What a wild ride this was---stories that merged together that I wasn't expecting, various romances that I also wasn't seeing. Loved it!

The first third of this book was exactly my thing - you have the realism of evacuees escaping big city England for the countryside during the WWII German raids, a delightfully rich small-town setting, spooky ominousness, and an almost folk-horror-esque vibe with the cast of characters. Some might call it slow, but I call it delicious creeping dread. It was page-turning for me, because I was invested.

And then it kind of... falls off.

I saw other reviewers critiquing the family drama, but in a gothic-adjacent piece like this, I live for the family drama. All hidden secrets and forbidden romance and all of that good stuff. Though I didn't love the main romance plotline.

What I really didn't like was when the book made a hard about-face into almost-mystery and tried to solve the ghost story. You don't really... solve a ghost story? And you don't NEED to solve a mystery at all in order to write a novel inspired by it (as the heroine is doing)... you can just imagine the things for a novel, as novels are fiction.... Anyway, I'm not usually this much of a genre purist, but I think this one suffered from not fully knowing its genre. The characters' purposes seemed at odds with what was happening around them.

The big reveal of the secrets at the end was also a bit of a letdown. My guesses were much more dramatic than the actual reveal, which is never a good sign.

This was an enjoyable read. I really liked Ruth and thought she was a strong character. The book was slow paced and it-fit the story.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

In summer 1940, Ruth Gladstone, an English literature student at Girton College, Cambridge, evacuates with her grandmother to the Lancashire village of Martynsborough after an unexploded bomb lands on the campus. While staying with her great-aunt Vera, from whom her Gran (Edith) had been estranged for years, Ruth gets pressed into dreary administrative work and delves into a local ghost story – which she glimpses firsthand.

A young woman garbed in white has been seen lurking around the fields and lanes, calling to mind a tragedy from 30 years before, when a woman’s body was seen floating in a lime-kiln pond on the grounds of Wolstenholme Park, a crumbling old manor.

The story begins as everyone’s already on edge from potential German bombings and amps up the tension with a gothic subplot. Furthermore, Ruth’s seeking an exit strategy from an unwanted engagement to a soldier who writes her embarrassingly crude love letters from overseas, and she worries he’ll come home and expect an impromptu wedding. The stage is set for a tale where suspense and dread build from multiple directions.

What transpires, though, feels more atmospheric than spooky or horrifying; this ghost story is pretty low-key. There is some mystery about whether the white apparition is Elise, wife of Ruth’s coworker Malcolm, a Frenchwoman who became mute and dissociated from the world after a brain injury. From the villagers, depicted (with a few exceptions) as stereotypically insular, emerges the feeling that the evacuees in their midst have stirred up the wraith, but Ruth doesn’t buy that explanation.

On the hunt for a subject for her first novel, Ruth decides to research the history of the hauntings in Martynsborough, which goes over about as well as you’d think. With an occasionally brusque manner, Ruth sometimes feels closed-off and distant, although she does earn the reader's empathy. Her growing rapport with Malcolm makes for an awkward “forbidden romance” scenario, since his wife is very much alive, and it’s unclear how mentally present Elise is.

While all of the mystery threads (including the surprising reason behind Vera and Edith’s falling-out) are sufficient to hold interest, Through a Darkening Glass functions better as a portrait of country life during wartime, showing people’s day-to-day experiences and their adjustments to new circumstances as the war trundles on much longer than anyone expects or wants.

The blurb attracted me and was expecting a folk horror or a mix of romance and mystery. There's drama and some paranormal.
Not my cup of tea
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

In a Nutshell: Expected horror. Got a mildly paranormal plot with huge chunks of family drama and romance.

Story Synopsis:
England, 1940. Ruth Gladstone, a literature student at Cambridge University, is forced to evacuate along with her grandma Edith to a little village named Martynsborough, where they would be staying with Edith’s estranged sister Vera. Ruth expected her country life to be slow and boring; what she didn’t know as that she would be expected to contribute to the daily chores. Furthermore, she soon learns about a ghostly wraith who is once again haunting the villagers at night. While the villagers know to leave the wraith alone, Ruth is enthralled by its presence and wants to know more about it. Along with Malcolm, a neighbour and soldier whose war ended early because of his injuries, Ruth sets about digging the truth behind the wraith’s reappearance after three decades.
The story is written in a third person limited perspective.


