Are you like me and love being completely captivated by what you’re reading? Yes! 🙂 Then you need to read The Girl at the Window, the emotive ghost story set in the real life house Emily Bronte used as the setting for Wuthering Heights. In fact Emily Bronte strongly features in the novel, beautifully moving this haunting love story along.
Brilliantly interweaving historical fact with fiction, Rowan Coleman has written a powerful story that I can’t stop thinking about; and I finished it ages ago! It is beautiful involving mesmerising characters that just won’t leave me; and you know what – I don’t want them to leave me. The Girl in the Window is definitely a book I will be re-reading.
When Trudy’s husband Abe suddenly disappears, she returns with her young son Will to her ancestral home, Ponden Hall on the Yorkshire moors. Ponden Hall has been in Trudy’s family for over 500 years with her ancestor Robert Heaton reputed to have been in love with Emily Bronte; a love that was unrequited.
Estranged from her mother for over 16 years, Trudy is hoping returning home will help her and Will heal from their devastating loss; as well as mend her broken relationship with her mother. Returning to Ponden Hall, Trudy remembers happy childhood memories of her father’s story telling of ghosts and ancestors all connected to the Hall. Yet as she and Will experience more and more haunting experiences, Trudy begins to wonder if they were just stories. And then she uncovers Emily Bronte’s secrets hidden deep within the house.
What other secrets does Ponden Hall hold? And what will these ghostly secrets mean for Trudy and her family?
Believe me, you don’t need to have read Wuthering Heights to enjoy The Girl at the Window. Personally I don’t like Wuthering Heights – in fact I’ve previously written a blog post about it (and I’ve read and loved lots of Victorian novels in my time). I’ve just never understood the fascination of Cathy and Heathcliff. Hence when Trudy says in the novel that “Cathy was a terrible cow, and Heathcliff was a stone-cold psycho,” she succinctly echos my view. Yet although I am not a fan of Wuthering Heights, I am definitely a big fan of The Girl at the Window.
Whilst reading it I found myself frequently googling Ponden Hall and Emily Bronte. I want to go to Ponden Hall (now a B&B) and see for myself the rooms that inspired the setting for both Emily and Rowan’s novels. It sounds absolutely magical!
Rowan Coleman’s novel is haunting (yes, I felt on edge at times) but also beautiful; a ghostly love story portraying the power of enduring love and never giving up. I loved it and I know you will too.
Thank you Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be involved in the blog tour of The Girl at the Window. A special thank you to Rowan Coleman for this literary creation – it is truly magical.
The Girl at the Window is published tomorrow (Thursday 8th August) so if you want to be completely immersed in history, nature, ghosts and love – this is the book for you.
To read the reviews from my fellow book bloggers also on the blog tour of The Girl at the Window, please take a look below.
Happy reading everyone! 🙂
Thanks so much for the blog tour support Kirsty x