The Haunting at Hawkes Moor by Camille Oster

The Haunting at Hawkes Moor Reviews

• 
  Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves

  4.25*
  Camille Oster is a very talented HR (as also Gothic/ PNR) author
  She always comes up with most novel of plots. But this one is something entirely else!
  
  Our poor Victorian h is a neglected wife of a very selfish and cold man who divorces her to marry his mistress in the opening scene. She's discarded without a thought or care, or even token monetary help. Her beloved son, once an adoring lovable child, has turned out to be as insensitive as his father and is even ashamed of her.
  The angst of all this quite unbearable. But then, Oster's hs always have some cross to bear.
  
  In a fortuitous twist, the destitute and virtually homeless h learns that a manor has to come to her through an aunt of hers. She's relieved and happy at this unexpected windfall. And sets out for the wilds of the Yorkshire moors with Lisle, her sullen maid in tow.
  
  On arriving, she gets several hints and insinuations from the locals about the unsuitability of the manor. But having no other choice and also unbelieving, she sets out to clean and air the closed up place. She buys a cow and also hires a young field hand, Alfie to do the outdoor jobs.
  She's almost happy if lonely till things start happening.
  Noises and scratches in the night that can only be ... mice?
  
  Slowly, things turn more sinister and her control on things and the house start slipping. Both the mortals and the others begin to act up and create trouble. The lonely and dark, gothic setting adds to her helplessness and loss of control. The author ably creates a hair-raisingly eerie and menacing atmosphere. Only a talented author can keep the reader hooked with pages and pages of descriptive prose and inner monologue, with rare interspersing dialogue.
  And this continues for half the book.
  
  Before our 'H' makes an appearance.
  Oh, he's been there all along but now he gets less phantasmic. With a more solid impression.
  And then their conflict erupts into an all-out confrontation. As to who's the real owner of the place and also due to his burning hatred over past betrayals that he lays at her feet.
  She'd have left if she had a choice but her only alternative is to fight it out.
  
  Then these two lost souls (one literally) get into a truce of sorts. Almost becoming comfortable.
  'This was how it would be with a husband, but he wasn't a husband. He was a ghost, to start with, who teased and toyed with her.'
  AND
  As different as Richard Hawke was from her, they are very similar as well. They had both been betrayed by the person who was supposed to love and honor them, both stuck in this house because they feared the alternative was worse.'
  
  Coming to the souls, because there are actually eight of them whom Hawke lords over and refuses to let go. Their stories, fate and behavior are sad, chilling, immoral, shocking, outright absurd ... and humorous. This tone of book see-saws between all these moods - actually much like the h's life.
  
  All good till here. But how's this will end?
  'Would nature not try to force them apart?'
  For a happily, technically one has to move to the other's realm. And here, most readers may have a differing preferences and opinions. Even a theological one. Although if you are reading a PNR book with ghosts, suspending disbeliefs is a must. And leave it to the author to know best.
  
  Age: She's 34 to his 36 (at time of his death).
  Her son is 17.
  Her life period: 1876 and His: 1643.
• 
  SWEETY

  A truly captivating read!
  
  My first venture into the works of author Camille Oster has been quite the pleasant surprise.
  
  I was not expecting to like The Haunting at Hawke’s Manor, but I’m happy to report, that I kind of loved it. Now I’ve got to get my hands on each and every one of Camille Oster’s novels.
  
  I would recommend this book to anyone that’s a fan of the gothic romance. Gothic romance is hard for me, I very rarely enjoy it. The only Gothic romances I’ve truly loved, off the top of my head were Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and A Bride for the Prizefighter by Alice Coldbreath - but now I’ve got a new contender.
  
  I wish this book was longer though. I wish there was more time for the romance to develop. Surprisingly, Richard and Anne never actually said that they loved each other. But that’s a testament to Miss Oster’s writing skills, because I could feel their love
  
  Why The Haunting at Hawks Manor isn’t a 5 Star Romance.
  I have questions. The book did leave some loose ends and greedy little me needs them wrapped up.
  
