This gothic chilling ghost story tells about the eccentric Winterbourne Hall that resides in the English countryside in Cornwall by the sea. The book is set in time periods in 1947 Cornwall and present day New York City. We are introduced to Alice Miller in the beginning of the story where she discovers a job posting to become a governess to escape her past in London and wants to start fresh to get away from the sorrow and loss she has endured during the war and alienation from her own family. Alice travels to Cornwall at Winterbourne where she will become the governess for Captain Jonathan de Grey’s children after the previous governess had mysteriously disappeared and not kept their job to care for the children very long. Alice has no idea that taking this position will lead to something sinister and malicious that will change her life forever. She also has no ideas about the dark secrets her employer’s children and himself are hiding and they are not what she seems to think they are along with the house that seems charming, enchanting, and magnificent but there is something hidden that is dark and deceitful hiding behind the mask of appearances Alice assumes about them.
Then, we jump to the present day meeting our other main character Rachel Wright who is an artist in New York City and is trying to navigate her life and figure out her past and trying to piece together who her biological family was and where she came from. Rachel one day receives a mysterious letter from Cornwall indicating that her deceased aunt has passed and she is inheriting her birth family’s mansion of Winterbourne Hall. Rachel learns her birth family is the de Grays and she is determined to seek more answers and background about her birth family’s past and what lies in her inheritance of Winterbourne Hall. Will Rachel learn her birth family’s past? Will she uncover the sinister secrets her ancestors endured of the mansion’s legacy and those who lived there? Is there a connection between Alice Miller and Rachel Wright that will solve the pieces of the puzzle that Rachel is trying to connect regarding her birth family and their lineage? You will need to read this spooky story to solve the answers to this spooky story!
I highly recommend The Woman in The Mirror and it was a great read for the spooky season of October! This book had a lot of spookiness, gothic elements, twists and turns, as well as mystery to it that had me wanting to read more to figure out if the two main characters past and present had a connection and the dark secrets that Winterbourne Hall held. I would recommend this to readers who love ghost, gothic, horror, mysteries, and historical fiction books. This book will not disappoint you and it will have you on the edge of your seat wanting to read more and find out what happens next !