Two parallel timelines running alongside each other. This book gets a little confusing and in a few places is a little slapdash. However, the premise behind the story is really interesting. This book is very slow to start but will become immersive once you get going.

1850s New Hampshire and Scottish immigrant Elspeth and her sons disappear one very cold night, possibly eaten by coyotes. Elspeth's sister Claire determines to find out what has happened to her sister and travels to the small intense town, a community haunted by the tale of disappearance. In the same town in the 1990s a troubled pregnant teen Henrietta disappears on a cold night, her sister determined to find her.
This is a slow tale about parallel sets of sisters, the elder a little loose, the younger more straight-laced. In both cases the elder sister disappears after scandalous behaviour and leaves no trace. The claustrophobic atmosphere of small town New England is beautifully imagined and the links between the two tales adds another dimension to surprisingly interesting book.

At the beginning of the book and during the first few chapters the story of Henrietta is narrated by her younger sister Jane. I must admit it was a great intro and paved the way for the rest of the story.

She paints a picture of her older sister Henrietta, the Lolita.The precocious teenager who is discovering her power over both boys and men. Henrietta treats her sister with disdain, well actually everyone, with that special brand of teenage disdain.

Although the women have a lot in common there are certain differences. Henrietta's story is a coming-of-age one, whereas when the reader meets Elspeth she has already overcome those stages in her life. The two of them share the fact they were both pregnant as teenagers. Elspeth is sent overseas under a cloud of scandal and Henrietta just disappears one day.

In a way it is an example of the time periods that lay between them. How the woman in the 1850s has less choice and more obstacles in her way than the teenager in the more modern era. On the other side of the lives of these women are the sisters. Jane and Claire, who have been left behind by Elspeth and Henrietta.

Whilst the reader learns what the disappearance means to the sister left holding up the rest of the family and the impact it has on those left behind, they are also eager for Henrietta and Elspeth to be safe and independent.

It's historical fiction, and it is also women's fiction. A story that speaks of oppression, rape, manipulation and also of strength, perseverance and a strong will to survive. At the same time it also takes a look at the often complex relationships between sisters. How discord and disagreements doesn't negate the bond between them. Women are the glue that keeps families together, and yet they are also the weapon that has the capability to destroy them.

I really enjoyed the read. I especially enjoyed the voice of Jane and the relationship between her and Henrietta. It was realistic in its assessment of the complexity that exists between two women bound by blood.

I’m a big fan of historical mysteries especially when they are done over two timelines so the blurb for The Den appealed to me instantly. I was not disappointed as The Den is a very thought provoking, atmospheric book that made for a very intriguing read.

The present day story follows Jane as she tries to investigate her sisters strange disappearance in the wood, while 150 years ago Elsbeth is trying to investigate her own sister Clara’s disappearance in similar circumstances. The chapters are told from the point of view of each of the four women which makes for fascinating reading. Through these chapters we learn more about the four woman, their lives and their reasons for staying or going.

The author does a great job in creating a really creepy and atmospheric read which slowly helps build up the mystery in the book, making the book incredibly absorbing. The connection between the two timelines is gradually revealed after many strange theories have been explored. I didn’t know which way the story was going and I loved going on the twisty journey with Jane trying to discover what was going on.

This is the author’s debut novel and I’m excited to see what she comes up with next. I think this would make a great book club read as there is lots to discuss.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Phoebe from Tinder Press for my copy of this book.

The Den tells the story of Jane and her older sister, Henrietta and the aftermath of Henrietta's sudden disappearance. Alongside this story is the tale of sisters Elspeth and Claire.
This was a slow moving story which I did struggle with as I did not find any of the characters particularly likeable. Overall, I was underwhelmed by this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Den is probably best described as a dual-time coming of age story, as it tells the stories of 2 pairs of sisters living about 150 years apart in the same farming area of New Hampshire. It gently bestows on the reader a sense of long hot summer days and the thrill of self-discovery and growing passions, it explores the need to be needed and what it’s like to grow apart from a much-loved sibling and touches on the different rules and restrictions placed on women.

