What a wonderful old fashioned story with a outstanding strong woman, whom is determined to.work on a commission taking photographs for an action.
Sounds simple enough, but the lady is pregnant and the house is the setting of a notorious seance from years earlier...which involved the fortelling of a curse upon the boys whom were born there.
Will things go smoothly for taking pictures, or will Louisa find more mysterious going ons, more than she expected

Highly recommended read with great characters and a feeling of 'girl power"from Louisa Drew who won't take anything lying down

Great atmosphere and an old fashioned stiff upper lip and wanting to keep good appearances

Highly recommended read
Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for ARC .. written in my own opinions

Loved this book. Hauntingly atmospheric. Lived with me long after I turned the last page. Amazing read and I have no hesitation in recommending this book.

The Quickening is a masterful Gothic novel that has it all - a woman arriving at a remote, decrepit, spooky old house; a family with Secrets; hints of the supernatural; surly servants who resent outsiders and mysteries galore.

The woman in question is Louisa Drew. In is 1925. Close to the birth of her third child, she's summoned from her somewhat chilly and, as becomes apparent, loveless Kentish Town, London home to carry out a commission - photographing the contents of a remote and decrepit country house, Clewer Hall, on the South Coast.

From the outset I admired Louisa's spirit and determination. She has no false modesty, she says at one point 'I come form a long line of capable women'. She is in her second marriage and it's obviously far from ideal. There are hints of her having lived a much more glamorous life in her days as a magazine photographer ('Aleister Crowley had told me about the tarot') She's also curiously alone in the world - having lost mother, uncle and husband, and more, as we gradually learn, Ward revealing it all bit by bit in dialogue with the story of loss and grief that Louisa uncovers at Clewer Hall. But despite her circumstances, she's tried to be a supportive wife to Edwin who frankly sounds like a bit of a creep ('Edwin was moving around downstairs, preparing his tea. If he was in a good mood, which was rare, he'd bring me up a cup... otherwise, he'd leave without saying goodbye...', 'Words froze in my throat when I received one of his withering glances.') Yes, Edwin suffered in the Great War, but one does get the feeling he's rather hiding behind that. Now, though, money is needed for the coming baby, and Louisa's prepared to do what she needs to to get it. So she's off on the train to Brighton, despite Edwin's mother's thin-lipped disapproval.

Arrived at Clewer Hall, a place much diminished and under-staffed, Louisa equally stands up for herself against the frankly weird Clewer family and the chilly house, which itself seems hostile. the Clewer don't care, they're off to India, presumably to live cheaply, and all they want till they go is to keep up the facade, forgetting whatever it was they all seem to fret over.

Apart from one thing.

The Hall is notorious for a séance held thirty years before and for reasons never clearly explained, it's to be repeated. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself was present on that occasion and has returned as have the other surviving participants. Who, we are led to wonder, wishes to hear the voices of the dead?

The answer, of course, in the 20s (those 20s) is, many, many people. After the loss and grief of the Great War there was a boom in Spiritualism, much of it possibly meeting a need for reassurance and comfort in a more strait-laced age. Louisa herself has, as I have said, suffered losses. Her interaction with the Hall and the Clewers - family and servants - rapidly becomes a cats cradle, a maze of sadnesses and absences, illustrated by the spooky Victorian marble children's limbs kept in a display case. Together with glimpses into the past - the time around that earlier seance - we are given tantalising hints of the full story, a mystery worthy of Mr Holmes himself which Louisa sets herself to solve despite the apparent increasing dangers to her and her baby and the growing hostility of the family.

Altogether this is an absorbing mystery story with a lot of heart. The central mystery eventually resolves to something deeply, deeply sad and provoking justifiable anger at the cruelties of the Edwardian class system and the stiff-necked Imperial Britishness of the Clewer family. It's a pattern that Louisa has, one feels, recognised in her own relationship and would do well to escape from - but what options does she have?

Ward writes arresting, vivid prose ('The space had the stillness of catastrophe delayed', 'The garden, in its icy frostiness, was a riot of red berries and yew leaves') and has a sharp eye for character and behaviour - the distance between Louisa and medium Ada and the 'gentry', the way 'we pregnant women lose ownership of our bodies the minute we begin to show', the Clearers being 'the epitome of the upper classes who I would never understand'. In a country poised ahead of the labour turmoil of the General Strike and with the Depression round the corner, The Quickening seems to look back at a time when, despite the disaster of the Great War, the dilettantism of the upper classes can still be indulged, and forward to a less innocent time.

