I couldn't get into Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood. The book throws the reader in at the deep end and while this isn't a problem, the constant telling and the excessive description that doesn't advance the story or allow you to enter into the story. I was ex United to read a gothic Christmas ghost story but sadly, this book didn't work for me.

Leah buys Maitland Farm after losing her husband and son. The farm did belong to Leah's ancestors and as she settles in the ghosts of the past start to appear.

I really enjoyed this book. I wanted to read an atmospheric Christmas book and this one did the trick.

I story takes place mostly on the farm. Covered in snow and isolated the story has that closed in feel. The author I felt did a really good job making the story atmospheric with her descriptions.

The story also has a ghostly feel to it. Rather than a creepy tale, it's more of a time slip. Leah sees the past play out and finds out what really happened on the farm. Again I think the author did this really well.
The story did have a couple of twists in the plot which made the book interesting.

I enjoyed this book and would read more by this author. Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for the opportunity to read the book, although I'm really late doing so.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

An overlong ghost story that fails to achieve any suspense or spookiness - I'm afraid I found this very disappointing.

To create a ghost story with an interesting plot-twist is not an easy task. Sometimes it looks like there are only two possibilities - either the ghosts are real or the haunting can be blamed on living people. Alison Littlewood interestingly played on this assumption and created a worthy read.

I'll not lie, I was not overly excited from the beginning. A lonely woman moving to a mysterious house, where she has a bad feeling right from the beginning. We have seen it many times and it will come back each year around Halloween time. In Mistletoe. it is not any different. Leah, a newly widowed city girl is starting fresh in a house she wanted to move to with her family. Unfortunately, she is left alone for this task, as tragedies leave her without her loved husband and son. She is determíned to continue her life in this creepy house she did not like from the beginning, to make peace with the past. However, a series of inexplicable events will result in uncovering long-lost family secrets that are still present inside the walls of her new home.

Overall, I'm not mad about it. I enjoyed the atmosphere, the reality-bending moments and especially the creepy doll. I think that this book is a great read for Halloween season for people who enjoy a bit of fictional haunting in their lives.

I received a review copy by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A lovely atmospheric story, just perfect for cold, dark winter nights. Leah buys a farm hoping for a new start after tragic events. Not only a rundown property to contend with but plenty of snow too. Time slip and present day as the details unfold. Loved the cover, style of writing and the bits of folklore interspersed in the narrative. I was fully engrossed in this book and was sad when it ended!

A spooky and sometimes charming Ghost story set in the days leading up to Christmas.
Following the death of her husband and young son Leah moves into a farmhouse previously purchased when her family was alive. Intending to renovate the house, Leah begins to notice things are slightly amiss as she hears sounds and voices and sees things out the corner of her eyes.
As the novel progresses the sight and sounds become more real, gradually revealing the dark history of the farm and the resulting death of a young child.

The writing flows and even though the spookiness and creeping eeriness of the ghostly apparitions are replaced with full scenes of interaction amongst the former occupants of the farm, I can still recommend this as a genuinely atmospheric ghost story

The description gives the idea that this book will be a sly mix of horror and contemporary women's fiction. It was an interesting book but I was hoping for a bit more from it. I found it neither moving nor scary, which I think were the intended aims. Disappointed.

I thought this would be a good scary read between Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I suppose it will be good and scary for some, not this reader. I couldn't connect with the characters and didn't care for the story.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Thanks, Netgalley.
All opinions are my own.

After the deaths of her husband and son, Leah moves away from her life and to the house that was supposed to house the three of them. The Maitland Farm is supposed to be peaceful and a means for her to leave a more quiet life. Instead, soon she'll start having strange visions. And the farm's past is slowly coming back to life.

Mistletoe had a very interesting description. Unfortunately, the writing style felt to grasp my interest. It was slow, highly descriptive of the main character's thoughts and feelings, and it failed to invoke feeling to me as a reader. It also felt like it was dragging on in a very slow pace. As a result, I failed to enjoy this story altogether.

I love books where past crosses over into present and this book didnt disappoint.