  A few of my Questions:
  
  1) Why did Richard’s wife betray him? He implied that she was jealous? But of what? Or who?
  A flashback, into Richard’s life would have been amazing.
  2) What’s going to happen with Alfie & Lisle?
  3) What was Alfie’s back story?
• 
  Kristiej

  This is going to be very short due the risk of spoilers. It’s a gothic romance and I haven’t read those in a very long time.
  
  This a historical gothic. As the story opens, Ann Sands wretched husband has just divorced her on made up charges of adultery, meanwhile he’s living with his mistress. She’s left with nothing. Divorced women of that time have a terrible, terrible time of it and things are looking about as bleak as possible for Ann when she finds out she’s inherited a decrepit manor house in the countryside that hasn’t been lived in for years.
  
  But there are bad stories told about this house, that tragedies happened in it and it’s haunted.
  
  Ok, that’s all I’m going to say about the books outline. I’m giving it 5 stars which means I love it. I could barely put it down. It had an ending like nothing I’ve read before and it made me cry. But it worked and left me satisfied. I hope I have you curious enough to want to read this book as I highly recommend it. It’s very well written and the tension builds and builds. It’s available on KU so if you’re a member you’ve no reason not to think, “Hmmmmm, I think I just might try this one.”
  
  Do it!
• 
  Sometime

  This was a great gothic read that left me feeling swoony. Poor Anne has been divorced by her horrible husband so he can marry his mistress. Her 17 year old son isn't much better. This poor h has been crapped on left and right. (The author does a great job showing the limits of a woman of her time. Being divorced, she has no rights, no property from her marriage, and is shunned.) She is left with nothing except an old house in the middle of nowhere. She goes there with her maid and they discover the house is haunted.
  
  I was a little creeped out with all the ghosts, bumps in the night etc. I was reading this in my bed, in the dark, and my imagination was getting the better of me. Luckily, things were resolved fairly soon and we discover the source of the trouble.
  
  I don't want to say much more, except to say that this book was so romantic and left me floating on air, even the next day. I loved the resolution at the end, and Anne's revenge was perfect.
  
  Safety This one is all safe. h was married, but her husband is of the cold, businesslike variety and their sex left much to be desired. I'm guessing it's been ages and ages since he came to her bed. The H was betrayed by his wife and has no love for any woman, until the h. No OW/OM drama.
• 
  Cheesecake

  .
  Well that was different...
  But I still loved it!!!
  (But I do NOT recommend the audiobook. The reader kinda monotoned and uninspired.)
  
  CO walks us through the nitty gritty of divorces in the early 1800's. Apparently divorced women back then didn't live long...
  But luckily for Anne, her solicitor is a kind man and manages to find an estate for which she is the closest relative to inherit. So at least she has a house for herself and her maid, a rather taciturn young woman.
  BUT it turns out the house out on the lonely moors is haunted by some pretty mean assed murderous ghosts.
  
  I sure did feel for Anne. She has had the shit end of the stick for years. Every time her teenage son was in the story I just wanted to cry for her breaking heart.
  
  This story is big on ghosts and even does some world building for them. The atmosphere was visceral and the characters are anything but jollie. Just as it should be for a gothic romance.
  At first Ann is dubious about the ghosts, but then I could really feel her fear and had to turn on more lights.
  
  Not your stereotypical HEA but I thought it was perfect.
  It would have been a 5 star read, but every time I think of her son, i feel sad.
  
  safety is good she was married but there was no love and he didn't make an effort in bed. The H's sex life with his wife was much better, but he never loved his first wife either. So I didn't feel that Ann was second best at all.
• 
  Daneesha

  Our downtrodden heroine begins the book with "Oh my God! This ghost is trying to kill me!" Later, this changes to "Ohhhhh my God...Yesssss! This ghost wants me!" :)
  I enjoyed this book very much. Poor Anne just couldn't catch a break, that is until she met Richard Hawke, our ghostly hero. The first few chapters after Anne moves into Hawke's Moor are super eerie. I was creeped out and found myself looking into shadows for spirits! OOOh..shiver!
• 
  Kate Stjohn

