and uncle's home in Cotswolds as their mother goes to find work in Morocco. The sisters come to the manor living and breathing as one unit, but by the end of the summer find their relationship strained by the mystery surrounding their cousin's disappearance and the growing up they individually experience throughout the summertime.
Fast forward to present day, Jessie is desperate to start a new life away from the hustle and bustle of London with her husband, young daughter, and her challenging step-daughter, Bella. Applecote Manor seems to be just the ticket to create the family dynamic Jessie has been dreaming of, until she discovers the house may have more secrets than her small blended family.
Tidbits about the past are revealed though each viewpoint, keeping the plot always interesting. I could not put this book down, not even because I was anxious to find out the mystery behind Audrey's disappearance (of course, I was), but simply because I enjoyed the enveloping feel of this story. I haven't been completely drawn into a novel in ages, feeling like I'm living out the movie of the story in my head. Eve Chase's writing was like travelling through time and across the ocean to an eerie place I wasn't quite ready to leave. Her similes were thought provoking and expressive, the imagery made me feel like I was there, and the voices of her characters were realistic in the best possible way. Simply, this is well-written tale worth reading immediately. It has quickly taken over the top place as my favorite book of this genre for 2017.
Pick up this book when it releases on July 25th! The Wildling Sisters will send just enough chills up your spine to keep you cool this summer.
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin/Putnam for allowing 5171 Miles Book Blog to review this novel.
Let me tell you now, folks, The Wildling Sisters by Eve Chase is a summer release you are going to want to pick up. This book captivated me from the very first page. It begins in 1959 at Applecote Manor in Cotswolds, England with the Wilde sisters dragging a body through the landscape. This haunting tale combines past and present perspectives, diverging in the end, to reveal the story of a young girl who unexpectedly vanished. The walls of Applecote Manor haven't changed much in decades, but the secrets within are silently screaming to get out. It will only take the right person to uncover them.
I cannot rave enough about this novel, as it had numerous elements I loved. To begin with, the cover is instantly eye-catching. When I look at it, I want to know the story the girls are going to tell. What are they up to? What secrets lie behind their eyes? It has such an interesting mystery, just like the pages to follow. I'm also enamored by stories set in England, especially the countryside; I love the written prose of British English; and enjoy reading about the quirks of life in Great Britain. Though this story was set in a beautiful place, it had a haunted feel throughout. I imagined the house speaking the sounds, thoughts, and feelings of its previous occupants.
The alternation between the past and present allowed such an enticing story to follow, as both perspectives were equally interesting to me. In the past, the Wilde sisters, endearingly known as the Wildling's are spending an unpleasantly warm summer at their aunt and uncle's home in Cotswolds as their mother goes to find work in Morocco. The sisters come to the manor living and breathing as one unit, but by the end of the summer find their relationship strained by the mystery surrounding their cousin's disappearance and the growing up they individually experience throughout the summertime.
Fast forward to present day, Jessie is desperate to start a new life away from the hustle and bustle of London with her husband, young daughter, and her challenging step-daughter, Bella. Applecote Manor seems to be just the ticket to create the family dynamic Jessie has been dreaming of, until she discovers the house may have more secrets than her small blended family.
Tidbits about the past are revealed though each viewpoint, keeping the plot always interesting. I could not put this book down, not even because I was anxious to find out the mystery behind Audrey's disappearance (of course, I was), but simply because I enjoyed the enveloping feel of this story. I haven't been completely drawn into a novel in ages, feeling like I'm living out the movie of the story in my head. Eve Chase's writing was like travelling through time and across the ocean to an eerie place I wasn't quite ready to leave. Her similes were thought provoking and expressive, the imagery made me feel like I was there, and the voices of her characters were realistic in the best possible way. Simply, this is well-written tale worth reading immediately. It has quickly taken over the top place as my favorite book of this genre for 2017.
Pick up this book when it releases on July 25th! The Wildling Sisters will send just enough chills up your spine to keep you cool this summer.
February 10, 2019
My first 2 star of the year. *sigh* It was bound to happen sooner or later. 😅
This was a strange little book. I don’t know what the author meant to achieve here, but I was soooo confused by the separate stories. Sure they overlapped, but in the weirdest way possible, and with literally no mystery or suspense. I also was put off by all the long paragraphs and how little Actual information was in them. So much of it was filler???
I liked the story from the 50’s the most, but the modern story felt VERY out of place. It was extremely disappointing to get to the end and find out . Bella was a brat and I’m so upset that . Jessie had her own stuff to work through, which I respected and I liked how that turned out. But everyone else’s drama seemed pointless.
Margot was an interesting character. I think she’s the only one I actually liked. But I became distinctly uncomfortable when the boys got involved and . I’m not sure if it’s just a “me” thing or what.... I’m usually not bothered by psychological things like that??? But it was weird and not in a good way. It might have been the execution of it rather than the actual psychological aspect....
Anyway, over all not a fan. Liked some things, disliked others, but it really just left me with an overwhelming sense of MEH. Nothing stood out, in a good way or even a bad way. I might try the author’s other work, because there’s a potential in her writing for me, but that’ll be a ways down the road.
This was a strange little book. I don’t know what the author meant to achieve here, but I was soooo confused by the separate stories. Sure they overlapped, but in the weirdest way possible, and with literally no mystery or suspense. I also was put off by all the long paragraphs and how little Actual information was in them. So much of it was filler???
I liked the story from the 50’s the most, but the modern story felt VERY out of place. It was extremely disappointing to get to the end and find out . Bella was a brat and I’m so upset that . Jessie had her own stuff to work through, which I respected and I liked how that turned out. But everyone else’s drama seemed pointless.
Margot was an interesting character. I think she’s the only one I actually liked. But I became distinctly uncomfortable when the boys got involved and . I’m not sure if it’s just a “me” thing or what.... I’m usually not bothered by psychological things like that??? But it was weird and not in a good way. It might have been the execution of it rather than the actual psychological aspect....
Anyway, over all not a fan. Liked some things, disliked others, but it really just left me with an overwhelming sense of MEH. Nothing stood out, in a good way or even a bad way. I might try the author’s other work, because there’s a potential in her writing for me, but that’ll be a ways down the road.
July 26, 2017
Favorite Quotes:
Jessie is sure her little girl will love the freedom of the countryside, just as she did as a kid, all those secret nooks of childhood, tiny worlds invisible to grown-up eyes.