I'd strongly recommend The Quickening, and if you're looking ahead to the end of the year I might suggest it as a perfect Christmas read so if you're searching for a present for the Gothic minded bibliophile in your life, here it is...

This is not my normal sort of read, however, I really enjoyed it. Normally anything gothic or with a hint of ghosts is not my thing.

This story was written so well and gripped you and drew you in. There was such a clear description of the house, the people and also the grounds. I really wanted this story to carry on and on. I am glad the story ended how it did. Given a full all round story.

I cannot wait to read more around this sort of genre.

Photographic process so well described and interesting.
Loved this book, so involving and well written.
List of characters were easy to remember all with their good and bad traits.
Louisa a successful photographer, widowed once and pregnant with her third child, takes on a commission at Cleaver Hall, not as straightforward as she imagined. She feels an evil presence and is confronted by mysterious happenings. Everything centres on a seance which will be held with the participants of a much earlier disturbing one.
Difficult to do this novel justice as it is much more than a mystery, it shows the roles of women from the privileged to the working classes and the challenges they all faced.

This atmospheric tale takes us initially to London in 1925 where we meet Louisa Drew; a young woman who, like so many others, is trying to rebuild a life blighted by the twin horrors of World War I and The Spanish Flu pandemic. Seeking a second chance at motherhood and a loving family life she has found herself in a stilted, passionless marriage but gratefully looking forward to the birth of her new baby.

Money is scarce so Louisa, a gifted photographer, jumps at a mysterious yet lucrative commission offered by her former employer. She boards a train expecting a few days of easy work in a grand country house but instead finds a crumbling pile inhabited by a benighted family, shadows, and secrets.

The Quickening will appeal to anyone who enjoys Gothic fiction. The writing is accomplished but still needs a bit of polish, however I found it to be enjoyable and interesting. There is a clear sense of time and place and I appreciated the inclusion of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with his famed interest in Spiritualism.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The Quickening by Rhiannon Ward
This is a very atmospheric novel and one with which I became immediately involved. It is set in 1925 shortly after the horror of the 1st World War and the Spanish Flu Epidemic. People are desperate to make contact with their loved ones and séances remain popular. The character of Louisa Drew, heavily pregnant young woman, is one with whom I could connect.
Louisa has recently remarried after losing her first husband in the war and she is desperate for money and so accepts a commission to photograph Clewer Hall and its contents for an auction house. Unbeknownst to Louisa the hall was the setting for an infamous séance held in 1896 and since that time the family have been haunted by weird events. In order to lay the ghosts to rest the owner decides to attempt to recreate the séance with as many of the original attendees as possible including Arthur Conan Doyle. Louisa becomes increasingly involved in the strange goings on. It has all the components of a good read; edge of the seat thrills, strange happenings, bizarre characters, sympathetic characters and sections where you feel like shouting 'Don't go in there!'
This is an intriguing, engaging novel and one which I will recommend to others. Many thanks to the author, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Louisa is a photographer asked by her employer to travel to Clewer Hall in Sussex, where she is to photograph the contents of the house for auction before the family move to India. She is surprised by the commission but with a baby on the way she's keen to take the opportunity to earn some extra money. When she arrives she finds that the house is literally falling apart and its inhabitants seemed to be damaged or weighed down with grief; it's a dark and tense atmosphere that she's not comfortable with. She discovers that during her stay at the house an event is planned to recreate an infamous seance that originally took place in 1896.

The setting is atmospheric and there is an underlying tension which builds through the story as the secrets of the house and family are revealed. There is a lot of grief and loss in the book, something which Louisa herself is no stranger to, and this is magnified by the decay of the surroundings and the limited cast of characters. 

Louisa makes a great lead, she has some modern sensibilities but the author couches these within the constraints of the period. I was fascinated both by the details around the photographic process of the period as well as those around the everyday lives of the house's occupants. I have to wonder how on earth you can research these tiny details - if they were made up then they were very convincing!

