Miranda Courtenay has had a very public fall from grace, Her career as a life style influencer has come to an end. But when she finds a letter from her twelve year old cousin whom she has never met asking for help from Mirandas Mother. She decides to go to Barnsley house her mothers family home. Her mother wrote the famous book about the house it was a chronicle of the generations of women who married into the infamous Summer family From Gertrude Summer the famed crime novelist to Mirandas grand mother Beatrice who committed suicide after setting the house on fire. Miranda decides to go to England to see the family home for herself and to help her cousin and also hopefully meet other family members When she gets there she has to pretend to be a nanny for the children . As her Mother left the family years ago and had no contact with them because of something that she did. Will they accept her if they find out she is related to them. Or is she doomed to follow the path of the other Summer women? ( )

I tried to finish this but I couldn't get into it. Something about the writing style and story line threw me off. It looked like a good one to read. Maybe someone else will like it better ( )

The House of Brides was a fun modern-day gothic novel in the tradition that I love: A young woman grows up with a mother who is estranged from her family, after her mother's death she goes to the family's creepy estate to try to meet her mother's family and figure out why she never spoke of them.

In this case, Miranda had a career as a social media star, but her career crashed and burned when she was sued for false health claims about the diet she invented. She sees a letter from her mother's family asking for help and decides to go and visit them. She takes a job with the family as a nanny, in a case of mistaken identity and doesn't reveal that she is one of the family. Her Aunt Daphne, by marriage, disappears and there may be a ghost in the house, which adds to the gothic feel of the novel.

I enjoyed reading this novel set on the coast in England with a creepy house and young woman who doesn't know who to trust in her quest for the truth about her aunt and her mother. The novel kept me reading, because I wanted to know, who is good and who is bad, and how will the plot be resolved. It wasn't my favorite book of the year, but it was very enjoyable. I do recommend it if you enjoy gothic novels and have been longing for a modern-day gothic novel. It is a good read for winter, or October, because it includes a ghost, Christmas, and cold seas. ( )

“Everyone seemed to be hiding something. There were things that seemed not quite right, parts of the story that didn’t quite ring true. Things only another storyteller would notice.”

After her social media career implodes in a rather spectacular manner, Miranda Courtenay is left reviled and broke. Though her wealthy father has arranged a fresh start for her, a letter from a young cousin she has never met sees Miranda flee Australia to her late mother’s ancestral home, Barnsley House, on England’s west coast.
As the setting of a best selling biography, ‘The House of Brides’ written by Miranda’s mother, Tessa Courtenay née Summers, Miranda has always wanted to visit Barnsley House to meet her estranged relatives, and learn more about the mother she never really knew, but she soon discovers the house is a maelstrom of secrets, resentments, tragedy, and scandal.

I’d describe The House of Brides as contemporary gothic, with what I thought were obvious echoes of genre classics such as Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, with perhaps even a nod to the works of V.C Andrews.

Cockram certainly creates an eerie atmosphere in The House of Brides. Barnsley House is an isolated rambling stone mansion on a cliff’s edge, half shuttered due to the temporary closure of the hotel and restaurant operated by Max Summer, and his bride, Daphne, inhabited by a group of reticent residents. As documented in Tessa’s book, it has also been the site of both triumph and tragedy, especially for the women of the Summers family, and is rumoured to have the ghost of a ‘House’ bride lurking in the East wing.

Unfortunately I really didn’t care much for Miranda. I may have been more forgiving of her character if she was aged closer to 16, rather than 26, as it was I found her to be painfully immature, self centred, and occasionally wilfully obtuse. At times I didn’t understand her behaviour at all, and that made it difficult to connect with her. As for the rest of the characters, they are suitably enigmatic for a gothic novel, most of whom have an edge of menace, or madness, or both.

While overall I thought The House of Brides had a decent premise, I did find it was a little messy and disjointed in places. Some of that, I think, had to do with the poor formatting of the e-arc. With plenty of intrigue, and atmosphere I do think most of the elements were there for a great story, but it didn’t quite all come together for me. ( )

An English estate has been home to generations of the women who married into the Summer family.

When one of the daughters gets a letter from a current, teenage relative addressed to her mother pleading for help, Miranda leaves Australia and heads to Barnsley House. The funny thing is that her mother has passed away.

Miranda never was reliable, and after her job disaster and her father's finding her another job she doesn't want, she thinks this letter from a cousin will save her.

Miranda tricks her father into paying for her flight from Australia to England to find out what the letter meant and finds herself being interviewed for a job as a nanny instead of why she came in the first place.

Did Miranda go from a bad situation to a worse one?

She can't reveal why she really arrived, and she doesn't know what really is waiting for her at Barnsley House, but she soon finds out all isn't as it should be

What she finds are three children, their father, a housekeeper, an empty, not well-kept inn, an estate in disrepair, odd things happening, and no visible mother.

Ms. Cockram created the story line in a very creative way. She revealed some of the family's secrets by using a book Miranda’s mother had written that describes the history of the house and the family. Ms. Cockram also used a diary with background information of the characters written by the infamous, "missing" mother.

Everyone and everything seemed to have a secret at Barnsley House. The housekeeper was especially secretive, dangerous, and frightening.

If you enjoy odd characters, old mansions, family secrets, supposed ghosts, a stolen book, and Gothic undertones, you will want to have THE HOUSE OF BRIDES added to your TBR.

HOUSE OF BRIDES has an absorbing, captivating story line you won't want to put down.

Ms. Cockram’s writing style is descriptive and draws you in. A marvelous debut all around. 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. ( )