There’s a thrill that comes with being awake when everyone else is lost in sleep. I don’t feel rushed. Or watched. Time even passes differently, molding itself around me like a kid glove on warm skin.
…our aunt and uncle step around each other like awkwardly placed furniture or guests at a party with a long-running feud… All our lives we’ve been brought up to want what Sybil has: a marriage to a firstborn son, a big house, a loyal maid, the clawed silver sugar tongs, a gold carriage clock ticking down to the next wedding anniversary. And yet Sybil grinds pepper over her boiled egg in the morning as if she’d like to wring the neck of the chicken who laid it.
My parents prefer not to think, Margot. They simply decide on a course and stick to it, like ocean liners.
Flora starts to flirt, fluttering her long lashes. I get a sudden unsisterly urge to pick them out one by one like legs from a spider.
My Review:
The Wildling Sisters kept me on edge, although I was immediately taken with the author’s writing style and remained intensely fascinated with the cleverly nuanced storyline as well as with the compelling and complex characters. The premise was unique and the writing was spellbinding and exceptionally well-crafted. Ms. Chase demonstrated uncanny word craft and repeatedly and deftly created an intense ambiance that could shift within a sentence. The story was cunningly and maddeningly paced and entailed two timelines, fifty years apart, in the same eerily creepy manor house in the quiet English countryside. The house and grounds contained a devastating mystery that prevailed over those fifty years, and long held secrets that also provided a peculiar and unnatural undercurrent to the tale. I was enthralled and so intrigued I warily read late into the night, a bit fearful of each new turn in the story, although I adored the author’s colorful and insightfully observed descriptions that triggered sharp visuals to flicker through my brain. The narrative also provided amusing smirk-worthy analogies and comical details. Eve Chase has mad skills.
Jessie is sure her little girl will love the freedom of the countryside, just as she did as a kid, all those secret nooks of childhood, tiny worlds invisible to grown-up eyes.
There’s a thrill that comes with being awake when everyone else is lost in sleep. I don’t feel rushed. Or watched. Time even passes differently, molding itself around me like a kid glove on warm skin.
…our aunt and uncle step around each other like awkwardly placed furniture or guests at a party with a long-running feud… All our lives we’ve been brought up to want what Sybil has: a marriage to a firstborn son, a big house, a loyal maid, the clawed silver sugar tongs, a gold carriage clock ticking down to the next wedding anniversary. And yet Sybil grinds pepper over her boiled egg in the morning as if she’d like to wring the neck of the chicken who laid it.
My parents prefer not to think, Margot. They simply decide on a course and stick to it, like ocean liners.
Flora starts to flirt, fluttering her long lashes. I get a sudden unsisterly urge to pick them out one by one like legs from a spider.
My Review:
The Wildling Sisters kept me on edge, although I was immediately taken with the author’s writing style and remained intensely fascinated with the cleverly nuanced storyline as well as with the compelling and complex characters. The premise was unique and the writing was spellbinding and exceptionally well-crafted. Ms. Chase demonstrated uncanny word craft and repeatedly and deftly created an intense ambiance that could shift within a sentence. The story was cunningly and maddeningly paced and entailed two timelines, fifty years apart, in the same eerily creepy manor house in the quiet English countryside. The house and grounds contained a devastating mystery that prevailed over those fifty years, and long held secrets that also provided a peculiar and unnatural undercurrent to the tale. I was enthralled and so intrigued I warily read late into the night, a bit fearful of each new turn in the story, although I adored the author’s colorful and insightfully observed descriptions that triggered sharp visuals to flicker through my brain. The narrative also provided amusing smirk-worthy analogies and comical details. Eve Chase has mad skills.
July 24, 2018
English poet Gerald Massey was quoted as saying:
“Not by appointment do we meet delight or joy; they heed not our expectancy; but round some corner of the streets of life they of a sudden greet us with a smile.”
It was in late November 2017 that I walked into my local Indigo store and while I was there browsing the shelves a certain book cover caught my eye. The cover was exquisitely designed with many of the classic gothic styles: the Victorian wrought iron gate in the foreground, the distant, eerie manor house on the other side, the inky shadows of the overgrown grounds and best of all the title of the book adorned in antique gilt lettering. Looking at cover, I already got the sense of being pulled into an enticing, savory and dark tale.
The book was “Black Rabbit Hall” by Eve Chase.
I brought the book home, began reading, and over the course of the next ten days found myself suspended between the world of my daily routines and the mysterious and otherworldly place called Pencraw Hall. A place where one timeline tangles into another, a place that moves at its own chosen pace. I quickly came to care about the enduring characters and found myself imagining what would happen to them, even when I wasn’t reading the book itself.
“Black Rabbit Hall” was the best book I read this year. And that’s saying a lot because I read a few others that I really liked. If Massey were here, he’d probably say that this confirms what he said: when I walked into the bookstore that day there’s no way I could have predicted that I would discover delight and joy on the shelves. How could I know that I would discover one of my all-time favorite stories that day? I’ve read hundreds of novels, this one is firmly planted in my top three of all time.
I was so thrilled with “Black Rabbit Hall” that I dashed out to purchase “The Wildling Sisters” in hard cover. I was planning to begin reading it in a couple weeks, so I unwisely lend the book to another person who wanted to read it, and unfortunately I never saw it again. I recently went back to the bookstore and found a paperback edition (last copy) of “The Wildling Sisters.” I brought the book home to read, but have to admit feeling some anxiety. “Black Rabbit Hall” was so good, could Chase’s next in line possibly be as good? I didn’t have to read very far before I had my answer.
“The Wilding Sisters” story, like “Black Rabbit Hall” is told in two timelines, about fifty years between them, and also like “Black Rabbit Hall” Chase writes the timelines in such a way that each are distinct standalones, and yet interwoven, dependent on each other at the same time.
One timeline taking place in the modern day, tells us the story of Will Tucker, a widower who lost his wife Mandy in a tragic car crash, leaving him and his 11 year old daughter Bella lost in grief. The sudden privation of a loving mother understandably leaves Bella “clinging to her father’s hand as if he were the last human left on earth.
Sometime after Mandy’s passing, Will meets Jessie, and a year and a half later she finds herself pregnant with his child. Despite this significant change in situation, Jessie tries to maintain some form of independence by maintaining her own home. Jessie is concerned about how Bella, a teenager by now, will react to this new woman living under the same roof as her and her father, trying to take the place of her late mother. It turns out that Bella chooses to make it clear that she isn’t interested in making things easy or comfortable for Jessie. Time moves on and eventually it is the practical necessities that take over. Jessie is finding it increasingly difficult to be pregnant and, at the same time, maintain a household completely on her own. On top of this, Will does his best to entice her to take the plunge and move in with them. To convince her he speaks from his heart by telling her that he doesn’t want to waste another minute of his life without her, “I need you, we need you Jessie” he says.