It's one of those oddities of publishing that I was sitting in the garden in a heatwave reading this dark and chilling mystery - it will make a great read when the nights draw in. A gothic mystery set in a dilapidated country house with a strong female lead, a mysterious child and a cameo appearance by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - what more could you ask for?

The Quickening was no effort – I absolutely demolished it. It’s so readable it’s like a pipe of Pringles.

Aside from it’s readability, it was so refreshing to read a book set between World War I and World War II. I have to admit that I’ve read too much World War II fiction in the past, and this period between the two wars is both fascinating and critical. The Quickening takes us to a place where many men have been killed and those who have returned from war have found women doing their jobs. Not only have they done their jobs and done them well – but they want to keep working! Imagine!

Our protagonist, Louisa, is treading a line between wanting stability with a family and wanting to do something she is passionate about – photography – which is how she ends up in Clewer Hall. But there are skeletons in the closets and ghosts in the garden who won’t leave her be.

Ward’s writing is clever when it comes to the mysteries of the Clewer family and how their lives have interwoven over thirty years. I particularly enjoyed the red herrings that made me think I’d worked out what was going on before revealing themselves to be completely false. Her descriptions of the decaying home during a bitter winter made the story all the more absorbing and had me craving crackling fires and blankets.

There is significance in this book in that it’s not ‘just’ a gothic horror story. It’s about grief and loss and the lasting impact it can have on someone. We all experience loss both individually and collectively, and Ward takes us to be brutalest depths of despair, particularly after World War I when so many families lost more than one child or all of their children.

I only have one minor criticism and that there is significance put upon Louisa ending up at Clewer Hall (rather than any other photographer) and that did not come together for me at the end. I feel like it is more likely that I missed something and it is very minor, but it did mean I didn’t feel quite as satisfied at the end as I had hoped.

That being said, The Quickening is a great read, and as the weather starts to cool, I would highly recommend settling in on a cold Autumn or Winter night and paying a visit to Clewer Hall.

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Before I talk about this book, can we please just take a moment to appreciate the majesty of that absolutely beautiful booksleeve! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve found myself swishing it so the gold catches the light 😂
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I’m a huge fan of historical fiction, particularly that of the gothic variety and if you add “feminist writing” and a haunted house into the mix then I am sold sold sold! It’s a dream combination!
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The Quickening is a book that whispers its secrets from the opening paragraphs. I was drawn in to the spooky ambiance created by Ward’s words and entranced by the ghostly goings on at Clewer Hall from the beginning. If you enjoy a hint of the supernatural - then this is the book for you!
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The Quickening has some fantastic characters and I was fascinated by the mystery and intrigue that Ward cleverly created with her beautiful use of language; I could smell every snuffed out candle, feel every chill and hear the wolf-like howling of the wind outside.
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A well crafted, eerie and chilling read; The Quickening is the perfect book to cosy up with in this unseasonably miserable weather 🔥
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It is 1925, London, and Louisa Drew accepts a photography commission at a rundown stately home not far from Brighton.  The owners of Clewer Hall are selling up to move to India and Louisa has been employed to photograph the collection of art and furniture for auction.  It soon becomes clear that Clewer Hall is not a happy home, if it ever was.  There have been deaths and there are rumours of a haunting, mostly stemming from a famous seance that took place at the Hall almost 30 years earlier.  But Louisa herself is not a stranger to sadness and heartbreak.  She lost her first husband and two sons several years earlier.  But now she has remarried and is expecting another child.  Her new husband is perhaps not the love of her life but he is a good man with problems of his own and Louisa is doing her best to move on.  The generous payment she is to receive for her work at Clewer Hall should go a long way to helping with her new life.  All she needs to do is get the work done, a week or 10 days away from home at the most.  How hard can it be?
This is a wonderfully engrossing, creepy and atmospheric Gothic story full of secrets and perhaps a touch of the supernatural.

The Quickening was a brilliant compulsive read!
Louisa Drew is heavily pregnant when she gets a chance to earn some much needed money & briefly escape her husband. She travels to Clewer Hall only to find that the house & all it's residents are hiding so many secrets. Whilst doing her job the secrets demand to be uncovered! She takes on the role of unwilling detective but the more she discovers, the less willing she is to let truths stay concealed. Louisa, joined by George use their journalistic skills to reveal the past & hopefully....finally lay in to rest.
I found the story line to be intriguing and Rhiannon Ward superbly sets the eerie, tense atmosphere from the start. Her descriptions of characters and the household dynamics were excellent. I really enjoyed her style of writing.
I shall look out for more books by this author.

