I found this book more disconnected the more I read. It was very hard to piece the story together. I liked the atmospheric feel to the story but I did not feel immersed in it. Sorry.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Laura Purcell has become one of my favourite authors,i adore her style of writing, atmospheric, Victorian gothic, I loved both The silent companions and The corset, so I was so excited when I was given the chance to read Bone china..

This eerie tale, mostly set in cornwall, takes the reader on a captivating, dark journey through time, drawing you in, I found myself completely lost in the pages..... a historical story with a sinister edge, perfect for dark nights,
Will be recommending to my friends

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read in return for an honest review

I liked this very slightly more that The Silent Companions, which is the best thing I can say about it. I think perhaps this author is just not for me. I don’t find the historical bits deep or evocative enough, and the supernatural threads are just too lightly woven, leaving massive plot holes. The problem for me is that the supernatural has its own logic. Even if the reader never fully understands it, an author should leave the reader feeling as if the logic is there. Purcell just doesn’t connect things well enough for me. With the Cornish setting this reminded me a little of The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James which I likewise didn’t care for. Ultimately, this just wasn’t for me.

This is second Purcell book I've read. The same essential ingredients are here: menacing landscape, complex relationships and flawed heroes.
The setting is deepest Cornwall and fashionable London. The books skips locations and times, but the reader is always able to follow the plot as the narrative is very strong.
This is a fantastically atmospheric tale for a winter's night.

This is not my usual sort of book so thanks to Netgalley for introducing me to the author.

The author has a very original style which takes a bit of getting used to but once you do you can enjoy the story for what it is; an odd and creepy insight into life in two different eras.

It’s written well and draws you in but does disappoint slightly at the end as it felt rushed. This is why it’s not a five star review but I enjoyed the book in general and would consider others by the author.

This is a story of mental illness and superstition and magic set in period Cornwall, We quickly establish that the narrator's viewpoint and motivations are unreliable and delusional which adds to the atmosphere or suspense and chaos that Purcell creates,. There are no main characters who are rational or able to make proper sense of what is happening to them. Esther Stevens/ Hester Why is suffering from paranoia, alcohol addiction and an unhealthy need to be loved by those she serves which leads her to act in murderous ways.. The story is set up well and hooks the reader in but quickly becomes confusing and protracted as we lurch from one disturbed character to another. It is difficult to really establish the truth of what is happening and the narrative is a bit confused. The ending provides some sort of resolution for Esther and a sense of redemption at least in her own mind but the plot could have been set out more clearly.

4.5/5

Firstly, thank you to the publisher at Bloomsbury Publishing, and to Net Galley, for allowing me to read Bone China ahead of its publication in exchange for an honest review!

Bone China is predominantly set in Cornwall, in a house on a cliff above a raging sea – a house that contains secrets, superstitious maids, and a lot of china. Hester Why has arrived to become the new nurse for the lady of the household, the strange and silent Miss Pinecroft. Hester’s job isn’t made easy however, what with Miss Pinecroft spending most of her days in a cold room full of china plates and jugs, and especially the highly superstitious Creeda, who believes that fairies steal away unprotected people to take to their land.

It is a complicated book that jumps back and forth between timelines, and at first I was confused by how they would all link together. Sinister happenings within each timeline kept me reading, as well as the interesting, diverse set of characters that we meet. It’s a page turner for sure, and more than once I felt a shiver of anticipation – that feeling you get when you know something terrible is about to happen!

Hester is a fascinating character. I found myself drawn to her, particularly as the story developed and her need for affection from whomever she is employed by. Initially she appears strong minded but as we read on, we see her flaws and the way her past reappears despite her efforts to hide it away. She isn’t the most reliable narrator, especially considering her use of laudanum when she can’t get alcohol. This makes her narrative impaired and I like that a lot.

Louise, meanwhile, is somewhat similar to Hester in her interest in the medical side of things, but also so different. I really liked her narrative, and found her story, and that of her father, to be the most interesting. The plight of the prisoners, and the downward spiral in which Dr Pinecroft finds himself in, is incredibly fascinating, and I got swept away with the time period and the relationships between the men and Louise, and Creeda.

