by Merryn Allingham (2017)
Summer 1944: Bombed out by the blitz, Bethany Merston takes up a post as companion to elderly Alice Summer, last remaining inhabitant of the dilapidated and crumbling Summerhayes estate. Now a shadow of its former glory, most of the rooms have been shut up, the garden is overgrown and the whole place feels as unwelcoming as the family themselves. Struggling with the realities of war, Alice is plagued by anonymous letters and haunting visions of her old household. At first, Beth tries to convince her it's all in her mind but soon starts to unravel the mysteries surrounding the aristocratic family's past. An evocative and captivating tale, The Secret of Summerhayes tells of dark secrets, almost-forgotten scandals and a household teetering on the edge of ruin.
Victoria Hislop
A "novel about loyalty, love, and resilience in the face of tremendous upheaval--a saga of survival set during the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état that tells the intersecting stories of three families whose lives are decimated when brewing ethnic tensions erupt into conflict"--Amazon.com.
Cindy Miles
When sixteen-year-old Ivy starts a new life in her stepfather's castle in Scotland, she finds that her stepfather's grandmother is implacably hostile and some mysterious spirit in the castle is trying to injure her--and her new best friend is a ghost named Logan. When sixteen-year-old Ivy starts a new life in her stepfather's castle in Scotland, she finds that his grandmother is implacably hostile, and something dark and deadly is afoot. Ivy soon finds herself in mortal danger.
Patrick McGrath
"The cool, beautiful Constance Schuyler lives alone in Manhattan in the early 1960s. At a literary party, she meets Sidney Klein, a professor of poetry twenty years her senior. Sidney is a single father with a poor marital record, and he pursues Constance with relentless determination. Eventually she surrenders, accepts his marriage proposal, and moves, with some dread, into his dark, book-filled apartment. She can't settle in. She's tortured by memories of the bitterly unhappy childhood she spent with her father in a dilapidated house upstate. When she learns devastating new information about that past, Constance's fragile psyche suffers a profound shock. Her marriage, already tottering, threatens to collapse completely"--Amazon.com.
Harriet Evans
The day Martha Winter decided to tear apart her family began like any other day. So opens A Place for Us by Harriet Evans, a book you'll dive into, featuring a family you'll fall in love with ... and never want to leave. The house has soft, purple wisteria twining around the door. You step inside. The hall is cool after the hot summer's day. The welcome is kind, and always warm. Yet something makes you suspect life here can't be as perfect as it seems. After all, the brightest smile can hide the darkest secret. But wouldn't you pay any price to have a glorious place like this? Welcome to Winterfold. Martha Winter's family is finally coming home.