A story of loss, new beginnings, old houses and links to the past but how does the past influence the present.

Can Leah forget her past and escape her ancestors mistakes?

Alison Littlewood does excellent ghost stories. This is not quite as scary as The Unquiet House( my personal favourite by her but excellent just the same. As many people have said perfect for a ghost-related read in the run up to Christmas.

This was a good Christmas horror story. I really felt for Leah, she had faced such heartbreak and sorrow, you couldn’t get much worse than what she experienced, but she kept going. I loved the creepy setting of the old house and barn with the rotten orchard, set against the clean beauty of the snow. I found parts of the book really quite sad and I felt Leah was so strong to not be sent insane with all that was happening. I definitely will be buying Alisons next book. I only wish I could have read it at Christmas!

4 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2019/10/10/mistletoe-by-alison-littlewood-mistletoebook/
Mistletoe is my second book by Alison Littlewood, an author who excels at creating atmosphere and gothic creepiness.

This is a book set in the depth of winter, the countryside is cloaked in white and Christmas approaches. It should be a time of cheer but for Leah Hamilton this is more an escape. Leah has lost both her son and her husband and in a strange twist decides to buy the ‘fixer upper’ that her husband dreamed of acquiring. Like she’s keeping a little piece of him alive by taking on a project that he was keen to undertake even though she wasn’t so enthusiastic at the time. The farmhouse in question is very run down and no longer a going concern. Parcels of land have been sold off over the years to neighbouring properties and the remaining house and buildings seem to be encumbered by a strange past that leaves the place not just neglected but also a little creepy. Of course, a lot of the past history is unknown to Leah when she arrives and so she’s in for a number of surprises.

What I really enjoyed about this was the way the story was split. Leah experiences a number of apparitions that gradually reveal the secrets of the house. There is a dark history here and Leah is slowly sucked into events in a very scary way that threatens her own well-being. She becomes so wrapped up in events that she shuns the neighbours, enclosing herself in a strange cocoon of mystery and darkness, almost becoming so involved that she begins to lose herself.

The writing is very evocative and this is truly the perfect time of year to read this book. You can feel the cold and the weather, the looming clouds, the burgeoning snow and the short days all add to the atmosphere because they are particularly well written. In fact, there are a few ghostly moments contained in these pages that I confess set my pulse racing and I couldn’t help admiring Leah for her steadfastness in the face of such scary goings-on. If that was me, I would have been out of there in a New York minute but Leah felt a compulsion to see things though.

In terms of characters. Well, Leah is the main pov but she shares time with her neighbours as well as inhabitants of the farm from a bygone era. I really enjoyed the flashbacks and the little insights. I think the inclusion of the neighbour’s son was a great addition to the story in fact with the flashbacks from the farm’s past, plus Leah’s memories of her son there are three young characters who help the story to progress in a strangely symmetrical way.

In terms of criticisms. I think one of the characters was a little too easy to read which meant I second guessed what was going on from the storyline from the past – I wouldn’t say this spoiled the read for me but I think it could have been even more gripping with a little more ambiguity to keep me guessing. I would also say that this was slightly different from what I was expecting. It actually feels like a journey for the main character, one that she is maybe reluctantly pushed onto, but still a turning around of sorts. I think going into this I was expecting an out and out ghost story but in fact I think the added element of Leah’s own personal tragedy coupled with the little rays of hope brought something additional to the read.

Overall, this was a very easy book to get along with. It’s a good story and coupled with the excellent writing it makes for a real page turner. Packed with angry ghosts and heartbreak it also manages to achieve a feeling of hope. It gave me Bronte vibes in a way – the remote feeling of the farmhouse, the sweeping landscape, the loneliness of the central character and the brooding (Heathcliff like feel) of one of the ghosts from the past.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Rating 4 out of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book. It has many of the elements I love in contemporary fiction; a haunted country house, a beautiful winter setting, new beginnings.

Well written but Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. I didn’t believe the protagonist would move there and I couldn’t believe her grief. Her subsequent actions were indecipherable to me.

Sadly not for me.