Where the book worked for me:
✔ The book starts off with a bang. The prologue set in 1910 builds up a creepy atmosphere.
✔ The *initial* mentions of the wraith are creepy enough. They are written in a way that caused me to sit straight and turn pages as quick as possible.
✔ Ruth had a speech disorder called rhotacism. First time I have heard/read about it. It was interesting to see how this was used to carve Ruth’s persona.
✔ The plight of the children displaced during WWII comes out fairly well.
✔ The lifestyle of the country dwellers was interesting to read.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ I picked this up as a Gothic Horror Mystery set around WWII. It ended up neither Gothic nor Horror. There is a mansion named Wolstenholme Park, which supposedly has mysterious elements. The place is hardly used in the plot. So the gothic elements are sorely underused. After a few chapters, I realised that the wraith is more like a minor backdrop to the main plot, which is more focussed on Ruth and Malcolm, and the people in their life. There went the scope of a captivating Horror novel. Also, the book isn’t a WWII mystery in just a mild sense in that it is set in the same time period.
❌ The atmosphere lasts only in bits and pieces. Most of the book doesn’t match up to the scary potential promised by the prologue.
❌ Mixed feelings about the ending. The wraith’s arc comes to a satisfactory close. The other “big revelation” was smack out of nowhere. While it added surprise/shock value, it didn’t fit in with the overall plot at all.
❌ There’s a whole load of infodumping at the end, as usually happens in cosy mysteries. It was so boring!
❌ It’s slow.

As I write this review, I realise I have nothing much to say about the impact created by the book. I read, I finished, I forgot. Neither the characters nor the plot left a lasting impression. The book began wonderfully but as it progressed forwards, my interest slid downwards.
Definitely not a must-read. More like, read if you must.

2 stars.

My thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “Through a Darkening Glass”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I’m so sorry but I just couldn’t finish this book and had to dnf it. I was so interested in the story but the format of this arc was so poor, I just couldn’t continue reading …

"A mesmerizing World War II mystery about a Londoner who flees the city to write a novel and finds a truth stranger than fiction.

England, 1940. Literature student Ruth Gladstone evacuates Cambridge University for Martynsborough, a tiny English village with a shadowy history. For Ruth, retreating to a forgotten corner of the country is more than a safety maneuver; it's an opportunity to end an undesirable engagement and begin writing her first novel.

But upon her arrival, Ruth learns of a ghostly wraith haunting the villagers after decades of silence. Although Ruth is enthralled by the legend, the locals are less charmed by the wraith's return. They blame the evacuees - and among them, Ruth - for stirring up restless spirits.

Undeterred, Ruth joins forces with Malcolm, an injured soldier, to unravel the mystery of the wraith. As Ruth and Malcolm draw closer to the truth, they'll unearth long-buried secrets that could threaten them both...even as they craft a forbidden love story of their own."

War and restless spirits go hand in hand.

Ruth flees Cambridge during the war.
She thinks she’ll have plenty of time to write her novel. Instead she gets caught up in a ghost that starts haunting the village.
I thought this book sounded really interesting but instead it’s rather boring. It just seems to drag and I just couldn’t get into the story.

Fans of the WWII Homefront novel might enjoy this entry which merges a bit of romance, a bit of mystery, and a wraith in a small British village. Ruth evacuated from Cambridge and thought she'd be bored but she's not as she becomes part of the fabric of Martynsborough. She teams up with Malcom, a wounded soldier, to investigate a ghost which has been bothering the village for years. No spoilers. It's a bit of an odd read for the WWII genre but it's entertaining, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

I really enjoyed this book. I do enjoy historical fiction and this one is set during WWII in England. It follows a young lady studying in Cambridge and when the bombing starts follows her Grandmother out to a country town in Lancaster. There she meets some interesting characters and sees the mystery wraith that has been plaguing the town for many years.

Ruth decides to play detective and recruits her neighbour Malcom, a married man, who was discharged from the war to help her get to the bottom of the mysterious wraith and the Manor House that is rumoured to have a green house of strange creatures.