The main portion of the story is that of 12-year-old Jane and her older sister teenage Henrietta. Often left to their own devices the two girls are very close as children, until Henrietta begins to develop an interest in boys and sex, as she begins to go off the rails somewhat it causes a rift between the two youngsters. They grow apart as Jane yearns to stay close to Henrietta but is viewed increasingly as a nuisance by her increasingly reckless sibling, who begins to change into a much less lovable girl than the childhood companion Jane has always looked up to. I felt Janes anguish and frustration at being unable to maintain the closeness with her elder sister, which causes her to make a bad decision which is to haunt her all her life.

The Den of the title is the ruined remains of an old homestead which lies on the farmland where the girls live, it is a place they are drawn to and which is to be pivotal in their lives.

150 years earlier the “Den” was occupied by a young couple, Elspeth the wife newly arrived from Scotland had to leave in a hurry to join her husband who had come out to seek new opportunites.

Pregnant and lonely, she is very homesick and misses her little sister Claire with whom she maintains contact through letters. She is very isolated and her husband never seems to quite make the most of the opportunities he planned to, he works long hours and she has few friends apart from an elderly neighbour who becomes a good friend and almost a surrogate father to her and encourages her to write stories, keeping her mind occupied. One such story become a local urban legend, a story about a family who may or may not have been eaten by, or even turned into, coyotes and it is this story which Jane and Henrietta discover over a century after it is written and which places the Den as a location of importance to both parts of the story.

The parallel stories run alongside each other, with many similarities, both address sisterhood relationships, loneliness and isolation, puberty and the dawning of sexual awareness and forbidden relationships.

It’s quite a laconic tale and plays out gradually with the growing maturity and sexual dawning of the 4 girls at its centre.

I must confess, being a historic fiction aficionado, I would have favoured the historical timeline being introduced into the story much earlier and to have been given more emphasis on the lives of the two sisters rather than concentrating a lot on the Coyote tale written by the historical character, which I found somewhat mystifying. Though overall the book is an extremely satisfying read which draws the reader in beautifully and keeps you wanting to know what happens, or happened next.

This is a beautifully written captivating story. Two woman disappear over one hundred years apart. The similarities in their stories makes this book a really good read. It is a wonderfully told gem of a story which is definitely worth reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I was ready to give up on this book about 30% in because I wasn’t sure where the story was going (I tend not to read blurbs) but I am so glad I persevered with it as it evolved and developed and bought all the stories together so well to make the book utterly engaging by the end, so much that I didn’t want it to finish!

Thanks for the chance to review this book

This can fairly be described as a feminist book as it looks at the commonality and connection between two different stories set 150 years apart that have the same themes of disappearance and escape deriving from oppressive rules and attitudes that mirror each other across time and space. The contemporary story begins with the first person narration of Jane who is looking back when she was 12 years old in the 1990's and documents the events surrounding the disappearance of her then 15 year old sister, Henrietta.

Set in a rural location outside a small New Hampshire town this coming of age story will one night see Henrietta vanish into the nearby woods never to be seen again. This act of disappearance strangely resonates with the haunting local legend of "Cold Thursday" when an entire family in the same area also vanished being seemingly replaced by coyotes which not were native to the region. The book then takes up this strange story as we are told of how Elspeth was forced to marry after becoming pregnant and then had to leave her native Scotland leaving behind her sister, Claire.

The stories alternate between Jane and Henrietta followed by Elspeth and Claire. Two women who need to disappear and two women who are left behind to try to come to terms and make sense of their loss. What factors have forced Henrietta and Elspeth to take such dramatic action and what will eventually become of them? There is also the theme of returning to a community that they needed to leave and whether attitudes to young independently minded women have really changed over the last 150 or so years. But above all else there is the bond of is sisterhood which can not be broken.

This is a heartfelt, thought provoking and hypnotic novel which I'm sure will fully engage the reader.