The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James

 

Summary (from the publisher): For more than two centuries, Winterbourne Hall has stood atop a bluff overseeing the English countryside of Cornwall and the sea beyond.

In 1947, Londoner Alice Miller accepts a post as governess at Winterbourne, looking after Captain Jonathan de Grey’s twin children. Falling under the de Greys’ spell, Alice believes the family will heal her own past sorrows. But then the twins’ adoration becomes deceitful and taunting. Their father, ever distant, turns spiteful and cruel. The manor itself seems to lash out. Alice finds her surroundings subtly altered, her air slightly chilled. Something malicious resents her presence, something clouding her senses and threatening her very sanity.

In present day New York, art gallery curator Rachel Wright has learned she is a descendant of the de Greys and heir to Winterbourne. Adopted as an infant, she never knew her birth parents or her lineage. At long last, Rachel will find answers to questions about her identity that have haunted her entire life. But what she finds in Cornwall is a devastating tragic legacy that has afflicted generations of de Greys. A legacy borne from greed and deceit, twisted by madness, and suffused with unrequited love and unequivocal rage.

Review: In 1947, Alice Miller accepts a job as a governess for motherless twins in a large estate in Cornwall. While at first the children seem charming and their father alluring, things begin to turn sinister. Alice finds herself bewitched by the house and taunted by the children. Nothing at Winterbourne Hall is quite what it seems. In alternate chapters, the reader follows present day Rachel in New York, who learns that she has inherited Winterbourne from the birth family she never knew. She travels to Cornwall to visit the home and learn about the de Grey family. But Rachel undercovers a tragic legacy that has haunted generations of the de Greys and threatens her own future. 

This gothic style novel had a lot of promising elements. An eerie dual narrative plotline! A creepy, haunted mansion complete with a hot widower and bewitched twins! A history of mysterious, unexplained deaths! However, it all felt too far-fetched. It felt as if James was throwing everything possible in the plot to make it alluring and creepy and it just felt too overblown. It was also full of tropes of gothic novels and felt duplicative and hackneyed at best. In short, it felt like a cheap imitation of a Daphne du Maurier novel. Furthermore, neither of the main characters were particularly well fleshed out and the way they passionately threw their lot in quickly with whichever man fell into their paths was off putting. 

I love a good gothic novel and appreciate James' attempt to introduce a new one, but I would have liked to have seen more originality rather than such familiar and already well-done elements and plot choices. 

Stars: 2.5