There is a lot going on in this book with a lot of side stories, although it all sort of ties together I gave it 3 stars because I don't know if this book knows exactly what it's trying to be. There were a few weird things that seemed out of place.

But overall it kept me entertained and if you like a good mystery, with some interesting characters with the war as a back drop definitely pick this one up!

*3.75*

This book is what I would describe as a mix between historical fiction and cozy mystery and it was just very emotional all in all. It was even better than I expected, I really think the characters were the main strenght in this book, it was just a "found family" bunch of people coming together, and I appreciated that a lot. There is even a dash of romance in this one, and it doesn't shy away from talking about important topics, in a context like that of WWII.

The setting aspect was really good, I appreciated the fictional small town the author created, it gave an even cozier vibe to the mystery. Speaking about that, the mystery aspect of it was good in my opinion. While it wasn't mind-blowing, it was still very rewarding in the end, and I have to say I didn't get what would happen.

The only part I didn't completely love was the ending, I felt it was kind of rushed, but it gave a nice closure, and all in all I would recommend this book if you like historical fiction books with gothic vibes, and a cozy mystery at their core.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I tend to like dry historical fiction. It works well when the words may be flavorless but the characters and events aren't. Unfortunately, I was bored with Through a darkening glass.

The basis for the story is interesting. WW2 evacuee escapes to a possibly haunted town, falls in love with a complicatedly married man, etc. Somehow all that tension never showed up. Everything seemed hunky dory okie-dokie throughout.

The characters were almost interesting. The scientist roommate had a bit of life to her, so she was the only really interesting one of the bunch. The main character was numbingly dull, and the characterizations of the others with their speech was also dull. Conversations seemed pretty fake and unnatural.

While I didn't enjoy this book, I think there is an audience for it. This is the kind of book you read if you like neatly packaged, everything turns out good stories where there's no real drama or stress.

This is not your typical World War II daring deeds, striving to overcome, and finding romance kind of novel. Ruth, a college student (though older; she says she’s twenty-five), is housed in a dormitory where a dud bomb lands outside. Stirred to action, she calls her grandmother, a Londoner, who agrees they should evacuate. Her grandmother reveals that she has a sister who lives in the rural north, in a village, with whom she has not spoken in years. Nevertheless, off they go to Martynsborough, where life and culture is quite different, and, among other things, Ruth is expected to work.
World War II books are very popular right now. I’ve read a number myself, and some are quite good. This particular offering is not just an historical novel, however. It’s also a kind of cold case murder mystery, and a ghost story as well.
There’s a handsome neighbor, who was wounded in the war, with a mysterious wife who is apparently catatonic. Ruth has a fiancé whom she never really wanted (she was pushed into it) and who has to be gotten rid of. He’s a rotter, so nobody misses him once he’s gone. And there’s a college friend who is in love with Ruth but will never make herself known.
Of course, there are old secrets to be unburied. And there are country/city tensions to be ironed out. There’s a mysterious man in the manor with his single servant. And the question of the girl who was in the pond face down thirty years earlier.
I confess this was one of those novels that really grew on me. I like it okay from the start, but the more I read, the more absorbed I became, until it finally became the old cliché—-the book I couldn’t put down.

If you are looking for something cosy with elements of mystery, romance and history then this is your book. A 3.5 stars for me. Thank you for allowing me to read this

A slow-burn mystery that reads like a novel of the time, Through a Darkening Glass is an absolute delight for those of us who enjoy authentic-feeling period pieces with little to no drama but which is compelling nonetheless.

There are two things to note about this novel: 1) it takes a bit to get going (I was just coasting through it until about 50% and then I got hooked on it) and 2) it is a period piece instead of a historical fiction. As such, it reads not like the narrator is describing a time in the past, but feels like it was written back then. This is my preferred kind of historical fiction, so I was right on board.

I liked the characters. The main character-Ruth-is likeable and also feels like a woman of the time. She’s modest but not a prude, smart, stands up for herself and takes action. She questioned some things about her society but it didn’t feel anachronistic. And the things she questioned she related to the past - like how back in the late 1800s male and female friends would walk arm-in-arm versus how that was seen as scandalous in the 40s. She felt a product of the time rather than feeling a modern sentiment hiding in 1940s clothes.