It’s kind of a difficult novel to portray here. It is complicated and rife with superstitions of the area. The different storylines at first seem unrelated but they come together at the end in an explosive way. The first half was a little slow for me, but the second raced along, thick with danger, changelings, spiralling madness, and shocking deaths. The pacing therefore wasn’t consistent, but it didn’t bother me.

It’s a dark tale, with a totally shocking ending that I’m still not over. Moreover, I love books based around folklore, and Bone China is full of it. Everything that happens stems from Creeda and her tales, from the local folk tales, and I loved it. Atmospheric, perfectly gothic, and shiver-inducing, Laura Purcell’s latest book is a fabulous autumn read! If you love historical fiction, particularly when it has a sinister edge to it then I highly recommend this book!

I’m a huge fan of Laura Purcell’s writing, I thoroughly enjoyed the Silent Companions and this was no different. She always seems to write at a certain pace which I enjoy, the hints of something supernatural slowly building up to a spooky climax.

This particular story was grounded in Cornish folklore, and it challenges the idea of ‘fairies’ and ‘changelings’. I like that it doesn’t completely round everything off at the end, leaving you with that distinctive sense of unknowing. It thoroughly completes the atmosphere.

The idea of the china in this book was intriguing and I couldn’t predict how it was all going to work out. I love a book that surprises me. I also liked the two protagonists and the parallels they shared. Honestly it was just a solid Laura Purcell book, everything you expect from her and more, with a satisfying ending (despite some ambiguity) and three dimensional characters. She always knows how to hook her readers and keep them guessing until the very end.

I was a fan of Laura Purcell’s The Solent Companions so was excited when this book became available to request. I was not disappointed.

The story was engaging from the beginning and suspenseful the whole way through. I raced through the book as I wanted to know what happened and I wasn’t disappointed.

I am a huge fan of dual narratives so the style of this book really suited me and I enjoyed linking the tales of Louise and Hester. I will definitely continue to look out for books by this author.

I loved Laura Purcell's 'The Corset' and so was very excited to read her new book, 'Bone China'. As I trust the author, I deliberately did not read about it before I started reading so that I could be pulled along by what I knew would be an engaging and suspenseful narrative. I really wasn't disappointed!

The story centres on Morvoren House in Cornwall, a family home set on the top of cliffs. A maid, fleeing the secrets of her own past, arrives to take care of the elderly Miss Pinecroft (and her extensive collection of bone china, of course!) The household are rather unconventional and Cornish myths and superstition run rife, especially with Creeda, companion to Miss Rosewyn Pinecroft. Just as the maid, Hester Why, starts to find her feet in this strange family, the narrative shifts back 40 years and we start to learn the secrets of the tragic Pinecroft family.

This book is a beautifully written piece of historical fiction. As with Laura Purcell's previous work, there is a strong sense of the creepy and sinister, this time in the exploration of the old Cornish beliefs about fairies (who are far from the benevolent and cute figures that Disney might have us believe!) There is also plenty of vivid description which really brings to life the unusual settings such as the caves beneath Morvoren House and the characters that inhabit the story.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction. Even if you are sceptical about the supernatural elements (I'm queen of the cynics - I don't usually read this genre for that reason), you cannot help but be drawn into this beautifully plotted, carefully researched and fascinating story.

Louise Pinecroft is now alone with only her father, her siblings and her mother have been consumed by the horror that is consumption. 

Raised at her father's side and having absorbed and gained the medical knowledge he has she embarks on a rather interesting experiment for consumptives who are incarcerated in prison. 

All in a cave beneath their home on the Cornish cliffs, Louise Pinecroft starts to feel uncomfortable by the presence of the men and of the stories that their maid, Creeda begins to tell of little people. 

The little people are out to steal others for their realm. The thought is disturbing, the premise intriguing but for me it did not have the chilling effect I think it was meant to have. 

Hester Why arrives to nurse Louise Pinecroft, some forty years later who is virtually mute, reclusive and partially paralysed. Hester is escaping her past and wants to forget what went before, however it seems the strange goings on with Louise Pinecroft and the still ever present maid Creeda starts to worry Hester. 