  Wow that was certainly different...I definitely didn't see the ending coming.!! comes to something when the most erotic prose I have ever read was between the living and the dead.....takes suspension of disbelief certainly but if you can do that it takes escapism to a whole new level.
• 
  Booked & Blessed

  *DNF*
  I was loving this spooky book for fall but sadly there’s a vulgar explicit scene and I’m really wanting to read clean fiction.
• 
  Jennifer

  DNF @ 17%. I’m sorry, but this just wasn’t engaging. I felt for the h’s plight, but the telling of it lacked something.
• 
  Nuki

  *****Haunting Hawkes Stars*****
  
  Loved it! Loved the originality of the plot and the buildup. Camille Oster certainly is a fantastic author & she's made her way to my Auto-buy Authors Bookshelf cos it it.
  
  Will write a longer review later on.
  
  Definitely recommend! But I advice reader to go into her work with an open mind & not logistizes between facts and friction. People are unpredictable and there's soo much in the universe we can't comprehend which is what makes life so beautiful. This is why I love fiction!
• 
  Janet Welling

  Intriguing paranormal romance.
  
  This book was not quite what I expected but I was not disappointed with the story. Romance with a ghost! What a nice twist. A very easy read although I would have liked more character development. Perhaps that is easier said than done when dealing with the departed. There are some very, very unsavoury characters in this book and parts of the story were a little hard to swallow. The ending, however, makes up for a lot of the book’s shortcomings including the need for a good editorial review. If you are a fan of paranormal romance, you will enjoy this story.
• 
  Beth

  I enjoyed this book, but I can only give it two stars. My gauge of a book rests on how eager I am to finish my day and get back to the book I'm reading, and I did want to continue reading this one. But on reflection now I'm through it, I can't recommend.
  
  What I loved was the interaction between the heroine and her paranormal housemates, one dashing one in particular. Unfortunately, the book had too many problems to get higher rating off me.
  
  First, editing. Many typos, repeat sentences or phrases, reef instead of wreath, etc. Hard to get past. A few anachronisms, too. I don't like that, it snaps me out of my time-period immersion.
  
  Next, characterizations. What is so odd is that the character the heroine shows when she's with her love interest (witty, brave, feisty, irresistible) is Completely not who she is in the rest of the book! She is a total door mat who takes ridiculous abuse and bullying despite the clear intelligence, ingenuity and gumption she shows in other instances.
  
  The character of her son could have been left out of the book entirely. Ironically the inclusion of this Awful person only made me question the heroine; how could she have raised such a horrible person? I think the premise had so much potential, she is destitute and has to cling to her inheritance, this last-chance wreck of a manor house, to survive. But the promise of a good setup didn't play out.
  
  Finally, the ending was HUGELY unlikely.
• 
  Deborah Whipp

  When Anne Kinnelly’s husband divorces her so he can be with his mistress, she’s left destitute with few options as was typical in Victorian London. She inherits a haunted house from a distant relative and sets off with her surly maid. While I thought the writing was good, I had a few problems with the characters (none of whom I loved) and some of the plot. Anne is courageous and outspoken when dealing with a vengeful ghost, but spineless when dealing with her ex-husband and son, and even lets her maid and farmhand treat her with complete disrespect. One could argue that she had finally reached her limit when it came to her paranormal paramour, but it’s too bad she didn’t display a little more backbone earlier. I also found it difficult to reconcile how our heroine raised such a greedy, obnoxious, ungrateful son in the first place. The ghost sex scenes were a little odd in the sense that they were rather graphic and seemed out of place in what was otherwise an old fashioned gothic romance (in fact, there were quite a few frisky spirits floating around that house). For this style of book, I think the sex scenes should have been a little more subtle. The manner in which Anne seeks her final revenge against her ex-husband and son was interesting, but I didn’t find it particularly satisfying. It seemed a rather high price. All in all it was still a mostly enjoyable, quick read.
• 
  Rose

  It follows a woman named Anne Kinnely who’s ex husband divorced and leaves her leaving her destitute. She is abandoned and then gets a letter stating she owns a estate that used to belong to her great aunt. The estate is very large and very old sitting in the moors of yorkshire. It is very abandoned and nobody goes near it. She is just happy she gets to have a place to call home, so she goes there with her housemaid Lisle to make it homely and set it up, clean the dust off the furniture.
  
