Rebecca James

The Woman in the Mirror

Renee Delcourt

I really love books about genealogy and finding the roots of your family and this book definitely delivered on that front. Its a book about a three women in different times. The first is Mary 
Cathrine who drowns herself at sea rather than face a mob set on burning her at the stake. Then there is Alice a newly placed governess to two young children coming to Winterbourne for the first time. And lastly there is Rachel who learns that her Aunt has passed and left her Winterbourne to inherit. This book was wild. The absolute creepiness of the house and what is really causing the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the de Grey family. I feel like this book could have gone so many ways and honestly I connected best with Rachel whose just trying to find out who her birth family is. I struggled with Alice's timeline where her decent into madness is heart wrenching, but you never really know how stable she ever really was due to what she experienced in her younger years. It makes it very confusing as to what she was really experiencing and what was just in her head. The ending made me kind of sad... I wish it had gone differently since I really liked Rachel's character and growth. I think overall I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend the audio book for anyone who prefers listening to them. It's got two different narrators and I think it's very well done.

Jolie

I haven’t read a good Gothic mystery in a while. A long while, now that I have had time to think about it. That was the main reason why I decided I wanted to read The Woman in the Mirror. I wanted to see if they were as good as I remembered. And guess what, they were!!!

The Woman in the Mirror had fast-moving storylines, which I enjoyed. I feel that if the storylines had been slower than the book would have dragged on. The flow of the book was good. There were no dropped storylines, but I did have a question about Alice’s pregnancy during WWII. I couldn’t quite place what happened (if she had the baby or not).

Speaking of Alice, I felt awful for her. She had some mental issues that followed her to Winterbourne. That alone made her chapters fun to read. I couldn’t tell if she was losing it because of that or if the house caused it. I loved it!!!

Rachel was a different story, though. She inherited Winterbourne from an unknown aunt (she was adopted). Rachel thought it would be a great way to see where her mother came from and see her roots. Of course, what she discovered was something way more sinister.

The paranormal/mystery was well written. I did have an issue with the whole reason why Winterbourne was cursed not being revealed until the end of the book. I also didn’t like how that storyline was resolved. It was a little too tidy. But other than that, both were wonderful. I don’t think I will look at gilded mirrors and murals the same again.

There was a small romance angle of the book. Honestly, I didn’t see it between Alice and the captain. It didn’t grab me. Mainly because of the way he treated her. Of course, that was explained away but still. It left me going, “Really?” I also didn’t see it between Jack and Rachel until the end. I could have gone without the romance, but I can see why the author wrote it in. It made what happened to Alice even more disturbing.

The end of The Woman in the Mirror was terrific. I loved how everything came together. And then there was the epilogue. I had to reread it. The way it was written and what was written!! Will there be a 2nd book?

Heather Roden  

I really liked this book, It reminded my of Rebecca . The characters were really good, and the story was amazing, I don't want to give the book away, but if you like Gothic books then pick this up

The Woman in the Mirror

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