*******Won in a Goodreads Giveaway*********

3.5 stars

This was a historical fiction that spanned multiple times periods and characters. There is mystery surrounding a pearl and a mirror throughout the time periods. It’s begins with Holly searching for her missing who happened to disappeared when he was researching their family history and the Winter Queen.

I am always intrigued with historical fictions and find myself having to do a little research of my own to sift through what was true and untrue about the historical figures in the novel.

I really enjoyed this novel. The author really made this easy to visualize the different time periods in a way that made me want to be present at that time. I loved the mystery across the time periods as well. I’m giving this novel 3.5 instead of 4 because I felt the ending was missing something. Overall I really enjoyed it!! Thank you! I think I may reread this again one day to maybe catch anything I missed that lead me to feel like the story wasn’t over yet when it ended.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

My main problem with this book was disinterest in the time period. This is no fault of the book and a situation where it was me and not the book.

Couldn't finish this book. I didn't like the main character, Holly and in fact, I really didn't like any of the characters. The characters just really didn't draw me in at all.

An intriguing but flawed historical fiction with a bit of mystery. See my full review here: http://stephsbookramblings.blogspot.com/2017/10/house-of-shadows-by-nicola-cornick.html

Wow, this actually didn't suck!



Sometimes palm-sized adult novels make me want to hurl myself bodily into the ocean, but, wow, this was a pleasant surprise.

To me, the weirdest thing about reading this book was how it did not start off strong at all. Cliched historical fiction dialogue, a vanilla main character, and two incredibly lame supernatural objects made me think I was going to suffer through this novel (because I bought it with, like, actual human dollars, and it's the principle of the thing), then sell it to Half Priced Books and never think of it again.
But then! Boom! It just inexplicably got better.
The three intertwining plot lines were way more fluid and logical than they had any right to be, and the author managed to get me to care about all three of the romances. Unheard of.

If the synopsis interests you even slightly, I'd recommend giving this book a try.

https://superfluousreading.wordpress.com/2017/11/11/house-of-shadows-by-nicola-cornick

DNF. I put this book down in Sept and forgot about it. It never pulled me in. The main character was boring and seemed to be way too naive. I can't fully explain why but I wouldn't recommend this book.