Will’s appeal is successful, Jessie moves in and six months later they welcome their new girl Rory. Shortly after Rory’s birth, Will and Jessie seem to come to a mutual conclusion - one that can be summed up in the words of Kate Winslet when she said, “The countryside is very good for my head.” They come to believe that a move from the noisy, bustling city to the quiet, tranquil countryside would be the best thing for everyone. Will secretly hopes that the peace he finds in the country will help push his nightmares about Mandy’s car accident away. Both Will and Jessie are hopeful that a more rural setting would remove Bella from some of the teenage social pressures weighing her down at a time when she’s still reeling the passing of her mother. Jessie, for her part, believes that if they move to the country she will have a fresh start chance at a better relationship with Bella as well as a healthier setting for Rory to grow up than in the city.
We first meet Jessie, Will, Bella and Rory, viewing a manor house they are considering for purchase. It’s probably not quite large enough to officially tag it as a manor house, but more than large enough for the four of them all the same. It’s also a “fixer-upper” which means there is a chance the house might be within their price range. The house, they learn, has traditionally been called “Applecoat.” Bella is now a sixteen year old, and Chase does an excellent job of helping us to visualize her:
“She’s slumped on the window seat, pecking out a text on her phone. A twist of too-long legs, and inky hair…she’s the striking spit of her dead mother. Sensing Jessie’s questioning gaze, she lifts her pale aquiline face, narrows her eyes to glossy pupil-filled cracks, and answers it with a fierce look of refusal.”
Three year old Rory, unlike her step-sister, is making herself right at home in this country house. She’s intently studying a snail as it crawls, she “giggles and looks up: Jessie sees her own pixie pretty features miniaturized…she grins back Rory’s delight as it quickly becomes her own.”
I thought Eve Chase chose an excellent setting to introduce the major players in this modern day scene. It allows us to see them out of their comfort zone and provides an opportunity for the individual aspects of the family dynamic to play out in an authentic and yet still intriguing way. As I read this scene, a family checking out a potential new home, I thought of how each member of my own family would respond. I think I can say quite easily that if someone were a fly on the wall as we toured a potential new home, they would get an accurate view of who we are and how we interact with one another. This would be especially true if we were not in complete agreement on the move itself, which is most definitely the case in the modern day timeline of “The Wildling Sisters.”
In the other timeline, we meet Bunny Wilde, the date is May of 1959 and she finds herself a woman at a crossroads. Bunny was widowed a number of years earlier when her husband, driving home, collides with an evening train. Apparently she then took up with a handsome, eccentric painter who eventually betrays her by finding a new muse, “Some Berkeley Dress Show model” Bunny regularly complains while sipping blood orange gin. She’s been a stage actress, finding the offers for roles diminishing as she enters her late-career phase.
Bunny has four daughters: Flora is seventeen, Pam sixteen, Margot fifteen and Dot is twelve years old. Bunny is finding it increasingly difficult to keep her four girls “in stockings, and hats and food” so when an overseas job offer arrives, she gathers her daughters together then shocks them by telling them she’s taking a job as a secretary at the foreign office counsel in Marrakesh, Morocco. Her friends, the Breamish’s have influence there, and knowing her plight offer her a job. But the four sisters are not done being collectively shocked. Bunny then informs them that they’ll be spending the summer at Applecoat Manor with their Aunt Sybil and Uncle Peregrine. All of the girls think exactly the same thing at exactly the same moment, “But what about Cousin Audrey?” They’ve all heard about the mournful pall that’s hung over Applecoat since the disappearance of their cousin Audrey five years ago. Audrey was Sybil and Peregrine’s only child and even as the girls are listening to their mom’s plans, they know that Applecoat will not be the same carefree and adventurous place that they once spent summers as girls. Before Audrey went missing.
This is the scene that sets the stage for a most shocking summer for the Wilde Sisters.
As the story proceeds, Eve Chase delicately ties one thread after another between the 1959 timeline and the present day part of the story. She got it right again, just as she did so brilliantly in “Black Rabbit Hall.”
“The Wildling Sisters” is a smashing good story, impressively written, and captivating right to the finish!
“Not by appointment do we meet delight or joy; they heed not our expectancy; but round some corner of the streets of life they of a sudden greet us with a smile.”
It was in late November 2017 that I walked into my local Indigo store and while I was there browsing the shelves a certain book cover caught my eye. The cover was exquisitely designed with many of the classic gothic styles: the Victorian wrought iron gate in the foreground, the distant, eerie manor house on the other side, the inky shadows of the overgrown grounds and best of all the title of the book adorned in antique gilt lettering. Looking at cover, I already got the sense of being pulled into an enticing, savory and dark tale.
The book was “Black Rabbit Hall” by Eve Chase.
I brought the book home, began reading, and over the course of the next ten days found myself suspended between the world of my daily routines and the mysterious and otherworldly place called Pencraw Hall. A place where one timeline tangles into another, a place that moves at its own chosen pace. I quickly came to care about the enduring characters and found myself imagining what would happen to them, even when I wasn’t reading the book itself.
“Black Rabbit Hall” was the best book I read this year. And that’s saying a lot because I read a few others that I really liked. If Massey were here, he’d probably say that this confirms what he said: when I walked into the bookstore that day there’s no way I could have predicted that I would discover delight and joy on the shelves. How could I know that I would discover one of my all-time favorite stories that day? I’ve read hundreds of novels, this one is firmly planted in my top three of all time.
I was so thrilled with “Black Rabbit Hall” that I dashed out to purchase “The Wildling Sisters” in hard cover. I was planning to begin reading it in a couple weeks, so I unwisely lend the book to another person who wanted to read it, and unfortunately I never saw it again. I recently went back to the bookstore and found a paperback edition (last copy) of “The Wildling Sisters.” I brought the book home to read, but have to admit feeling some anxiety. “Black Rabbit Hall” was so good, could Chase’s next in line possibly be as good? I didn’t have to read very far before I had my answer.
“The Wilding Sisters” story, like “Black Rabbit Hall” is told in two timelines, about fifty years between them, and also like “Black Rabbit Hall” Chase writes the timelines in such a way that each are distinct standalones, and yet interwoven, dependent on each other at the same time.
