The Manor on the Moors
by
Liz Taylorson
Today I am so excited to be sharing my review of this brilliant read from Liz Taylorson as part of her blog tour.
Thank you so much to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to take part. I hope you enjoy my review.
Book Description
Alice has landed her dream job, searching the Misterley Manor archives for tales of the elusive Gilbert Fox-Travers - life should be perfect, if only she could untangle her complicated love life...
Caroline is desperately trying to keep Misterley from falling down around her ears, and it’s a tough enough job without throwing a stroppy teenager, a difficult ex-husband and a cantankerous father into the mix.
When disaster strikes, Caroline and her family must pull together to save her beloved family home...Can Alice uncover the mystery of Gilbert Fox-Travers in time to save the Manor?
My Review
This is an absolutely brilliant read that is full of twists and turns and I loved it from the first page to the last.
Alice is studying a PHD on the mysteries surround the illusive Gilbert Fox-Travers and his life within Misterley Manor. Not everyone is happy that she is in the Manor studying especially her boyfriend Sebastian who is begging her to go back home and become his dutiful wife. This is something that doesn't appeal to Alice however she feels in debt to him and isn't sure what to do the for the best. Alice is really lacking in confidence from her relationship with Sebastian and this is having a huge impact on her life.
Caroline is finding it hard to juggle all the aspects of her life, she's got a teenage daughter, Emily who she feels is going off the rails, she has an ex-husband she feels is trying to outdo her as a parent, and then she is looking after her father who is proving to get more and more difficult as the days go by. On top of all the Caroline is desperate to make a success of Misterley Manor and return the house to its former glory so her daughter has a legacy. It feels like its all a balancing act that could all fall down at any time and this is making Caroline miserable so she takes it out on those closest to her.
It isn't long before a relationship of sorts forms between the two women and they realise that they may need each others help after all especially after disaster strikes the Manor. can they all pull together, solve the mystery and save the Manor before it is too late?
I really like both of the female characters in this book. It is amazing to read about Alice grow and develop her self confidence and she grows in strength as she becomes more intwined with the Mysteries surrounding the Manor. Caroline is a great character to read about first I found her too hard and quick to judge those around her, but its great to see her relax as the book goes along and become less uptight and let more people into her life too.
There is a range of support characters within the book that also add a lot to the story. There is Duncan, Caroline's ex husband and father to Emily Carolines daughter. he is around at times to pick up Emily and the seems to really annoy Caroline and her rather cranky father. There is also the rather dotty Majorie who is always popping up around the Manor and she has some very interesting stories to tell. There is also the gorgeous head gardener Tom with whom Alice has a will they won't they relationship with that'll keep you guessing all the way through.
I really like the style of writing by Liz Taylorson, she has a way of describing the scene as if you could be there too, and this really draws you into the book and keep you there as you try and guess what will happen next right up to the last page.
I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to see what Liz brings us next.
Alice is studying a PHD on the mysteries surround the illusive Gilbert Fox-Travers and his life within Misterley Manor. Not everyone is happy that she is in the Manor studying especially her boyfriend Sebastian who is begging her to go back home and become his dutiful wife. This is something that doesn't appeal to Alice however she feels in debt to him and isn't sure what to do the for the best. Alice is really lacking in confidence from her relationship with Sebastian and this is having a huge impact on her life.
Caroline is finding it hard to juggle all the aspects of her life, she's got a teenage daughter, Emily who she feels is going off the rails, she has an ex-husband she feels is trying to outdo her as a parent, and then she is looking after her father who is proving to get more and more difficult as the days go by. On top of all the Caroline is desperate to make a success of Misterley Manor and return the house to its former glory so her daughter has a legacy. It feels like its all a balancing act that could all fall down at any time and this is making Caroline miserable so she takes it out on those closest to her.
It isn't long before a relationship of sorts forms between the two women and they realise that they may need each others help after all especially after disaster strikes the Manor. can they all pull together, solve the mystery and save the Manor before it is too late?
I really like both of the female characters in this book. It is amazing to read about Alice grow and develop her self confidence and she grows in strength as she becomes more intwined with the Mysteries surrounding the Manor. Caroline is a great character to read about first I found her too hard and quick to judge those around her, but its great to see her relax as the book goes along and become less uptight and let more people into her life too.
There is a range of support characters within the book that also add a lot to the story. There is Duncan, Caroline's ex husband and father to Emily Carolines daughter. he is around at times to pick up Emily and the seems to really annoy Caroline and her rather cranky father. There is also the rather dotty Majorie who is always popping up around the Manor and she has some very interesting stories to tell. There is also the gorgeous head gardener Tom with whom Alice has a will they won't they relationship with that'll keep you guessing all the way through.
I really like the style of writing by Liz Taylorson, she has a way of describing the scene as if you could be there too, and this really draws you into the book and keep you there as you try and guess what will happen next right up to the last page.
I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to see what Liz brings us next.
About the Author
Liz has always surrounded herself with books. As a child, she was always to be found with her head in one and she still has a bookcase full of her childhood favourites to this day. (As a thirteen-year-old she read The Lord of the Rings twelve times in a row, cover to cover!) All this reading led, unsurprisingly, to a degree in English Literature, (and another book-case full of books) and then a job as a cataloguer of early printed books for a major university library. This meant spending hours sitting in a beautiful, ancient building looking at antique leather-bound tomes – although as so many of them turned out to be rather boring volumes of sermons she wasn’t tempted to read them! She went on to train others to catalogue books and her earliest attempts at writing anything as an adult consisted of instructions on how to work out the correct form of an author’s name to use in a library catalogue.
Children (and then cats and chickens) interrupted her bibliographic career, and having given up library work Liz found herself doing more reading, and increasingly she found herself enjoying novels by writers like Trisha Ashley, Katie Fforde, Milly Johnson and Lucy Diamond. Inspired by their example, she started writing fiction and hasn’t stopped since, joining the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s wonderful New Writers’ Scheme to try to learn how to write novels properly in 2015. She has also attempted writing some short stories, with one The Second Princess winning a competition in Writing Magazine which led her to think that maybe publication wasn’t a pipe dream after all.
Liz owes everything to her tolerant and long-suffering husband Ben and her tolerant and long-suffering children, but very little to the cats who are neither tolerant nor long-suffering and keep sitting on the computer keyboard and messing up her manuscript if she forgets to feed them on time.
When not reading or writing Liz is often to be found on stage (or behind it) with her local amateur dramatic society, drinking tea, or visiting one of the several North Yorkshire seaside villages which were the inspiration for the fictional Rawscar, the setting for her debut novel The Little Church by the Sea.
You can find Liz Taylorson on twitter https://www.twitter.com/@taylorson_liz
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and read my review.
Look at where else you can visit the tour.
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