This a creepy, atmospheric read and one that stays with you. Leah has bought an isolated farmhouse in Yorkshire after the deaths of her husband and son. Soon after moving in, strange and eerie events start to happen which take Leah back to the tragic events that happened at the farm many years before.
The author writes beautifully and I loved it.

In an attempt to move on from the tragic deaths of her husband and son, Leah moves to isolated Maitland Farm, hoping it will be the start of a new life. As snow shrouds her new home, visions from the past haunt the farm. Leah must find a way to put the ghosts of the past to rest – both those of the farm and her own.

This is an excellent book. The descriptions of the ever-present snow give the book a strong sense of quiet and calm with a creeping sense of danger, symbolised by the mistletoe of the title. The use of mistletoe throughout the book is interesting and clever. The story centres on Leah, with brief appearances from a few other characters (living and dead). The chilling atmosphere is built brilliantly, creating doubt in both Leah and the reader about what is real and what is imagined.

I thought the pacing of the story worked really well, with the interweaving of the past and the present; the details of the farm’s past being revealed at the perfect time.

It’s the kind of book that stays with you. Before I had finished the book, images of the farm and the snow and the atmosphere of the story would be in my mind even when I wasn’t reading. On a personal level, I found this story cathartic in dealing with my own grief.

I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys thoughtful, atmospheric ghost stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This is a spooky story to read as Halloween season comes upon us. I loved Alison’s other books as they’re all about gothic chills, fairy folk etc so when I read that this was about a house, a remote house with ghosts…..I was there!

It’s not just a ghostly tale however. This is quite a deep and emotional read. Leah has suffered a huge personal loss and moves to this old farmhouse to try and recover in some way. Her life has changed and she wants to escape it in more ways than one. This house belonged to her family and she soon discovers that some of their spirits may still be there.

This is no run of the mil ghost story though. It’s both a ghost story, time slip novel and a personal, emotional story of love and loss and also one of recovery. I had tears in my eyes on more than one occasion.

The ghostly parts are well done. Subtle and creepy without being scary or over the top. There are whispers instead of creepy scares and this is what is so good about the story. It’s subtle, effective, engrossing and it lingers…I did think Leah took most of the events in her stride however. I would have been out of there like a shot!

A novel to read at night for sure!

Mistletoe by Alison Littlewood

Leah Hamilton and her husband had a plan to escape the city and buy a farmhouse in Yorkshire. Their little boy would thrive in such a place. And Maitland Farm seemed perfect! Leah’s maiden name is Maitland, her family came from this area. It is quite possible that her ancestors lived there. But then, so quickly, Leah’s world turned upside down. She lost her family. In her grief she hastily bought Maitland Farm and now, at Christmas, her first family-less, she has moved in, bringing with her only the bare essentials. The farm is in decay. It’s unlikely anything will ever grow in its fields again. The house is without heat, the plaster falling from the walls, with hardly any furniture, and the snow is falling thick and heavy. And Leah notices something in the snow – snow has been scraped into snowballs and later a snow angel appears by her doorstep. But there are no footsteps, no tracks. The snow angel should have been left by her son but Leah feels the presence of somebody else, someone who wants to play with her, who is reaching out.

Mistletoe is a truly enchanting, frightening and gorgeous ghost story. The beautiful hardback cover, the pages with drawings of mistletoe, suggest the story will be special, the sort of book you can immerse yourself in during the long and dark evenings, and they are right. I love ghost stories, especially at this time of year, and Mistletoe is an extremely good one. The elegant prose is a pleasure to read. It’s easy to be drawn into it, especially if you read it by lamplight as I did, and Leah Hamilton is an extremely likeable and appealing main character. My heart ached for her. I loved how she was vulnerable but also strong, coping with a world no longer kind to her. She’s susceptible to whatever it is that haunts her farmhouse – it’s almost as if it were waiting for her arrival – but she’s not easy to frighten. Whatever it is, she wants to befriend it. But nothing is quite what it seems.