  People who live far but around the mansion get mad at her why she’s even living there say that it’s haunted and she just ignores them and continues living there, soon they start hearing voices and scraping sounds in the house.
  
  This book was so well written and slow moving that I loved it you can imagine everything going on in the story and the twists and turns. I loved the ending it really showed the people who didn’t really care about her in the end and what she does to stay there.
  
  If you want a good Victorian gothic setting book enemies to lovers, slow burn, ghost romance, check out this book!
• 
  The Bookish Vixen

  This was quite good! I liked it a lot. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this story. It started out pretty sad, and it stayed in the sad\creepy range for I’d say two-thirds of the book, with a couple of high points here and there, but it wasn’t until that last third that things started to change. I saw the end coming, so it didn’t surprise me, but I thought it was perfectly done. It reminded me of a slightly more depressing Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which is a favorite of mine. I’d definitely read more books by this author.
• 
  Pamela Grow

  As a tweenager, I loved nothing more than a good gothic. Dorothy Eden, Victoria Holt, and the like. Now, with fascism looming, I am finding myself returning to the more escapism, comforting reads of my youth.
  
  This was a bizarre read, to say the least. Was it a statement on the treatment of women, particularly divorced women? Was it a paranormal novel, gothic fiction, or romance? Or even a Ghost and Mrs. Muir riff? Who knows. This book had its moments, but I wouldn't recommend it.
• 
  Heather

  gothic at its best
  
  Anna was pushed aside by her husband left penniless. The scoundrel lied to get the divorce and she find out a great aunt left a house . Upon arriving there strange things happen until one night she confronts her invisible enemy. After betrayal and betrayal she tends to set them all straight while finding her own world of happiness
• 
  Claudine

  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It started as a good old fashioned haunted house story, but then it turned into something else. I do not want to give it away, but you can expect to be surprised by the ending. This is the first book I have read from Camille Oster, and I plan to read more of them. Highly recommended!
• 
  Diane

  For a good gothic read, this author has hit it out of the ballpark.
  
  Suspense, consequences that are very relatable, and situations that take the reader right into this book all make it a quite satisfying read. I read it in two sittings as it smoothly is laid out. Characters are expertly crafted. If you like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, you can't help but like this book.
• 
  Christiane Span

  This book was just a huge surprise for me. A friend recommended it to me cause she knows how much I love gothic romances bit seriously, this one went over all my expectations. I love the plot, I could relate to Anne from the start but could never imagine how things would develop into this hot and beautiful love story!
• 
  Sarah

  Great book!
  
  This is my first reading a Gothic Romance and I must say I am impressed. The scary bits were pretty scary and the romance was very nice too. I absolutely LOVED the comeuppance at the end.
• 
  Sallie Brown

  Gothic Romance at its best
  
  I loved this book. I was so drawn in, I read it in one day! So reminiscent of Victoria Holt but just a bit more steam. Don’t get me wrong, the steam was just right. Not graphic. I loved the heroine. I’m getting another book this minute.
• 
  BobaFett114

  Well written Gothic.
  
  Anne is divorced and left destitute. Not did I want to smack her husband. Anyway, she is left a property and tries to make a life there. The former occupants are very unruly. I did see the ending coming from a mile away, but I liked it.
• 
  Michelle

  Loved
  
  This was truly a unique read and I enjoyed every page. From Anne being a scorned divorcée whose son abandons her. Then she inherits a house that is mysterious and haunted. It was scary at parts. And romantic at parts. And I loved how Anne got her revenge in the end
• 
  Roxane Twisdale

  Awesome ghost story
  
  I loved this book. This author has a great imagination. All her characters are wonderful. I even like the bad guy in this novel. A great ghost story with a fabulous ending. Highly recommend this book