The threat of the little people still abounds. Added to this is the room full of Bone China where you find Louise Pinecroft permanently seated. The pattern of the china - Willow has its basis in fairy stories and is full of romance. Are the patterns changing, is this the work of the little people or some other dark force at work?

The books descriptions of the china, of the Cornish coastline and the journey of Hester Why stand out for me as well written and constructed. However the plot was just too fanciful for me and I was certainly not frightened or chilled by it. My logical and rational mind took over and I was not swept away as some readers might be. 

Interesting none the less but I think perhaps it was lost on me. I did finish it as there were some strong elements within the book I enjoyed, the relationship between Hester and the curate as well as Louise and the prisoners, it was the other wordly element which put me off.

I have to say I prefer "Silent Companions" to "Bone China".
The author did a fantastic job describing the gothic atmosphere like in all of her other books, but I personally also need to feel attached to the characters and this is where the book isn't entirely for me. I felt mostly detached from Hester and the others.

I love atmospheric or chilling tales and Bone China fits that description to a T. Laura Purcell uses a dual narrative, set 40 years apart – the former focusing on Hester Why a maid who is in disgrace and running from her difficult past and the latter on Louise Pinecroft, the daughter of a doctor who is trying to cure the disease of consumption. The setting is the harsh and unforgiving Morvoren house, perched on top of a cliff, where there is talk of malevolent fairies and other supernatural folk who wish humans harm. Throughout the course of the story, readers are taken on a tumultuous journey of wondering whether the strange events are human or something all together more sinister…

The gothic setting and writing is definitely the strongest element in this novel and it works wonderfully to create a truly atmospheric tale. Purcell writes two very different but equally intriguing leading ladies, Hester and Louise respectively. Hester is a complicated character, on the one hand you want to root for her and see her change her life around but on the other hand she has a disturbing and obsessive side to her personality which is her undoing. Louise is more of a conventionally likeable character, in her youth she was strong willed and determined, but due to a traumatic event she changes drastically in her old age and becomes superstitious and fearful. I enjoyed that we got to read each of their stories and really understand what makes them tick.

As well as having interesting main characters, the novel also works as an exploration of superstition and fear in the 18th Century. While it seems bizarre from a modern perspective, folk tales and the like were how people understood the world in a period of drastic change and upheaval, a metaphor for the problems of the time perhaps. The staff in the household of Morvoren all subscribe to the practices ranging from salt on the threshold of the doors, to carrying pages of the bible with them at all times to protect them from the faeries.

Despite these elements which I liked, there were some issues I had with the pacing at certain points of the novel as well as the ending which I felt was slightly disappointing. We spent all this time with these characters and the build up of tension and suspense and I didn’t feel like the payoff was all that satisfying. Not that an ending has to be satisfying to be good but I just wished there was something more there.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Bone China and it had really promising elements such as interesting characters and the gothic setting which I always enjoy. However there was just something which felt slightly disjointed to me regarding the pacing and ending and how it all plays out which stopped me from enjoying it fully. I would still recommend this for fans of gothic thrillers and atmospheric stories.

Review will be posted on my blog - 16/09/2019

This is a well-written book, and the ideas in it are interesting, but I never felt involved in this book, nor its characters. The author seemed to be trying to hard to create a "gothic" atmosphere, at the expense of creating characters the reader would really care about.

I hadn’t heard of the author, Laura Purcell before reading Bone China but I’d only read a few pages and I was already absorbed. I really liked her writing style; she captured me immediately and I wanted to know more about the woman on the mail coach, what she was doing and where she was going.

I particularly enjoyed the part where she was Ester Stevens, maid to Lady Rose in London and was sorry that this was only a short part of the book. I wanted more of this!

When Ester Stevens, now Miss Hester Why moves to Morvoren House in Cornwall, she is employed as a nurse and lady’s maid to Miss Pinecroft, an invalid who has palsy and who ‘appears far older than her sixty years’.