One timeline taking place in the modern day, tells us the story of Will Tucker, a widower who lost his wife Mandy in a tragic car crash, leaving him and his 11 year old daughter Bella lost in grief. The sudden privation of a loving mother understandably leaves Bella “clinging to her father’s hand as if he were the last human left on earth.
Sometime after Mandy’s passing, Will meets Jessie, and a year and a half later she finds herself pregnant with his child. Despite this significant change in situation, Jessie tries to maintain some form of independence by maintaining her own home. Jessie is concerned about how Bella, a teenager by now, will react to this new woman living under the same roof as her and her father, trying to take the place of her late mother. It turns out that Bella chooses to make it clear that she isn’t interested in making things easy or comfortable for Jessie. Time moves on and eventually it is the practical necessities that take over. Jessie is finding it increasingly difficult to be pregnant and, at the same time, maintain a household completely on her own. On top of this, Will does his best to entice her to take the plunge and move in with them. To convince her he speaks from his heart by telling her that he doesn’t want to waste another minute of his life without her, “I need you, we need you Jessie” he says.
Will’s appeal is successful, Jessie moves in and six months later they welcome their new girl Rory. Shortly after Rory’s birth, Will and Jessie seem to come to a mutual conclusion - one that can be summed up in the words of Kate Winslet when she said, “The countryside is very good for my head.” They come to believe that a move from the noisy, bustling city to the quiet, tranquil countryside would be the best thing for everyone. Will secretly hopes that the peace he finds in the country will help push his nightmares about Mandy’s car accident away. Both Will and Jessie are hopeful that a more rural setting would remove Bella from some of the teenage social pressures weighing her down at a time when she’s still reeling the passing of her mother. Jessie, for her part, believes that if they move to the country she will have a fresh start chance at a better relationship with Bella as well as a healthier setting for Rory to grow up than in the city.
We first meet Jessie, Will, Bella and Rory, viewing a manor house they are considering for purchase. It’s probably not quite large enough to officially tag it as a manor house, but more than large enough for the four of them all the same. It’s also a “fixer-upper” which means there is a chance the house might be within their price range. The house, they learn, has traditionally been called “Applecoat.” Bella is now a sixteen year old, and Chase does an excellent job of helping us to visualize her:
“She’s slumped on the window seat, pecking out a text on her phone. A twist of too-long legs, and inky hair…she’s the striking spit of her dead mother. Sensing Jessie’s questioning gaze, she lifts her pale aquiline face, narrows her eyes to glossy pupil-filled cracks, and answers it with a fierce look of refusal.”
Three year old Rory, unlike her step-sister, is making herself right at home in this country house. She’s intently studying a snail as it crawls, she “giggles and looks up: Jessie sees her own pixie pretty features miniaturized…she grins back Rory’s delight as it quickly becomes her own.”
I thought Eve Chase chose an excellent setting to introduce the major players in this modern day scene. It allows us to see them out of their comfort zone and provides an opportunity for the individual aspects of the family dynamic to play out in an authentic and yet still intriguing way. As I read this scene, a family checking out a potential new home, I thought of how each member of my own family would respond. I think I can say quite easily that if someone were a fly on the wall as we toured a potential new home, they would get an accurate view of who we are and how we interact with one another. This would be especially true if we were not in complete agreement on the move itself, which is most definitely the case in the modern day timeline of “The Wildling Sisters.”
In the other timeline, we meet Bunny Wilde, the date is May of 1959 and she finds herself a woman at a crossroads. Bunny was widowed a number of years earlier when her husband, driving home, collides with an evening train. Apparently she then took up with a handsome, eccentric painter who eventually betrays her by finding a new muse, “Some Berkeley Dress Show model” Bunny regularly complains while sipping blood orange gin. She’s been a stage actress, finding the offers for roles diminishing as she enters her late-career phase.
Bunny has four daughters: Flora is seventeen, Pam sixteen, Margot fifteen and Dot is twelve years old. Bunny is finding it increasingly difficult to keep her four girls “in stockings, and hats and food” so when an overseas job offer arrives, she gathers her daughters together then shocks them by telling them she’s taking a job as a secretary at the foreign office counsel in Marrakesh, Morocco. Her friends, the Breamish’s have influence there, and knowing her plight offer her a job. But the four sisters are not done being collectively shocked. Bunny then informs them that they’ll be spending the summer at Applecoat Manor with their Aunt Sybil and Uncle Peregrine. All of the girls think exactly the same thing at exactly the same moment, “But what about Cousin Audrey?” They’ve all heard about the mournful pall that’s hung over Applecoat since the disappearance of their cousin Audrey five years ago. Audrey was Sybil and Peregrine’s only child and even as the girls are listening to their mom’s plans, they know that Applecoat will not be the same carefree and adventurous place that they once spent summers as girls. Before Audrey went missing.
This is the scene that sets the stage for a most shocking summer for the Wilde Sisters.
As the story proceeds, Eve Chase delicately ties one thread after another between the 1959 timeline and the present day part of the story. She got it right again, just as she did so brilliantly in “Black Rabbit Hall.”
“The Wildling Sisters” is a smashing good story, impressively written, and captivating right to the finish!
May 14, 2021
“You don’t need to do anything, Jessie. Don’t you see? She just needs to know you are there for her, whatever crap she throws at you.” He pokes the fire with the iron. The logs move, settle into new places. Jessie feels something moving inside her, too. “And she’s thrown lots and lots of crap at you, I do know that, Jessie. And you’re still there.” “Hanging on by my bloody fingernails.”
The Wildling Sisters was a very good book and very well written despite an over-reliance on similes and metaphors. It consists of dual timelines that take place around 50 years apart. Both plots are connected by the setting, Applecote Manor, deep in the English countryside. In 1959 4 sisters go to live temporarily with their aunt and uncle who are still reeling from the disappearance of their beloved daughter, Audrey, who was also very close to the 4 sisters, especially the sister who is the narrator of this timeline, Margot. The second timeline is about the new family that buys seemingly abandoned Applecote Manor. Meet Jesse, her new husband, Will, their toddler daughter, and his hostile and troubled teenage daughter, Bela. He is a widower and his dead wife, Mandy, is also an overshadowing influence in the novel. I was continually reminded of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
As praiseworthy as I found this book, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book I read by the author, The Daughters of Foxcote Manor. It starts out very intriguingly, but there is a long stretch in the middle which was quite slow. It seemed to get stuck. The mystery of what happened to Audrey is a main interest of both timelines, and the answer was underwhelming to me. I was not drawn in by the characters of the 4 sisters or their doings. I identified more with modern-day Jessie and was more interested in her fraught relationship with Bella and invested in her marriage with Will.