Malcolm isn’t the most exciting of brooding male leads I will say, as he’s no Mr. Rochester, but we have Maude, the tall, lesbian-coded, pants-wearing geology professor who is full of snark and life, to balance him out.

When it comes to the romance angle, it’s very much not as thrilling as the blurb makes it sound. In fact, while it’s not subtle, it’s not exactly passionate. The characters react to their feelings in logical, pragmatic ways that, while that might be realistic, it doesn’t make for much of a bodice ripper or give you a huge payoff at the end emotionally. I wouldn’t call it a Romance, though there is a romantic angle that is prevalent. As much as I like an “I will die without you” or an “I loved you most ardently” scene, I liked their relationship - they seemed well-suited and what was keeping them apart made sense. The book is a mystery at the forefront, though, with their relationship tying in but not taking over. Honestly, I think this book would make a fantastic movie.

Speaking of the mystery, it’s a fun novel with several little twists that tie into one another. There is one twist I saw coming a mile away (which, if you know anything about LGBTQ+ relationships in the eras before gay rights, you’ll likely also pick up on it too), but it was still satisfactory, and the other turns were fun. Nothing made me sit up and say “oh my god, what!” but there were some red herrings to keep from guessing the story’s outcome.

I also liked how the novel skipped the melodrama. I was fully expecting a certain character to lose it and cause huge issues for the characters, but this didn't happen - it was settled off the page in a way that was actually refreshing.

The setting is fun too, in that it’s a WWII-era novel where the war doesn’t really come into it after the initial pages. It shows what life was like for people in the countryside, not the cities. The town seemed quaint and I liked the two roaming, escaped sheep that pop up here and there.

I also really enjoyed the brief, tantalizing look we get at the reason for the butterfly or moth on the cover of the novel. That scene felt like it fell right out of a Gothic mystery and I loved it. It was like a creepy butterfly conservatory.

At the end of the book, the author included some explanations for some very minor inaccuracies which I thought was quite interesting.

The book starts off a bit slow, and then by the end I really really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it if you like slow-burn, slightly creepy mysteries, moths, and the English countryside.

I really enjoyed Through A Darkening Glass. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction in recent years so felt quite at home with this book and the characters and world created between the pages. I wasn’t a huge fan of the romance elements, but I loved the cover and enough happens aside from the romance to hold my interest. I liked the mystery elements even though they were predictable at times. Overall, this is a good read.

3.5 stars. Historical romance isn't normally my favorite genre, but I couldn't resist this cover. I ended up really enjoying this story! I was afraid of it going in an infidelity direction, but I really liked how it ended up. I loved Ruth and Maud and Edith and Vera (and probably would've preferred the story to just be about Edith and Vera). The mystery all came together nicely but was predictable. The perspective shifts were sudden, especially in the second half of the book, but I actually didn't mind them.

Spoiler TL;DR: Come for the moths, stay for the lesbians. There could've been more lesbians though.

It's like R.S. Maxwell knows me and tried to get all of my favourite things into one story: mystery, history, ghost story, World War II, London, a writer, a small English village, restless spirits... be still my heart.

This was a realistic portrayal of life in a small village during the war, including rationing, blackouts, and the arrival of evacuees from the cities, as well as the closed nature of such a community and its distrust of outsiders. I do wish the mystery and ghost story components were stronger - I didn't feel the eeriness, tension, or suspense I'd like to from a mystery or ghost story. I also kept waiting for something riveting, but it never came - the stakes were never very high, and the minor things that popped up were resolved quickly with little fuss and no real repercussions. As such, I would categorize this more as a safe, quiet cozy mystery, with elements of historical fiction, mystery, and ghost story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC.

Ruth leaves her studies at Cambridge University to more to a small English village. Ruth, like many others are escaping the war. Ruth thinks she finds a perfect place to find security. World War Two is just one the events that is threatening her safety. The village has a mysterious past, years prior a wraith haunted the village and had been dormant for years. Until, the the arrival of new people, the wraith starts haunting the village again and the locals blame the new people. Ruth teams up with a soldier to discover the truth about this sinister entity. A mysterious thriller with a riveting plot and interesting characters.

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.