Paulette Kennedy, the Author of “The Artist of Blackberry Grange” has written a powerful, edgy, chilling thriller. The varied Genres are: Occult, Horror, Women’s Historical Fiction, Gothic, Mystery, Paranormal, Suspense, and Ghost Stories. The timeline for this story is set in 1925. The setting is in a large mansion in Arkansas. Paulette Kennedy vividly describes eerie and frightening scenes and quirky, unbalanced, and dramatic characters. One of the female protagonists, Sadie Halloran becomes a companion for her elderly eccentric great-aunt Marguerite. She does receive warnings from some people in the mansion, that it is dangerous and haunted by ghosts. After some tragic upsets in her life, Sadie feels she has no choice, and she has to stay and help the elderly aunt.

Marguerite seems to be exhibiting signs of dementia, but is obsessed with painting. Sadie feels the paintings are communicating and speaking to her. Some characters from the paintings seem to be directly seeking Sadie out. Sadie senses that the “spirits” from the ghost-like characters are looking for something. Sadie also discovers that there were some unfortunate accidents before she arrived at the mansion. .How can Sadie stop the haunted danger that she senses is headed her way? It was difficult for me to put this book down. I highly recommend this intense novel with twists and turns, and secrets.

"Artists are here to disturb the peace." (James Baldwin)

And nothing disturbs life more than the one grasping the brush.

Paulette Kennedy creates a kettle of artistic fish here. Who exactly is gripping that easel of various colors and shades to portray what that life was in the past and what it will be in the present?

Sadie Halloran has reached bottom. She's sporting an engagement ring that has absolutely no value. Her fiance has dumped her and there's no light except from what shines from that unlucky ring. With no other options, Sadie decides to enlist herself as a live-in companion for her great aunt Marguerite in Arkansas. So Sadie packs up what little she has in Kansas City here in 1925 and invites herself when uninvited.

Marguerite suffers from dementia. As a result, she has good days and bad. She barely remembers her great niece who has wedged her way into her household. Marguerite was once a renowned artist. But those days are much into decay.......much like this mansion.

As the days pass, Sadie finds a particular room that doesn't seem to have been opened in eons. She finds a painting. That painting will introduce her to Marguerite's early days of her youth. And in addition, it will find her in the presence of an enchanting man who holds many, many secrets.

The Artist of Blackberry Grange is well told by Paulette Kennedy. I have not read her before. There's plenty of back and forth in time periods here that expand the storyline. The character of Sadie is more complex with droplets of Good Sadie and Not So Good Sadie. Kennedy takes us readers on a journey into the past where human nature and family issues lay down the bricks for the future and its relationships. An entertaining read.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to Paulette Kennedy for the opportunity.

This isn't normally a title I would pick up (i.e., historical fiction), but I'm so glad I did! Great tale about making amends with your past set within a gothic backdrop.

Beautifully layered and compelling. Paulette Kennedy has a gift for blending traditional gothic tropes with vibrant characters and unique storylines. In THE ARTIST OF BLACKBERRY GRANGE, Kennedy’s writing shines as she explores the deeper complexities of time, relationships, and the choices people make in the name of love, both good and bad. I loved every gorgeous minute of this book.

You know I love a good gothic mystery - haunted mansions, eerie paintings, family secrets creeping out of the past. "The Artist of Blackberry Grange" gave me all that, but with a few bumps along the way.

Sadie, our main character, is in a rough spot. Her mother just died, her engagement is over, and she’s basically an outcast in 1920s society. So, off she goes to her great-aunt’s crumbling mansion in Arkansas, where things immediately get weird. Marguerite, her aunt, is losing herself to dementia, but her paintings? They have a life of their own. Literally. Sadie finds herself slipping through time, uncovering dark family secrets and, of course, getting tangled in a messy romance.

The atmosphere? Chef’s kiss. Dark, unsettling, and full of that slow-burning dread I crave in a gothic novel. But the romance felt a little...off. Rushed, maybe? And while the book played with some really interesting themes; family trauma, caregiving, how the past shapes us. I wanted to feel more inside the characters’ heads, especially with all the lies and manipulations flying around.

Still, it kept me turning pages. If you love gothic historical fiction with a supernatural twist, this one’s worth a read. Just be prepared to roll your eyes at Sadie once or twice.

Thank you Netgalley & Lake Union Publishing for the digital copies to review

#TheArtistofBlackberryGrange #NetGalley.

Thanks to Net Galley for the digital ARC of this lovely book! This was my third book by Paulette Kennedy, and just like her other two, The Artist of Blackberry Grange was written beautifully and with care. Kennedy’s characters are flawed and wholly realized, and her stories, though with some fantastical elements, stay grounded in a sometimes harsh reality.

Sadie, the main character, was a little hard to pull for at first, but as I better got to know her, I couldn’t help but love her and her plucky, go-after-what-you-want attitude.

If you haven’t picked up a Kennedy novel yet, I highly recommend it. I would describe each of her books as perfect entries in the “good for her” historical fiction realm.

