I received a copy of The Cruel Dark by Bea Northwick from NetGalley. The Cruel Dark is a historical gothic romance fiction novel. It follows the character of Millicent Foxboro. She has no memory of the last two years of her life. She gets an offer to work as an assistant for a professor, Callum Hughes. The story is set in the Jazz Age, late 1920s. The gothic setting and the time period fascinated me about the book.
Millicent woke up in a mental facility for traumatic amnesia and spent two months there. She doesn’t have any memory of events leading up to that and the last couple of years have been erased. Thankfully, she finds work with an older gentleman at his shop and lives in the small apartment above it. She doesn’t have a lot of prospects career-wise so she is surprised when she gets an offer to be an assistant for Professor Callum Hughes at his estate Willowfield, and help him with his research. She wants to finish her work here with Callum even though she has trouble adjusting. She is very determined.
Millie and Callum’s romance blooms quite slowly. There is a clear attraction but also reservations from both sides. Callum is an intense man. He is smart but broody, and Millie does not know what to make of him. The estate itself is in disrepair and is supposed to be haunted. Millie starts finding out secrets about the estate as well as Callum, which intrigues and confuses her. Millie is wary of Callum because she has been warned indirectly about him by the staff, but she can’t help but be drawn to him. Callum definitely hides secrets about his past and his ex-wife, who died. Millie has a tough time adjusting at Willowfield, but as she spends more time with Callum, her restlessness settles to an extent. There is an air of mystery from the start about the estate, Callum, and even Millie.
I enjoyed the way gothic and horror elements are woven into the story. Millie worries about her deteriorating mental state because she sees things that can’t be explained, adding to the mysterious air around Callum makes her question what or who she can trust. Callum is immediately drawn to Millie but tries to keep their relationship professional until they cannot. I loved how realistic their romance seems with the build-up to it and the timeline. Almost till the end, I could not figure out Callum, which is exactly how it is supposed to be because we see everything through Millie’s eyes. Bea Northwick’s The Cruel Dark kept me intrigued from the first page, and I loved how the story ended up taking shape. Callum and Millie’s characters are a strong draw for the story, and also their romance.
The Cruel Dark by Bea Northwick is a fascinating gothic romance story set in a historical setting. I loved the way the horror, mystery, and romance are mixed in the story; it flows naturally in the narrative. I loved reading The Cruel Dark by Bea Northwick. I didn’t know what to expect, but it surpassed all my expectations, and I cannot wait to explore more of this author’s work.
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