As in Foxcote, Ms Chase formulates a great ending, bringing the two timelines together, and adds a little twist or two. I am a reader who hates it when the author leaves plot and character threads dangling and what "happened next” to my “imagination”. Hey, It is the author’s book written for the enjoyment of the customer (me). Don’t make me do the work. This is not a DYI project. What I love about the two books I’ve read by Ms Chase is that she tells what happened to everyone in a carefully fashioned and interesting conclusion. I love closure. It was touching and very right. I loved it and it made the book well worth reading. ***3 1/2 stars.**
April 17, 2018
"Applecote Manor doesn't dominate the surrounding lush countryside but settles into it, like an elegant elderly lady dozing in long grass."
Two years ago I read Eve Chase's debut novel, "Black Rabbit Hall" and enjoyed it SO much that I vowed then to read everything she writes. I've found another novel that will star in my Best Reads of 2018 post at the end of the year!
Written with dual timelines, this book will be relished by readers who are fans of Kate Morton, Rosamund Pilcher, Diane Chamberlain, and Harriet Evans.
Summer 1959: We meet the Wilde sisters. Flora, Pam, Margot and Dot - aged seventeen, sixteen, fifteen and twelve. Their father died in an accident and they are now in the care of their beautiful, though flighty, mother. The fatherless family is struggling financially, so their mother decides to spend the summer in Marrakesh where she has been offered a job by a friend. The Wilde girls are shipped off to the Cotswolds where they will spend the summer with their Aunt Sybil and Uncle Perry. They arrive at Applecote Manor to find Aunt Sybil and Uncle Perry much changed. It has been five years since their only daughter Audrey had vanished. Aunt Sybil has deluded herself into thinking Audrey will come home any time now.... She keeps her room at the top of the house just the way Audrey left it. She buys her clothes and shoes which will fit her now... Audrey was just twelve years old when she went out in the garden to play and never came back.
The sisters are very close. "I don't know who we sisters will be without one another to differentiate us. Take one of us away and we'd all lose our balance, like removing a leg from a kitchen table."
Now the Wilde girls are living at Applecote, Aunt Sybil favours Margot (the narrator of their story) for it is she that most resembles the missing Audrey.
"Applecote itself feels caught between the past and the present, life and death, a house gummed shut, waiting for news that never comes."
The summer of 1959 was known for being the hottest summer in recent history. Day after day of hot, humid weather. The girls turned brown and strong from spending so much time outside. They met some local boys. They explored the vast grounds, the orchards, the river, and the historic old standing stones at the end of the garden.
"A memory is a living thing; it breathes beside you."
It was a summer of transition, of growing up. It was also a summer when a tragic event marred their memories for the rest of their lives.
"Houses are never just houses; I'm quite sure of this now. We grow up. We stay the same. We move away, but we live forever where we were most alive."
Over 50 years later: We meet the Tucker family. Jessie Tucker is mother to tiny three-year-old Romy and stepmother to teenage Bella. Jessie and Will are madly in love, but Bella resents her new stepmother Jessie, and her little half-sister, Romy.
Londoners, the Tuckers have just moved to Applecote Manor. Will is a widower. Jessie wants a new start with her little family in a house that isn't permeated with memories of Will's first wife, Mandy. Also, both Jessie and Will want to remove Bella from her London friends and lifestyle because they feel it is not good for her.
"She had no idea that trying to love Bella, let alone parent her as she grew into an angry teen, would be like trying to hug an animal that wanted to sink its teeth into her neck."
Will owns a logistics company jointly with a college friend, Jackson. He plans to take a step back from the company and spend more time in the country with his family. But as life rarely goes to plan, Jackson tells them that he wants to sell his half of the company and move to Australia. This puts a real 'spanner in the works' for the Tuckers. This means that Will will be away MORE often instead of less. He will be in London all week, returning to his family in the remote Cotswold valley only at weekends.
The girls are alone in the big old house. Bella's behavior remains cold and her moods maudlin. Jessie begins to fear leaving Bella alone with Romy... Will's being away so much begins to affect their marriage. Jessie feels alone even when he is home at weekends. Just when Jessie feels despairing of their life at Applecote, events take another disturbing turn...
What can I say? I LOVED this book. The Wilde sisters and the Tucker family made an indelible impression on me. But the house, Applecote Manor, was the star of the novel. This is a story that explores the strength of family bonds. A favourite read that I will be recommending to many.
Note: This book was published in the United Kingdom under the title: "The vanishing of Audrey Wilde".
I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from the publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons, at my request, via NetGalley. This review is my way of saying thanks for a great read.
Two years ago I read Eve Chase's debut novel, "Black Rabbit Hall" and enjoyed it SO much that I vowed then to read everything she writes. I've found another novel that will star in my Best Reads of 2018 post at the end of the year!
Written with dual timelines, this book will be relished by readers who are fans of Kate Morton, Rosamund Pilcher, Diane Chamberlain, and Harriet Evans.
Summer 1959: We meet the Wilde sisters. Flora, Pam, Margot and Dot - aged seventeen, sixteen, fifteen and twelve. Their father died in an accident and they are now in the care of their beautiful, though flighty, mother. The fatherless family is struggling financially, so their mother decides to spend the summer in Marrakesh where she has been offered a job by a friend. The Wilde girls are shipped off to the Cotswolds where they will spend the summer with their Aunt Sybil and Uncle Perry. They arrive at Applecote Manor to find Aunt Sybil and Uncle Perry much changed. It has been five years since their only daughter Audrey had vanished. Aunt Sybil has deluded herself into thinking Audrey will come home any time now.... She keeps her room at the top of the house just the way Audrey left it. She buys her clothes and shoes which will fit her now... Audrey was just twelve years old when she went out in the garden to play and never came back.
The sisters are very close. "I don't know who we sisters will be without one another to differentiate us. Take one of us away and we'd all lose our balance, like removing a leg from a kitchen table."
Now the Wilde girls are living at Applecote, Aunt Sybil favours Margot (the narrator of their story) for it is she that most resembles the missing Audrey.
"Applecote itself feels caught between the past and the present, life and death, a house gummed shut, waiting for news that never comes."
