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dilchh's review against another edition
5.0
Damn, Girl! 👏🏼👏🏼
I honestly didn’t expect to have enjoyed this book so much. I was literally carrying this book around, to the toilet, to a family gathering, even as I was accompanying me Mum to some sort like a Home Depot kind of thing, I was just going around with my nose stuck in the book. Sure, there were still the typical cliches that I’ve mentioned before; (1) the main character experiencing major loss in her life? ✔️; (2) after the loss, the main character decided to move away in order to start something new to help recover from the loss? ✔️; (3) there was something ominous link to the past between the main character and the new place? ✔️; (4) the link to the past had something to do with a family history? ✔️; (5) there’s another guy who seems to be annoying and quite mysterious in the beginning, only to end up as the main love interest of the main character? ✔️; (6) for some reasons, apparently the guy had a strong connection to the past also? ✔️.
Oh, wow! Will you look at that? A full six check lists of things showing the exact same thing that I found in The Silver Witch. But! Hold down your tongue! Although it shares a lot of basic premises, both stories differs in its genre; whilst The Silver Witch is more fantasy-like (what with some witch and/or shaman-like character in the story), The House Between Tides is more mystery-type as the characters set out to crack the mystery that lies in the house between tides.
So, then, what’s so good about this book? The back and forth story and the getting-to-know your characters in depthly are the two things that made this book stand out. It’s not always about Hetty, even though you think she was your main character, but it is everyone in the area of the house and the people before them who inhabits the island. You grew to sympathise with the characters, and that what makes me so hung up on the story.
I honestly didn’t expect to have enjoyed this book so much. I was literally carrying this book around, to the toilet, to a family gathering, even as I was accompanying me Mum to some sort like a Home Depot kind of thing, I was just going around with my nose stuck in the book. Sure, there were still the typical cliches that I’ve mentioned before; (1) the main character experiencing major loss in her life? ✔️; (2) after the loss, the main character decided to move away in order to start something new to help recover from the loss? ✔️; (3) there was something ominous link to the past between the main character and the new place? ✔️; (4) the link to the past had something to do with a family history? ✔️; (5) there’s another guy who seems to be annoying and quite mysterious in the beginning, only to end up as the main love interest of the main character? ✔️; (6) for some reasons, apparently the guy had a strong connection to the past also? ✔️.
Oh, wow! Will you look at that? A full six check lists of things showing the exact same thing that I found in The Silver Witch. But! Hold down your tongue! Although it shares a lot of basic premises, both stories differs in its genre; whilst The Silver Witch is more fantasy-like (what with some witch and/or shaman-like character in the story), The House Between Tides is more mystery-type as the characters set out to crack the mystery that lies in the house between tides.
So, then, what’s so good about this book? The back and forth story and the getting-to-know your characters in depthly are the two things that made this book stand out. It’s not always about Hetty, even though you think she was your main character, but it is everyone in the area of the house and the people before them who inhabits the island. You grew to sympathise with the characters, and that what makes me so hung up on the story.
omgnikki's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
carolineabeachum's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
strangenoquestion's review against another edition
5.0
My favorite spooky read this year. The story has 2 protagonists separated by 100 years but both intimately involved with a house built on an island in the Scottish Outer Hebrides. A unidentified body, a series of unsettling paintings, and the destructive power dynamics of colonial empire are all woven into a story that deeply moved me. Provocative and poignant, my mind has returned to this tale many times since finishing it. Truly “haunting.”
lee25's review against another edition
4.0
[b:The House Between Tides|25814507|The House Between Tides|Sarah Maine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469968851s/25814507.jpg|45671195] is a dual timeline novel. Hetty’s story is set in 2010 and Beatrice’s in 1910. The novel was mostly focussed on Beatrice’s time - I would have liked to read a bit more of Hetty’s timelime.
Both women had tragedies in their lives. Hetty’s are mentioned in the book but not elaborated on, but her history causes her to rely on the male characters in her timeline to make her decisions for her. Most of the problems Beatrice faced are detailed in the book, but they make her stronger and cause her to fight for the things she believes in.
I felt that even at the end of the book,.
Despite my ambivalence to Hetty, [b:The House Between Tides|25814507|The House Between Tides|Sarah Maine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469968851s/25814507.jpg|45671195] was a really enjoyable read.
Both women had tragedies in their lives. Hetty’s are mentioned in the book but not elaborated on, but her history causes her to rely on the male characters in her timeline to make her decisions for her. Most of the problems Beatrice faced are detailed in the book, but they make her stronger and cause her to fight for the things she believes in.
I felt that even at the end of the book,
Spoiler
Hetty had just swapped Giles making her decisions for her to letting James do it insteadDespite my ambivalence to Hetty, [b:The House Between Tides|25814507|The House Between Tides|Sarah Maine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469968851s/25814507.jpg|45671195] was a really enjoyable read.
perjacxis's review against another edition
4.0
I had some issues with this book but on the other hand I enjoyed it immensely and just have to give it four stars.
krobart's review against another edition
3.0
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/review-1827-the-house-between-tides/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/review-1827-the-house-between-tides/
judithdcollins's review against another edition
4.0
British author, Sarah Maine, delivers an atmospheric mysterious and suspenseful debut, THE HOUSE BETWEEN TIDES —a compelling mix of historic, Gothic and contemporary. A mystery of two women a century apart.
From 1889 (Theo), 1910 (Beatrice) - 1945 to present, 2010, (Hetty) a woman returns to an inherited home and discovers a hidden secret.
A crumbling mansion, an estate in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. With the intentions of renovating and selling it as a hotel. Hetty begins her journey.
