I'd hoped for an updated version of the Mary Stewart style books, but this just didn't grab me. Sorry. I think I didn't realize it was part of a series, which was my fault, not the author's. Too much back history to learn. ( )

I love haunted houses, ghosts, and Gothic settings, so this book had a strong initial appeal for me. Unfortunately, the story felt like too much of a jumbled mess. I couldn't find any footing, and never felt any connection to the characters.

My immediate problem early on with this book, and one that did not resolve itself, was that I didn't know who any of these people were. There is a complete lack of character development throughout. Basic things, like general ages and characters' relationships to one another, are often not even hinted at. For instance, throughout most of the book, the closest I could come to figuring out the age of Nell's daughter, Beth, was somewhere between 8 and 18. She was celebrating a birthday, but which birthday? Random names would pop up and I'd have no idea who the people were or why they mattered.

In fairness, I did not know this was part of a series when I initially chose it to read. So maybe there is a lot of character development in earlier books, and the author simply chooses to rely on readers to know her characters. If that's the case, then this absolutely does not work as a stand-alone.

Then we have the content, which is either several vaguely connected plots or one jumbled plot that bounces around throughout hundreds of years. I'm not sure which was the intent here. The story is disconnected and, for me, felt like riding a carousel in quicksand. I was dizzy, drowning in individual grains of fragmented story pieces, and, ultimately, just wanted off the ride.

The story is told using a variety of methods, including journals Nell stumbles upon and "reads", and an immense amount of e-mails from people I didn't know to other people I didn't know. The journal entries are from long ago, having to do with the Bell Tower and Thaisa’s Song. I actually found this to be the most compelling part of the story. I wish the author had chosen to simply write this as a historical novel, with that as the only plot. The e-mails bored me. I didn't care about the people sending and receiving, because I didn't know them at all. There was nothing compelling about them, and I felt the information could have been conveyed in a more interesting way, keeping in line with the present story and Nell's character.

To further complicate the main, modern day plot, the e-mails, and the journals, we have another aspect of this wide-reaching story, featuring someone named Maeve, who simply appears, and we're left to figure out what century she's from, who she is, and why her part in all this is significant to Nell's story. To sum up my feelings in one word: Discombobulated.

There is the thread of a great story here. The execution just did not work for me.

*I was given an advanced ebook copy by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.* ( )

Nell West is doubling the size of her Oxford antique shop, and there are some odd lights and sounds at night. Then some plaster removal reveals writing on a wall, and a diary is found under the floor boards.

Meanwhile, in tiny Rede Abbas, they are reviving the Revels that date back to at least Tudor times. They hope to include a song called “Thaisa’s Song”, but cannot find a score for it. Maeve Eynon, owner of Cliff House which lies near the old abbey, which has mostly fallen into the sea, advises them to not even think about using the song if they find it, as bad things happen whenever it is heard. She’s just the local hermit, though, so no one pays any attention to her opinion.

Nell and her partner, Michael, make plans to meet at the Revels, which Nell’s daughter, Beth, is attending with her school class. Things go awry, though, when Nell goes for a walk on her own and meets Maeve by the old bell tower. In the meantime, people are working at translating the book beneath the floor, and some old papers in Rede Abbas have been discovered and brought to the attention of the librarian; these things explain the evil goings on at the abbey, the bell tower- which is submerged most of the way at high tide- and Cliff House.

As all the bits and pieces are finally put together, it turns out to be a sad story of murder, people having sex with folks they weren’t supposed to have sex with, a genetic disorder, and people getting a little bit crazy living alone with the past. There is a small supernatural element, but it’s very minor next to doings of the living. The tale runs from the 16th century to the 21st, and includes agents of Henry VIII on their quest to shut down Catholic religious houses and take any wealth they had, landowners who think they can do what they want with the people who lived on their land (which, in fact, they could back then), attempted murder, and that odd song.

I was disappointed. The story was fractured by jumping around through three points in time without a clear indication of which time period it was in. Much of the story was told through diaries, and it was sometimes hard to tell who and when the writer was. Having Nell and Michael be in both the Oxford building and at Rede Abbas is quite a coincidence. Some things are never explained- like where Thaisa’s song originally came from and why the bell was frightening to people. And I never felt a sense of creepiness or horror; bad things happened, but it was all kind of… cozy? It didn’t do what I feel horror should do. ( )