The summer of 1959 was known for being the hottest summer in recent history. Day after day of hot, humid weather. The girls turned brown and strong from spending so much time outside. They met some local boys. They explored the vast grounds, the orchards, the river, and the historic old standing stones at the end of the garden.
"A memory is a living thing; it breathes beside you."
It was a summer of transition, of growing up. It was also a summer when a tragic event marred their memories for the rest of their lives.
"Houses are never just houses; I'm quite sure of this now. We grow up. We stay the same. We move away, but we live forever where we were most alive."
Over 50 years later: We meet the Tucker family. Jessie Tucker is mother to tiny three-year-old Romy and stepmother to teenage Bella. Jessie and Will are madly in love, but Bella resents her new stepmother Jessie, and her little half-sister, Romy.
Londoners, the Tuckers have just moved to Applecote Manor. Will is a widower. Jessie wants a new start with her little family in a house that isn't permeated with memories of Will's first wife, Mandy. Also, both Jessie and Will want to remove Bella from her London friends and lifestyle because they feel it is not good for her.
"She had no idea that trying to love Bella, let alone parent her as she grew into an angry teen, would be like trying to hug an animal that wanted to sink its teeth into her neck."
Will owns a logistics company jointly with a college friend, Jackson. He plans to take a step back from the company and spend more time in the country with his family. But as life rarely goes to plan, Jackson tells them that he wants to sell his half of the company and move to Australia. This puts a real 'spanner in the works' for the Tuckers. This means that Will will be away MORE often instead of less. He will be in London all week, returning to his family in the remote Cotswold valley only at weekends.
The girls are alone in the big old house. Bella's behavior remains cold and her moods maudlin. Jessie begins to fear leaving Bella alone with Romy... Will's being away so much begins to affect their marriage. Jessie feels alone even when he is home at weekends. Just when Jessie feels despairing of their life at Applecote, events take another disturbing turn...
What can I say? I LOVED this book. The Wilde sisters and the Tucker family made an indelible impression on me. But the house, Applecote Manor, was the star of the novel. This is a story that explores the strength of family bonds. A favourite read that I will be recommending to many.
Note: This book was published in the United Kingdom under the title: "The vanishing of Audrey Wilde".
I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from the publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons, at my request, via NetGalley. This review is my way of saying thanks for a great read.
September 3, 2017
Ένα γοτθικό μυθιστόρημα με την παραδοσιακή συνταγή αλλά φτιαγμένο με σύγχρονα υλικά. Κάτι που σημαίνει ότι έχουμε μία ιστορία γεμάτη ρομαντισμό, συναίσθημα και μυστήριο με φόντο ένα όμορφο φυσικό τοπίο και ένα παλιό σπίτι γεμάτο μυστικά. Στην πραγματικότητα, βέβαια, έχουμε δύο ιστορίες που διαδραματίζονται σε διαφορετικές χρονικές περιόδους (η μία στο τέλος της δεκαετίας του '50 και η άλλη 50 χρόνια μετά) και έχουν ως κοινό σημείο αναφοράς ένα παλιό σπίτι σε κάποιο χωριό της Αγγλίας όπου διαδραματίστηκαν τραγικά γεγονότα.
Με όλα αυτά η συγγραφέας καταφέρνει να φτιάχνει ένα βιβλίο μυστηρίου γραμμένο με έναν τρόπο που δημιουργεί αργά και μεθοδικά την απαραίτητη ατμόσφαιρα και φτάνει στην δραματική κορύφωση που καθηλώνει τον αναγνώστη. Το ωραίο, όμως, είναι ότι αυτό το κάνει χωρίς να αφήνει στην άκρη το συναίσθημα, χρησιμοποιώντας μάλιστα αυτό το μυστήριο για να δημιουργήσει συγκινητικές στιγμές που κάποιες φορές έχουν μία σχεδόν μεταφυσική διάσταση καθώς πραγματεύονται την απώλεια αγαπημένων προσώπων.
Οπότε στο τέλος μπορώ να πω ότι πρόκειται για ένα βιβλίο που το διάβασα με ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον και σίγουρα με άφησε ικανοποιημένο, τόσο από την ποιότητα του, όσο και από την αυτοσυγκράτηση που δείχνει η συγγραφέας, αποφεύγοντας υπερβολές που θα χαλούσαν όλη την ατμόσφαιρα που με απλό τρόπο δημιουργεί. Ένα απλό, μετρημένο αλλά βαθύ ανάγνωσμα που συναρπάζει και συγκινεί, την ώρα που θίγει σημαντικά ζητήματα για το θάνατο, τη ζωή, την αφοσίωση και τον έρωτα.
Με όλα αυτά η συγγραφέας καταφέρνει να φτιάχνει ένα βιβλίο μυστηρίου γραμμένο με έναν τρόπο που δημιουργεί αργά και μεθοδικά την απαραίτητη ατμόσφαιρα και φτάνει στην δραματική κορύφωση που καθηλώνει τον αναγνώστη. Το ωραίο, όμως, είναι ότι αυτό το κάνει χωρίς να αφήνει στην άκρη το συναίσθημα, χρησιμοποιώντας μάλιστα αυτό το μυστήριο για να δημιουργήσει συγκινητικές στιγμές που κάποιες φορές έχουν μία σχεδόν μεταφυσική διάσταση καθώς πραγματεύονται την απώλεια αγαπημένων προσώπων.
Οπότε στο τέλος μπορώ να πω ότι πρόκειται για ένα βιβλίο που το διάβασα με ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον και σίγουρα με άφησε ικανοποιημένο, τόσο από την ποιότητα του, όσο και από την αυτοσυγκράτηση που δείχνει η συγγραφέας, αποφεύγοντας υπερβολές που θα χαλούσαν όλη την ατμόσφαιρα που με απλό τρόπο δημιουργεί. Ένα απλό, μετρημένο αλλά βαθύ ανάγνωσμα που συναρπάζει και συγκινεί, την ώρα που θίγει σημαντικά ζητήματα για το θάνατο, τη ζωή, την αφοσίωση και τον έρωτα.
July 24, 2017
In the 1950s, tragedy struck at Applecote Manor, the owners' daughter went missing. Five years later with the case still unsolved, the four Wildling sisters move into the home to live with their aunt and uncle. It is quite clear to the girls that their aunt and uncle are not coping well at losing their only child. Margot can't help thinking about her cousin, Audrey, either. Unfortunately, it looks like tragedy is about ready to strike again.