This is a ghost story but it is also a timeslip novel, something that doesn’t always work. It works very well here indeed. The past and the present merge lightly. It’s not laboured. I loved the portrayal of the farmhouse, and its residents, in the past. But of course this is also a ghost story and that means something very bad happened in the past, something that won’t let go, and it’s that which fills this wonderful novel with atmosphere, darkness and mystery. I was engrossed.

I read Mistletoe in one sitting. I don’t do that very often but it’s such a bewitching book that it wasn’t hard to do. I enjoyed Leah’s developing friendship with her neighbours and their natural suspicion of this new and isolated stranger. It’s a beautifully written, tender and deeply atmospheric and chilly ghost story and timeslip novel. Mysterious and sad, disturbing and enchanting – it’s the perfect read for these longer nights.

'The night was filled with thoughts of mistletoe, dreams of mistletoe, the touch of it on her skin, the grasping tendrils entangling her limbs...'

I've loved Alison Littlewood's books right back to A Cold Season and here she is again at her icy best, telling the story of a woman alone, out among the snows of a Yorkshire winter, as Christmas approaches. (This book would definitely make an atmospheric Christmas read - or present - if you're looking for one).

Leah, mourning the loss of her son and her husband, has given up her city life - 'The world of cars and buses stinking of diesel, of towering buildings and grey streets, of all-night supermarkets and corner-shops, of anonymous crowds' - and exchanged it for 'a farmhouse, a barn, an apple orchard and a single field'. She's a 'comer-inner', having bought the (dilapidated) holding and intending to spend her time renovating the house, which husband Josh discovered and set his heart on before his death. Whether Leah is trying to forget Josh and son Finn or, somehow, come closer in this place where she'd imagined a new life with them, isn't clear.

Of course Maitland Farm isn't the rural idyll that Leah hoped for. Between a dirty, uncared for house with no working heating, Arctic weather, her haunting memories, a barn full of sinister junk including the creepiest doll outside Stephen King and a sense of wrongness, Leah's hopes are soon driven out by, not fears exactly (that would be simply sorted: back to the city!) but a growing disquiet.

Littlewood is a master at building up tension - escalating things slowly, springing her trap, then stepping back: oh, it wasn't a ghost, it was a neighbour accustomed to crossing the field rather than using the lane.

Or was it?

Here the tension builds credibly on top of Leah's already low, troubled spirits, the reader never being sure whether, when an odd thing happens, it's actually supernatural or born of her love and longing for Josh and Finn (or her lack of sleep). Perhaps it's impossible to disentangle all these? Suppose there are ghosts at Maitland Farm. Wouldn't that open a channel, a possibility, a way to Josh and Finn? So tempting. So very tempting. But at the same time, given the horrors that Leah begins to suspect - the hints she picks up form her neighbours about a dark past and about revenge and ill-luck on the house - what dangers might wait? The story keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, even as it takes a dark turn.

This book is a brilliantly creepy, atmospheric horror story. It wrings every last drop out of the dark side of Christmas: the bitter mistletoe berries, the cold of ancient sacrifice, the short days and above all, perhaps, the pain of being alone at a time of communal cheer and jollity. It is also a story of loss and vulnerability - there is a real sense that in placing herself where she has, Leah opened up to a real and terrible darkness. We begin to see echoes between events in the distant past - events that are impressed in the crumbling stone and barren soil of the farm - and Leah's own life. And the skin of the 21st century seems awfully thin at Maitland Farm ('Here, the past didn't fade to nothing...') with a potential, a dreadful potential, to draw her into its Midwinter dance, perhaps with a seductive hope.

There is also bewitching, lyrical prose here: 'The snow was constantly changing: now rose-tinted or grey, now golden or lavender, made new with every dawn or noon or evening and yet just as cold...' Littlewood vividly describes not only the horrors glimpsed in the shadows but the colour and sound and the bleakness of a hard winter.

It is, simply, a delight to read, a horror story but also a beautiful study of a woman very close to the edge, of friendship, loss and courage. Strongly recommended. (And if you haven't read Littlewood's previous books yet, you must: you have a treat in store. You can thank me later).