I loved the spooky time-slips in The Artist of Blackberry Grange! Though Marguerite’s mind and body are failing, her evocative paintings catapult great-niece, Sadie, back into their family’s troubled past. Down-on-her-luck flapper Sadie is a captivated voyeur, striving to decipher these visions and learn more about the sexy ghost who bedevils her present as much as her female relatives’ past. But will she be able to resist him, or befall the sinister fate of her predecessor at the gothic mansion? Eerie suspense abounds at Blackberry Grange, with chilling scenarios both within and beyond the haunted paintings, interlaced alongside a sweet, tentative new romance. A great addition to the gothic genre!

Highly recommended for fans of gothic historical fiction!
Here’s a captivating tapestry of gothic atmosphere, suspense, and hidden family trauma, drawing the reader into a world where paintings become bizarre portals into the past. Paulette Kennedy masterfully crafts a character-driven narrative, allowing the long-buried secrets of a family to creep to the surface with the stealth and power of a lion stalking its prey. Just when you think you have a grasp on the unfolding mystery, the plot twists and turns, that will leave you captured.
The story centers around the FMC Sadie, who finds herself entangled in the unraveling of her family's shadowed history. The gothic setting, rich with evocative imagery, creates a palpable sense of unease, perfectly complementing the suspense that permeates every page. The paintings have a strange and unsettling life of their own. They serve as more than just objects; they become windows into a past that refuses to stay buried.
"The Artist of Blackberry Grange" is more than just a gothic thriller; it's a poignant exploration of caregiving, generational trauma, and the enduring impact of our actions across generations.

With historical fiction, I search for evocative atmosphere and original characters, and I found both in Paulette Kennedy's latest novel. Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and its old houses yield a fascinating atmosphere. I would really love to see one of these houses built in the late 19th century! To me, though, the chief attraction of The Arist of Blackberry Grange was its main character, Sadie. The author has the ability to make me care about someone and root for her when she is full of flaws. Recovering from a sordid affair with a married man, she is far from proud of herself. She goes to Eureka Springs to take care of a great-aunt mostly because she feels chased out of her hometown and has no way to support herself. She's messed up her life and while fairly young, the mistakes are starting to add up. The description of Aunt Marguerite's dementia feels very real, as is Sadie feeling overwhelmed. But along with these realistic problems a Gothic mood takes hold and the possibility of the supernatural. You would think that the plight of the unmarried sexually active woman in the 1920s, the exhaustion of caregiving for the elderly, and financial problems would have trouble blending into a story of the dead possibly appearing again. But it all works very well! I cared very much what happened to Sadie and I found the other characters well drawn. At the end of the Author's Note she shares some of the novels that influenced her, I see The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier. That novel also had an original approach with blending past and present. The Artist of Blackberry Grange will stick with you after reading it...

4 🌟

'The Witch of Tin Mountain' was an unexpected delight to me when I read it a few years ago, so I was more than happy to get my hands on this book.

In true gothic fashion, this is a roller coaster ride of the mysterious, the slightly spooky, and the just plain weird.

Most of the time I was more than happy to suspend my disbelief and get carried away by this tale - I absolutely love an old house full of secrets, tragic pasts coming back to haunt, inexplicable magic, etc, and this book abounds with those tropes in the most delightful way. Occasionally, I found myself rolling my eyes at Sadie and her decision-making skills, but overall I enjoyed the drama and my time with this read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This is such a well-done gothic story. It’s set in the 1920’s and that isn’t a time period I read about often. I really enjoyed how atmospheric this one was. It was very immersive and unsettling at times. This book is full of family secrets which I love to read about, and this one was so much fun. The worldbuilding in this book was so good and really sucked me in. I needed to keep turning the pages to find out what was going to happen, it was just that good. The amount of research that went into this book shined through and it was obvious that it was done. This book was also so creepy and unsettling at times and I just loved it. This book was a whirlwind in the best possible way, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you’re looking for a fun gothic book set in the 1920’s then check this one out.

The Artist of Blackberry Grange
by Paulette Kennedy
Pub Date: May 01 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In the summer of 1925, the winds of change are particularly chilling for a young woman whose life has suddenly become unbalanced.

Devastated by her mother’s death and a cruel, broken engagement, Sadie Halloran learns that her great-aunt Marguerite, a renowned artist now in the throes of dementia, needs a live-in companion. Grasping at newfound purpose, Sadie leaves her desolate Kansas City boardinghouse for Blackberry Grange, Marguerite’s once-grand mansion sitting precariously atop an Arkansas bluff. Though Marguerite is a fading shell of the vibrant woman Sadie remembers, Marguerite is feverishly compelled to paint eerie, hallucinatory portraits of old lovers—some cherished, some regretted, and some beastly. All of them haunting.

With each passing night, time itself seems to shift with the shadows at Blackberry Grange. As truth and delusion begin to blur, Sadie must uncover the secrets that hold Marguerite captive to her past before reality—and Marguerite’s life—slips away entirely.