Fifty years later, Jessie is anxious to move from London to a quiet country home with her husband, young daughter, and teenage stepdaughter. She thinks rather than continuing to live in the home her husband shared with his now deceased first wife, it is better to make a fresh start. As she settles into Applecote Manor, she becomes aware that this home has a lot of rumors surrounding it. And just maybe uncovering some of the mysteries of long ago will help Jessie and her stepdaughter's relationship.
I'm a sucker for any book involving a mystery, alternating timelines, and the setting of a manor house in the English countryside. I'm not surprised to read that one of my favorite authors, Kate Morton, has endorsed this book and I recommend if you like her books, give this one a shot. The mystery of what happened to Audrey held my interest throughout the book. I thought that Jessie and Bella's difficult relationship was realistic and well-written. It's hard to say whether or not I find the best part of the book to be the mystery or the family dynamics that are explored. Either way this is a solid book that I would definitely recommend.
Thank you to the First to Read program for letting me read an advance digital copy! I was under no obligation to post a review and all views expressed are my honest opinions.
Fifty years later, Jessie is anxious to move from London to a quiet country home with her husband, young daughter, and teenage stepdaughter. She thinks rather than continuing to live in the home her husband shared with his now deceased first wife, it is better to make a fresh start. As she settles into Applecote Manor, she becomes aware that this home has a lot of rumors surrounding it. And just maybe uncovering some of the mysteries of long ago will help Jessie and her stepdaughter's relationship.
I'm a sucker for any book involving a mystery, alternating timelines, and the setting of a manor house in the English countryside. I'm not surprised to read that one of my favorite authors, Kate Morton, has endorsed this book and I recommend if you like her books, give this one a shot. The mystery of what happened to Audrey held my interest throughout the book. I thought that Jessie and Bella's difficult relationship was realistic and well-written. It's hard to say whether or not I find the best part of the book to be the mystery or the family dynamics that are explored. Either way this is a solid book that I would definitely recommend.
Thank you to the First to Read program for letting me read an advance digital copy! I was under no obligation to post a review and all views expressed are my honest opinions.
May 7, 2023
Gothic story about a house in the English countryside with dual timelines and about 4 sisters!? Yes please! I happened upon this book at a second hand bookstore without looking for it nor ever hearing about it. As mentioned it has lots of things that draw me in- and oh I left out one of my most favorite things - the house/ manor itself! As others have said if you like Kate Morton and the gothic setting of Rebecca you are most likely going to love this! One of my favorite quotes from book: “Houses are never just houses…We leave particles and dust behind…And we take bits of the houses with us. We grow up. We stay the same. We move away, but we live forever where we were most alive”. It’s a 4.5 rounded down just didn’t quite feel a 5. I might change my mind though!
January 5, 2020
3 stars. I have mixed feelings on this one. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it either. It was just okay. I kept waiting for it to get better and “wow me”...but it never did. The story that was told about the Wilding Sisters from 1959 was interesting but sort of dragged on for me. I didn’t really enjoy the storyline of the family who moved into the Applecote Manor after the Wilde’s sold it. Belle (the oldest daughter) finds out that someone went missing that used to live in the house and she wanted to find out more about it but I just felt like most of that was just page fillers and I found myself skimming just to get back to the chapters about the Wilding Sisters. Once the mystery was revealed of what happened to Audrey I still wasn’t wowed. The last 15-20 pages just dragged and I couldn’t wait for it to be done. Not sure I would recommend this one.
September 30, 2017
A fifty-year-old mystery haunts a young family after they move into an eerie manor located in the English countryside.
2.5 stars - Creepy gothic elements, but an anticlimactic mystery that gets too dragged out.
2.5 stars - Creepy gothic elements, but an anticlimactic mystery that gets too dragged out.
January 20, 2022
I read and listened to this one, preferring the print although the audio was well-done. I enjoyed both timelines and the setting was perfect. If you are a fan of Kate Morton, you will most likely enjoy this one too.
April 6, 2025
Summers, secrets, and sisters! Sisters love out their last summer as kids at their Aunt and Uncles home. Tragedy, love and a pact that will change all their lives! I enjoyed getting to know the characters in this book! I was sad to see it end!
January 17, 2024
A genuinely great book. It follows 2 storylines set years apart at the same house and has a little mystery (honestly a tad scary), very minor love interests, all ages of characters, and dives into the loyalty you have to your family over everything. The 2 main narrators are painfully relatable and flawed and it made the book all the better. It would be the perfect beach read, just deep enough that you care about characters and just mysterious enough that you can’t put it down.
August 5, 2023
Nothing thrilling for me with this one but I have to admit that perhaps I wasn't in the mood. The narrator was excellent.
September 7, 2020
The four Wilde sisters (Flora, Pam, Margot and Dot) are spending the summer at Applecote, a manor house in the Cotswolds. They have many happy memories of time spent here, but this summer is different. For one thing, their cousin, Audrey, is gone – having disappeared without a trace five years earlier – and their aunt and uncle haven’t quite recovered from the loss. For another, there’s Tom and Harry, the boys from the estate across the river. Their arrival upsets the easy camaraderie between the three oldest sisters as they vie for the boys’ attention.
Eve Chase’s novel The Wildling Sisters is a slow burn gothic novel that slips back and forth between that summer in 1959 and the present day when Jessie and her husband Will, (and their young daughter Romy, and Will’s teenage daughter from his first marriage, Bella) buy Applecote in an effort to escape London’s madness and settle into a quieter life. There’s also that thing that happened at Bella’s school. Fresh start and all that.
Crime. Crowds. The way a big city forces girls to grow up too fast, strips them of their innocence. It’s time for the family to leave London, move somewhere gentler, more benign.
Jessie also hopes that this will be a new beginning for her and Bella. Being a step mother is hard enough without the shadow of Bella’s mom, the perfect and tragically-killed-in-a-car accident super mom, Mandy, hanging over their heads. The idyllic notion Jessie has of what Applecote might do for her family doesn’t quite come to fruition, though. Will spends a great deal of time in the city dealing with a work crisis, and Jessie begins to feel more and more isolated. Plus, there are all sorts of rumours about Applecote and what happened there 50 years ago.
Fifteen-year-old Margot is our narrator in 1959. The middle sister, she is aware of her shortcomings. She doesn’t “turn heads like Flora” or “command attention in a room like Pam through sheer, unembarrassable life force.” She was closest to Audrey, and so she is the most apprehensive about returning to Applecote.