But the house just doesn’t feel right to Miss Why. Creeda, one of the maids, has a strong belief in faerie folk and many of the household believe in her tales. Whilst Miss Why does not believe, she cannot deny some of the strange occurrences.

Morvoren House was home to Dr Pinecroft, Miss Pinecroft‘s father. He moved there from Bristol with his daughter following the death of the rest of their family from consumption and arranged for a group of male prisoners from Bodmin Gaol to be transported to the caves beneath the house. There he would carry out experiments to try to find a cure for consumption.

I really enjoyed this book and particularly enjoyed Laura Purcell’s style of writing.

I rate this book 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thanks
With many thanks to the author Laura Purcell, NetGalley, publishers Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an independent review

Laura Purcell is a master of the brooding historical chiller- a mastery that only increases. With ‘Bone China,’ she tells a dual story. We have Hester Why, a disgraced ladies’ maid frightened by her own shadow and in the grip of an addiction to gin and laudanum, and Louise Pinecroft, doctor’s daughter, whose arrival at Morvoren House sees her grieving the loss of almost her entire family. Both women are proficient in putting forward an outward stoicism that belies their internal struggles, making them all the more susceptible to the supernatural elements that surround them.

In common with Michelle Paver’s ‘Wakenhyrst,’ also published this year, ‘Bone China’ is a multi-dimensional examination of superstition, loss and the disturbed mind. Hester rails against the notions that the household so vehemently believes in- that the house and the landscape are permeated by otherworldly brings capable of inhabiting the body and taking over the mind.

There are shocks- not least with the novel’s conclusion, which left me stunned- though they aren’t quite as breathtaking as with ‘The Silent Companions.’ If Purcell can combine ratcheting up the scares with her ability to immerse readers in a genuinely chilling landscape, she will join the success enjoyed by the Susan Hills of the ghostly world in no time.

I have enjoyed the authors previous books and was thrilled to get a ARC of ‘Bone China.’ Was I disappointed? Well that a tricky question there are definitely some parts of it that I enjoyed very much, getting sucked into a world of gothic wonder. However for me I found the story itself disjointed and a little lacking. I felt the book wasn’t a well thought out and plausible story, rather a series of ideas that the author attempted to mesh together using a ‘gothic’ formula. I never really cared about the characters and whilst the folklore context was interesting there was never enough to get me properly invested in the story.
I wouldn’t fail to recommend it as the book is undeniably well written, but the story itself just wasn’t for me I’m afraid.

Once again Laura Purcell has delivered an excellent read in Bone China. I love the way she entwines historical fiction with the supernatural. Fabulous characters, if a bit weird I absolutely loved this book.

This book felt a little disjointed to me. The three separate threads of the plot never really came together in a way that felt satisfying, and it didn't bring anything new or interesting to a largely overdone gothic formula. The historical context and folklore were well written and interesting, but that alone wasn't good enough to carry this novel for me. It just felt like there was something missing, and as such, it was a book that I just got through, rather than enjoyed. With so many similar books on the market, Bone China didn't do enough to set itself apart from the crowd. When it comes to recommending, there are other books with a similar premise and feel that have already done it better.

Laura Purcell is fast becoming one of my favourite authors as her books contain so many characters and themes that appeal to me. This book centres around the two main characters of Hester and Louise (Miss Pinecroft) and as well as following what happens when their paths cross when Hester takes up employment at Louise's house, we are also told their individual stories which led up to that moment in extended flashbacks. I really enjoyed this structure and found each thread of the narrative to be equally enjoyable. Laura Purcell is superb at creating dark, gothic and atmospheric settings which have an element of possible supernatural things going on. Her attention to historical detail is fantastic too and enabled me to feel fully immersed in the story. I also like the focus on strong, interesting, educated and well-developed female characters in Laura Purcell's books. They break the stereotype of nineteeth-century women by being imperfect, flawed, questioning and ambitious while still aware of the limitations their position in society imposes. My only critisicms of this book are, firstly, that it deals with so many big themes e.g. medical research, mental health and superstition, that it did not feel any of them really had enough time dedicated to them. Secondly, I was not a fan of the ending as it did not strike me as likely and felt contrived, however this did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.