In 1925, photographer Louisa Drew takes on a final commission before the birth of her child with her new husband. Louisa’s task is to photograph the contents of Clewer Hall for auction before the Clewers leave England. What had seemed like a simple job turns into something darker and more intense than Louisa had expected when she finds herself mixed up in the restaging of a séance that took place thirty years before but which still haunts the Clewer family. Mysterious and disturbing goings on in the house and grounds prompt Louisa to investigate the Clewer family’s past as her fate and that of her unborn child become entangled with the secrets of Clewer Hall.

This is a wonderful gothic mystery with an interesting and likable main character. The plot unfolds gradually, revealing details which come together brilliantly at the end. The narrative switches between 1925 and the original séance of thirty years before. This is an interesting way of revealing hints from the past.

The descriptions of the hall and its rooms are vivid and provide an unsettling atmosphere. The secrecy of many of the characters is effective at increasing the sense of mystery and both the reader and Louisa don’t know who to trust. There are some exciting scenes with plenty of tension and suspense. While there were a couple of rather chilling moments, I would personally have preferred a few more.

This is an enjoyable read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys gothic mysteries.

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

What drew me to this novel was the blurb: a haunted house full of mystery and secrets? It sounded really good and really good it is indeed. I found the story fascinating and thrilling and the characters very interesting.

In 1920s, everyone had lost somebody they loved, either during World War I or the Spanish influence and, in some cases, to both, and many people turned to mediums to contact the loved ones they lost. Louisa Drew knows loss and grief having lost her husband to the war and her two sons to the influence. Newly married and with a baby soon on the way, Louisa feels trapped in her second marriage and she misses the family she lost, so when she is offered the commission to photograph Clewer Hall, in Sussex, before it goes on sale, she accepts right away, despite a few warnings that the house has a certain reputation. Clewer Hall is remembered as the setting of an infamous séance in 1896 which will now be recreated with its original attendees, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Quickening is a bit historical fiction, a bit ghost story, a bit mystery thriller, all mixed up perfectly together under the brilliant pen of Rhiannon Ward. I loved the beautiful and bewitching descriptions that made Clewer Hall come so alive in my mind that I could picture its rooms, its hallways, its walls.

The story is told from Louisa Drew’s point of view. I really liked this character. I found her smart and strong. What I really like about this character is her independence, especially at a time when women barely had the right to vote. She accepts the job and travels to Sussex without talking about it with her husband. As soon as she arrives at Clewer Hall, she knows that something strange is going on. When she sees a child in the garden that no one else sees and when she hears the piano playing on its own, she knows she is not imagining it. And the strange incidents that hit some of the inhabitants of the house lead her to investigate on her own, because they are not simply incidents, right?

Would I recommend The Quickening? Yes, I definitely would. It is well-written, very descriptive, compelling, suspenseful, and claustrophobic. There are buried secrets to unveil, ghost stories, supernatural elements, and an ending that I found perfect.

I received an ARC of The Quickening by Rhiannon Ward for free by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to Rhiannon Ward, Trapeze Books and NetGalley! The Quickening will be published on 20th August 2020. This review is also available on my blog - Book, Blog & Candle!

In The Quickening we join our main character, Louisa Drew, in 1925. She has been specifically asked to photograph an infamous house down in Sussex in exchange for a commission that is too big to refuse, especially as she is struggling for money. However, the house is shrouded in mystery and known for a scandalous seance from 1896 which even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attended. Can you imagine being at that party?! The family want to recreate the seance but soon discover that spirits from the other side are the least of their worries.

Louisa is a talented photographer and naturally inquisitive. She's going through a tough time after losing her husband to the First World War and her two sons to illness. Now she's remarried, for stability not for love, and has a new child on the way. I liked how independent and determined Louisa was. She wasn't going to let her husband stop her from taking this job, even though he is very old fashioned and doesn't like her working.

After a mysterious death with suspicious circumstances occurs after the recreated seance, Louisa is adamant to get to the bottom of it. She is certain that there is something more sinister afoot even as the family do their best to get her to drop it. I enjoyed her unwavering stubbornness and she was an engaging protagonist.