However, the old house, has secrets, history, and a sordid past. Harriet Deveraux (Hetty) sets out to unravel the secrets and mystery surrounding it’s former owners, Beatrice Blake and her husband Theo, a famous painter (also with a hidden life).
The Muirlan House. It was huge. Much larger than Hetty had been expecting. A sign, danger, unsafe, deep out. Private property. She could not wait to see the inside. The place was now hers. An abandoned house. She knew nothing of restoring houses or running a hotel.
The island as her grandmother had described, on the edge of the world. She had been warned. The lawyer acting has her grandmother’s executor had told her the place had been empty for many years and would need work. A nightmare! Some called it a “death trap.”
Local assessor James Cameron finds a skeleton beneath the floorboards. There were bones. A corpse. An oval locket on a gold chain. A woman.
In 1910, Beatrice Blake, a young bride, and her husband, a painter, Theo Blake, travel from Edinburgh to Theo’s estate on Muirlan island, the remote Muirlan House. He had a deep bond with the place and inspiration for many of his early paintings. Their marriage does not last. Betrayal.
Theo had brought her here to his dream world, eager to share it but his passion had turned aside. Inward, excluding her, darkening to something she could not understand and she had become lost.
Alternating between timelines, between 1920 and 2010, with copyeditor, Hetty Deveraux, arriving from London to the Muirlan House.
Grief. Her parent’s death. An accident, but sudden and violent, and now three years later. Loss. A failed takeoff, a crash just beyond the runway. Then her grandmother’s death two months previously from dementia. She felt like she had been sleepwalking ever since.
Hetty had never had the sense of belonging. Her father’s job with the foreign office had meant that home was not a place, but a transient. Her childhood had been spent flying back and forth from boarding school.
An old crime with dark shadows lurking over Hetty’s new start.
Theo Blake was something of a recluse, with his last twenty years alone in the house, letting it fall apart around him. It was always said the Blakes left the island together, although she never returned.
Since inheriting the house, Hetty had been trying to learn more about the mysterious Theodore Blake. While his artistic achievements were well-documented, there was little written about his personal life and his later reclusive years were unrecorded except for the fact that he had drowned as an old man while crossing Muirlan Strand.
Maine takes us back to the history of young Beatrice, her family and meeting Theo Blake, the strikingly handsome man. Thereafter a mystery. What drove the couple apart? A connection.
Mystical, moody and dark. Mysterious and intriguing. Richly psychological, the author weaves secrets from both past and present with an evocative setting and story, both haunting and romantic.
For fans of Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, Karen White, Sarah Jio, and Kate Morton!
I also purchased the audiobook, narrated by Justine Eyre for a captivating performance. Looking forward to more by the author.
A special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
From 1889 (Theo), 1910 (Beatrice) - 1945 to present, 2010, (Hetty) a woman returns to an inherited home and discovers a hidden secret.
A crumbling mansion, an estate in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. With the intentions of renovating and selling it as a hotel. Hetty begins her journey.
However, the old house, has secrets, history, and a sordid past. Harriet Deveraux (Hetty) sets out to unravel the secrets and mystery surrounding it’s former owners, Beatrice Blake and her husband Theo, a famous painter (also with a hidden life).
The Muirlan House. It was huge. Much larger than Hetty had been expecting. A sign, danger, unsafe, deep out. Private property. She could not wait to see the inside. The place was now hers. An abandoned house. She knew nothing of restoring houses or running a hotel.
The island as her grandmother had described, on the edge of the world. She had been warned. The lawyer acting has her grandmother’s executor had told her the place had been empty for many years and would need work. A nightmare! Some called it a “death trap.”
Local assessor James Cameron finds a skeleton beneath the floorboards. There were bones. A corpse. An oval locket on a gold chain. A woman.
In 1910, Beatrice Blake, a young bride, and her husband, a painter, Theo Blake, travel from Edinburgh to Theo’s estate on Muirlan island, the remote Muirlan House. He had a deep bond with the place and inspiration for many of his early paintings. Their marriage does not last. Betrayal.
Theo had brought her here to his dream world, eager to share it but his passion had turned aside. Inward, excluding her, darkening to something she could not understand and she had become lost.
Alternating between timelines, between 1920 and 2010, with copyeditor, Hetty Deveraux, arriving from London to the Muirlan House.
Grief. Her parent’s death. An accident, but sudden and violent, and now three years later. Loss. A failed takeoff, a crash just beyond the runway. Then her grandmother’s death two months previously from dementia. She felt like she had been sleepwalking ever since.
Hetty had never had the sense of belonging. Her father’s job with the foreign office had meant that home was not a place, but a transient. Her childhood had been spent flying back and forth from boarding school.
An old crime with dark shadows lurking over Hetty’s new start.
Theo Blake was something of a recluse, with his last twenty years alone in the house, letting it fall apart around him. It was always said the Blakes left the island together, although she never returned.
Since inheriting the house, Hetty had been trying to learn more about the mysterious Theodore Blake. While his artistic achievements were well-documented, there was little written about his personal life and his later reclusive years were unrecorded except for the fact that he had drowned as an old man while crossing Muirlan Strand.
Maine takes us back to the history of young Beatrice, her family and meeting Theo Blake, the strikingly handsome man. Thereafter a mystery. What drove the couple apart? A connection.
Mystical, moody and dark. Mysterious and intriguing. Richly psychological, the author weaves secrets from both past and present with an evocative setting and story, both haunting and romantic.
For fans of Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, Karen White, Sarah Jio, and Kate Morton!
I also purchased the audiobook, narrated by Justine Eyre for a captivating performance. Looking forward to more by the author.
A special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
melohpa's review against another edition
3.0
See my full review at https://topplingbookpile.wordpress.com/2022/06/05/the-house-between-tides-by-sarah-maine/