The House of Brides by Jane Cockram

October 27, 2019

House of Brides by Jane Cockram

When she gets caught lying about the products she was selling, wannabe influencer Miranda Courtenay is broke, jobless, and publicly shamed.  After her wealthy father pays her bills, gets an Internet fixer to repair her reputation, and finds her a decent job, Miranda repays him by stealing his American Express number and booking a flight from her home in Australia to England where her mother grew up.  Ostensibly seeking answers about the mother who passed away when she was a child, Miranda decides to masquerade as an applicant for a nanny position with the family.

So disappointing.  I thought I was going to love this book since it has so many great themes that I enjoy:  creepy old house, creepy characters, family secrets, scandals, unreliable narrator, hidden identities, isolation, missing person, gothic vibe.  It was none of those things.  I ended up almost not finishing it, but since I received an e-ARC in return for a review, I felt like I had to finish it and started skimming about 1/3 of the way in.  I was really hoping that there would be some twists and reveals that would redeem the poor writing.  No such luck.  Unfortunately, ALL of the characters are unlikable, and the main character Miranda is also downright stupid and unbelievably impulsive and immature.  If Miranda would have just told them who she was and asked about her mother, her relatives (and everyone in the town) would have told her what she wanted to know, since several characters were only too happy to spill everything they knew at the end.

It seems like the writer was trying to emulate Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, since the names of some of the characters are the same or very similar.  But there is no comparison - just go read Rebecca or watch the movie instead of this.  There was so much pointless description and dialogue, and a lot of other characters telling Miranda what had happened before she arrived.  The plot was unbelievable and just kind of fizzles out.  Since this was an ARC, I’m hoping that an editor at the publishing house will go through this with a big red pen and fix this very rough draft.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an e-ARC in return for a review (and I’m sorry I couldn’t give it a better review).