…the sky is as I remember it: blue, warm as a bath, the air transparent. not washing-up-water-tinged as it is in London, alive with butterflies and birds, so many birds. So much is the same that it highlights the one crushing, unbelievable thing that is not: Audrey isn’t about to come belting out of the house, running down the path, excitedly calling my name.
This is a slow burn sort of novel. It’s a mystery: what happened to Audrey? It also begins with the image of the girls dragging a body across the lawn of Applecote. That can’t be good, right? It takes a long time to get anywhere, which isn’t a criticism because the book is well-written and does evoke a specific time and place. It also plumbs the depths of family relationships, not just between the Wilde sisters, but also the longings of daughters for mothers and mothers for daughters.
Definitely worth a read. Really 3.5 stars.
Eve Chase’s novel The Wildling Sisters is a slow burn gothic novel that slips back and forth between that summer in 1959 and the present day when Jessie and her husband Will, (and their young daughter Romy, and Will’s teenage daughter from his first marriage, Bella) buy Applecote in an effort to escape London’s madness and settle into a quieter life. There’s also that thing that happened at Bella’s school. Fresh start and all that.
Crime. Crowds. The way a big city forces girls to grow up too fast, strips them of their innocence. It’s time for the family to leave London, move somewhere gentler, more benign.
Jessie also hopes that this will be a new beginning for her and Bella. Being a step mother is hard enough without the shadow of Bella’s mom, the perfect and tragically-killed-in-a-car accident super mom, Mandy, hanging over their heads. The idyllic notion Jessie has of what Applecote might do for her family doesn’t quite come to fruition, though. Will spends a great deal of time in the city dealing with a work crisis, and Jessie begins to feel more and more isolated. Plus, there are all sorts of rumours about Applecote and what happened there 50 years ago.
Fifteen-year-old Margot is our narrator in 1959. The middle sister, she is aware of her shortcomings. She doesn’t “turn heads like Flora” or “command attention in a room like Pam through sheer, unembarrassable life force.” She was closest to Audrey, and so she is the most apprehensive about returning to Applecote.
…the sky is as I remember it: blue, warm as a bath, the air transparent. not washing-up-water-tinged as it is in London, alive with butterflies and birds, so many birds. So much is the same that it highlights the one crushing, unbelievable thing that is not: Audrey isn’t about to come belting out of the house, running down the path, excitedly calling my name.
This is a slow burn sort of novel. It’s a mystery: what happened to Audrey? It also begins with the image of the girls dragging a body across the lawn of Applecote. That can’t be good, right? It takes a long time to get anywhere, which isn’t a criticism because the book is well-written and does evoke a specific time and place. It also plumbs the depths of family relationships, not just between the Wilde sisters, but also the longings of daughters for mothers and mothers for daughters.
Definitely worth a read. Really 3.5 stars.
June 18, 2018
This author continues to impress me with the exquisite atmospheric and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful writing that is her obvious strength, as well as her ability to delineate character. This story has four sisters; with the exception of Little Women, novels with four or more sisters often seem like the writer has a hard time establishing the characteristics and personality of each. In The Wildling Sisters, each was distinctive and interesting in her traits and quirks, each had a purpose in the plot, and there was never any confusion as to who was who. This clarity and order is a tremendous accomplishment in any novel with this many plot threads.
The unsolved 1950s mystery of the Wilde sisters fascinates the character Jessie and her stepdaughter Bella in the modern portion of this back-and-forth-in-time story. The past exerts a pull on the latter-day characters as they sense the secrets and foreboding atmosphere preserved in their new home, Applecote Manor. While I found Jessie a bit too easily swayed by her own fears, Chase did an excellent job of outlining her motivations and gradually developing her apprehension. Nothing seemed abrupt or rushed or unreasonable.
Chase really is a modern Daphne Du Maurier; it's the most precise comparison I can make, based on her mastery of gothic atmosphere. Her books are beautifully written and skillfully edited, and I can't wait for the next one. 4 1/2 stars.
The unsolved 1950s mystery of the Wilde sisters fascinates the character Jessie and her stepdaughter Bella in the modern portion of this back-and-forth-in-time story. The past exerts a pull on the latter-day characters as they sense the secrets and foreboding atmosphere preserved in their new home, Applecote Manor. While I found Jessie a bit too easily swayed by her own fears, Chase did an excellent job of outlining her motivations and gradually developing her apprehension. Nothing seemed abrupt or rushed or unreasonable.
Chase really is a modern Daphne Du Maurier; it's the most precise comparison I can make, based on her mastery of gothic atmosphere. Her books are beautifully written and skillfully edited, and I can't wait for the next one. 4 1/2 stars.
December 8, 2020
The Wildling Sisters has a gothic feel to it. The dual narrative moves back and forth between the present day and the 1950s when four sisters spend a memorable summer at Applecote, their aunt and uncle's country home in the Cotswolds.
Flora, Pam, Margot, and Dot are sent to the country so their widowed mother can work in Morocco for the summer. They are 17, 16, 15, and 12 respectively and are not excited about a boring summer in an isolated home. The spectre of their missing cousin, Audrey, hangs over their stay. Their once vibrant aunt is a mere reflection of her former self as she continues to grieve for her daughter. Their uncle is not the jovial man he was. Margot especially feels the heaviness that Applecote is submerged in.
In the present day, Jessie and Will purchase a rundown Applecote with hopes of returning it to its former glory. They want their daughters away from London where Bella has been acting out. Applecote does not become the idyllic escape they envisioned which creates familial conflict.
The two story lines are woven together with the mystery of Audrey's disappearance playing a part in the present. Eve Chase's evocative portrayal of that hot summer in the 1950s is captivating. This was a very enjoyable read.
Flora, Pam, Margot, and Dot are sent to the country so their widowed mother can work in Morocco for the summer. They are 17, 16, 15, and 12 respectively and are not excited about a boring summer in an isolated home. The spectre of their missing cousin, Audrey, hangs over their stay. Their once vibrant aunt is a mere reflection of her former self as she continues to grieve for her daughter. Their uncle is not the jovial man he was. Margot especially feels the heaviness that Applecote is submerged in.
In the present day, Jessie and Will purchase a rundown Applecote with hopes of returning it to its former glory. They want their daughters away from London where Bella has been acting out. Applecote does not become the idyllic escape they envisioned which creates familial conflict.
The two story lines are woven together with the mystery of Audrey's disappearance playing a part in the present. Eve Chase's evocative portrayal of that hot summer in the 1950s is captivating. This was a very enjoyable read.
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