I'm delighted to co-open the blog tour for Ghost, the latest novel by Helen Grant. I'm releasing my review for the blog tour and I think this is a book that will appeal to so many people, especially those with a penchant for gothic tales.
Langlands House is haunted, but not by the ghost you think.
Augusta McAndrew lives on a remote Scottish estate with her grandmother, Rose. For her own safety, she hides from outsiders, as she has done her entire life. Visitors are few and far between - everyone knows that Langlands House is haunted.
One day Rose goes out and never returns, leaving Augusta utterly alone. Then Tom McAllister arrives - good-looking and fascinating, but dangerous. What he has to tell her could tear her whole world apart.
As Tom and Augusta become ever closer, they must face the question: is love enough to overcome the ghosts of the past?
In the end, Langlands House and its inhabitants hold more secrets than they did in the beginning...
What did I think?
I was really looking forward to reading Ghost; the mysterious key on the cover alone gave me goosebumps so I prepared myself for some spine-tingly reading. It's an unbelievably addictive book; at only 10% in my Goodreads status shows that I found it 'intriguing and spine-tingling' and as the mystery unravels it gets even more interesting.
Augusta is living at Langlands with her Grandmother, Rose. As a young child, Augusta couldn't pronounce her name correctly so the name of 'Ghost' stuck. Rose keeps Ghost hidden from outsiders for her own protection as it's 1945 and there's a war on. When there's some damage to the roof (from German bombers, as Ghost thinks), Tom McAllister arrives with his father to do the repairs. Ghost secretly communicates with Tom, who thinks that she's the Langlands ghost of the spooky kind...at this point I thought that she very well might be as something wasn't quite right.
When Rose goes into the village one day and doesn't return, Ghost gets completely railroaded when reality hits. Everything her Grandmother told her is a lie and she is determined to fit all of the missing pieces of the jigsaw together to find out the truth. Luckily, Tom returns to Langlands to give Ghost the help she needs and we get to experience the purity of first love as Ghost and Tom grow closer together. For reasons that become clear, I thought Ghost might think about leaving Langlands and it's shady history behind, but it's the only home she has ever known and Langlands has its own hold over Ghost.
One thing that really struck me was how well Langlands had been portrayed through the vivid descriptive writing of Helen Grant. It felt as if the house itself was a dark and brooding character with hidden secrets. People from the village stay away from Langlands and its ghost but perhaps Langlands itself is the ghost, it's certainly a shadow of its former colourful life.
One thing that really struck me was how well Langlands had been portrayed through the vivid descriptive writing of Helen Grant. It felt as if the house itself was a dark and brooding character with hidden secrets. People from the village stay away from Langlands and its ghost but perhaps Langlands itself is the ghost, it's certainly a shadow of its former colourful life.
Hauntingly beautiful, spine-tingling and eye-poppingly surprising, Ghost is a completely unique and intriguing mystery that shocked and thrilled me. I'm definitely going to look out for Helen Grant's back catalogue whilst I await her next book.
My rating:
Buy it from Amazon
About the author:
Helen Grant writes thrillers with a Gothic flavour and ghost stories. Her first novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and won an ALA Alex Award in the US. Her other books include the exciting Forbidden Spaces trilogy.
Helen's latest novel Ghost (Fledgling Press 2018) is set in Perthshire, where she has lived since 2011. When she is not writing, Helen loves to research the lost country houses of Scotland and to visit the sites where possible. Her experiences of exploring these fascinating places inspired her to write Ghost.
Follow Helen on Twitter: @Helengrantsays
Follow the tour:
Thank you ever so much for being on the tour, Kelly x
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