We meet Sadie in early 1900s America, where class structure and propriety is strictly enforced. Sadie has made many choices in her life that made her an outcast and she’s desperate to escape the trappings of life she’s found herself in. So she goes to her great-aunt Marg’s mansion in Missouri to assist in caring for her becomes more and more ill with dementia.

But there’s a curse on the family and Marg’s paintings have their own kind of magic. Sadie finds herself time travelling to Marg’s past and in doing so reveals the messy knot of family secrets.

There are many threads to this story. The main story of Marg making peace with her past and becoming closer to Sadie in the process is very sweet. There’s some modern takes on historical notions on race and class that are semi-pointed but fine (there’s one black woman who is a maid/nurse for Marg), many opinions about the Irish, and a pretty messy romance plot on Sadie’s end. The romance felt a bit forced and fast to make a happy ending, but overall was fine.

All in all, it’s a fine read. Well written if lacking anything spectacular that would make me recommend or reach for another of this authors work.

Kennedy continues to outdo herself with a haunting tale that is both fresh in its takes on beloved tropes, as well as true to her oeuvre and the Gothic literary tradition. With gasp-out-loud twists, heartfelt characters that jump off the page, and soft and beautiful magic around the edges, The Artist of Blackberry Grange might be my favorite Paulette Kennedy book so far. I cannot wait to see where she takes us next.

Paulette Kennedy has become one of my favorite authors, and The Artist of Blackberry Grange is her best work yet. With a deftness for blending gothic themes in unexpected ways, Kennedy has spun a tale of generational trauma and its lasting effects through her unforgettable characters, all within the unique setting of 1920s Eureka Springs. Readers familiar with her prior work will find one particularly delightful cameo, but it’s Sadie and Marguerite who are the beating heart of this story, and it’s their strength and love that leads to a most satisfying and bittersweet ending.

Atmospheric and layered in its hauntings, Kennedy’s latest follows a young woman at loose ends in her life who goes to live with her great-aunt in 1920s rural Arkansas during her great-aunt’s declining health. While there, she discovers the house is haunted and her great-aunt’s nostalgic portraits may be the only way to discover why. With a clear and admiring nod to The Picture of Dorian Gray, the portraits are more than paint and canvas, blurring lines between past and present, seductive and sinister. While allowing ghosts to inhabit the house, they also draw the heroine into the past where she can witness her family’s history, which turns out to be full of secrets and animosities that have affected generations since. Through this device, Kennedy explores the impact of family trauma, and the questions we ask about what, if anything, we can change about our past, and how we use our knowledge of our family history to avoid repeating the errors and cruelties of our ancestors. Thoughtfully and briskly rendered, with a strong sense of time and place, a delightfully flawed and relatable heroine, a charming but malicious villain to overcome, and an unfolding mystery to keep pages turning, this one’s a good fit for historical readers who enjoy a twist of magic and the sheer fun of a drafty corridor that leaves shivers on the back of one’s neck.

What an engrossing book! Sadie starts out as a depressed and desperate woman who has nowhere to go and jumps at a chance to find a place at her aunt's. It seems she is not really able to handle all the responsibility and then she meets the 'man' in the attic. This story has vibes of Anne Rice's Mayfair witches, but then branches out away from it. There's lots of suspense, twists, and good old fashion haunting in it.

This novel takes place in 1925 and follows Sadie, who after a broken engagement, decides to return to a mansion known as Blackberry Grange, where her great aunt Marguerite lives. Marguerite has been ill for sometime and requires a live-in companion, and Sadie immediately sets off to the Ozarks for a new start.

When she arrives, she meets Harriet, Marguerite’s nurse, and Beckett, the gardener. Marguerite herself tends to spend her time painting landscapes and portraits of those from her past. These are not typical portraits however, as each one seems more haunting and more intriguing than the last.

The longer Sadie stays at Blackberry Grange, the more she discovers that things are not as they appear. When the past and the present begin to blur together, it is up to Sadie to discover the truth before it is too late.

This book was fantastic and had me hooked from the first page. This was my first time reading a book by this author but it will not be my last. The writing was very good and the characters all well done. The story and the concept itself were original and well executed. I couldn’t help but be a bit sad when the book ended, as I wanted more of the characters and their lives (but in a good way!)

Thank you to the author and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review an ARC!

This book made me cry!! I've read all of Paulette Kennedy's books, and this one is tied as my favorite along with Parting the Veil. I loved the way Kennedy utilized art in the story, and the way Marguerite was portrayed. It's an excellent premise, with such a great exploration of family, generational trauma, and of course, Gothic elements. Kennedy is a master of the genre and I highly recommend this book!

I loved Paulette Kennedy's The Devil and Mrs Davenport and was really excited to see this one on netgalley. Kennedy does ghosts really well. I generally don't like books that are gimicky and the ghosts attempt jump scares. However Kennedy's books make the ghosts seem real as they build relationships with real people. With The Artist of Blackberry Grange I started to get a little bored as some of it seemed repetitive and nothing huge was happening. It almost seemed like the book was ending midway through. Overall I did enjoy this story and reading about the power of love and letting go of of those you have loved.