I thought this story had a really intriguing concept and I love how it was described. If you show me a book that is described as a "feminist gothic fiction" then I HAVE to read it! I enjoyed how descriptive it was and how it could be haunting and creepy in places. I'm such a huge wimp when it comes to ghost stories but I do love it when they give me chills! Plus there were some clever twists and turns which added to the mystery of the house. The house was personified so well it almost became a character of its own.

The Quickening is an enjoyable ghost story and murder mystery. Great for readers who like a slow paced and suspenseful story!

Thank you again to NetGalley, Trapeze Books & Rhiannon Ward for the opportunity to read The Quickening!

Well, this is rather fabulous! I came to this book expecting a bit of intrigue, a gothic feel and a solid historical tale. It delivered all that and a lot more.

The main narrative takes place in 1925 and is told by Louisa Drew, a war widow who has remarried and is heavily pregnant. In need of money, she takes a commission at the crumbling Clewer Hall in Sussex which is shortly to be sold; her job is to photograph the house and its contents for auction. She is welcomed by the residents of the Hall, although they seem ill at ease and perturbed by her pregnancy. She finds out that the Hall was the site of an infamous séance in 1896 which is to be recreated during her stay with as many of the original attendees as are still alive. As the date for the séance arrives, there are mysterious occurrences and tension begins to build about why Louisa was selected for the commission.

Some of the scenes in the novel flash back to the original séance in 1896 and the reader begins to see how the events of that night continue to reverberate down through the years.

One of the strengths of this story is just how deliciously creepy it is! The building of Clewer Hall is hugely important to the story and it is a place of decay, mysterious shadows and uncanny events. The fact that one wing has fallen into disrepair is central - it is here that Louisa feels most uncomfortable and unsure whether to blame her strange symptoms on advanced pregnancy or something more sinister.

The plotting of this book is also intricate and clever - I felt that I was in the hands of a confident and accomplished storyteller, even as I also felt that I couldn't see how the strands of the narrative were ever going to come together. But come together they do - and it is absolutely satisfying.

The novel is filled with realistic and compelling characters, but it is especially worth mentioning Louisa Drew herself. Louisa is a really engaging narrator and we feel - in turn - frightened with her, sorry for her, awed at her bravery and empathetic for her situation. Her tragic back-story gives her depth and should make her feel like one of life's victims,; however, she shows so much strength in her position as a pioneer of magazine photography and courage in facing the events at Clewer Hall that she is elevated in the readers' opinion. The rest of the inhabitants of the Hall are no less developed - and there are a lot of them with complex, intertwining lives.

This book would be absolutely perfect for those who love Laura Purcell's books or 'The Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters. There is the same mix of a compelling and well-crafted story with just a pinch of the supernatural!

Overall, this is a highly recommended slice of historical fiction. It has mystery, horror and - more surprisingly - a lot of heart. I loved it.

This was a historical mystery that was well written.
I liked the characters, historical elements, the mystery. The plot was engaging and gripping.
At times there were some repetitions, but overall really entertaining read.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

A terrific take on the classic ghost story. Genuinely unsettling with great pace and tension. The pregnancy added another layer of tension. A great read

Secrets, seances and spirits all combine to make this a taut and thrilling story. Sent t an old house to photo items to be auctioned!, pregnant photographer Louisa doesnt realise what she has got herself into. The house is falling down and people are unwilling to talk about a seance that took place in 1896 when a curse was put on it. She quickly realises all is not right when she starts to feel and see things. An excellent read.

It’s the year 1925 and Louisa lost her husband in the First World War and her six year old twin boys in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. She is remarried and seven months pregnant. She is asked by her employer to take some photographs of the contents of Clewer Hall for auction. Louisa soon learns that in 1896 Clewer Hall was host to a seance and that the lady of the house Helene, has asked those who were there, to come back once more to recreate the evening. When a mysterious happenings occur in the house and outside in the grounds, Louisa finds herself investigating and starts to unravel long held secrets of thirty years ago.

This was a fantastic read with brilliant characters. It is full of mystery and kept me turning the pages until the end. It is also very descriptive, I could imagine everything so clearly it was like I was there myself with Louisa and all the other characters. A very enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.