I didn't guess the twist of the 3 girls at all, but immediately felt that everything slid into place once that was announced. Even the fact that the twins were Isabelle and Charlie's babies was a slight surprise. Although incest was hinted at during the beginning of the story I was left with the impression that Isabelle didn't let Charlie get that far.

Bringing the story of Angelfield right up to date with Aurelius and Karen discovering each other was a lovely turn of events.

I particularly enjoyed the ending, and the chapter entitled The Thirteenth Tale. It seemed very fitting and very real. I was pleased that all the loose ends were tidied up and you weren't left wondering about any of the additonal characters that we'd met along the way of the story.

My only critism of this book is that I don't think it needed the last 2 pages. I could understand Margaret talking to the dying Emmeline and Vida wanting to get a message to her twin, but to actually have her experience a vision was pushing it just slightly too far I felt. It would have been better to have left that side of the story with the information we'd already been given. There was no need to labour that point. Only a minor critism though, and I still rated this a 5 star book.

what spoilt it for me was the twist which I didn't guess, about having a third child. I just didn't find that plausible, in that she could have lived in the house with the Governess there also & have never been found out. Everything did tie up nicely in the end, but a bit too nicely for me, I could see the romance between the doctor & Margaret coming quite early on in the novel & Aurelius being related to the woman Karen & finding a family was a bit too twee for me. Gosh I sound so cynical! Although I did enjoy it

I too think the likelihood of the third sister being there for years undiscovered a bit implausible but at the same time a great idea for a story. I think a few more near misses or a rumour might have helped. I also thought it unlikely that she would be so similar to the others. The bit at the end about Margarets twin was also a bit unnecessary for me and I had guessed that there was a link between Karen and Aurelius.

I did however enjoy the character of Margaret and the parts about the bookshop, her father and her relationship with her mother.

I very quickly suspected that there were 3 children, and was ridiculously pleased when it became apparent that I was right! Thought it was beautifully evocative,whilst also tackling some serious issues, which gave it an added bite.
Loved the scenes in the bookshop (sounded like heaven!)Unusually for me, in novels with a dual timescale, I found myself equally interested in the present day characters as the historical ones.Hope we hear more from this author soon.

Must admit, I also found the fact that a third child could live in the house undiscovered for so long seemed unlikely, and even more unlikely that she would look so much like the twins that people could get them mixed up.  Even children with the same mother and father rarely look that alike.

The last two pages were un-necessary, and felt 'tacked on' to me.

Other than that though, it was a great read!

not the fact that there were 3 girls (I had guessed that ages ago) but the fact that it was Emmeline not Adeline who died in the fire. That for me was the most tragic part of the whole novel.

I liked the nice neat finish too - no loose ends to worry over. I'm also glad that Aurelius got a family in the end and that Margaret found some happiness, it might be twee but it still makes a change from other doom and gloom endings.

The concept of time in this novel is confounding. We've no idea when it is set and no idea how old the characters are so it was difficult to try and formulate a theory that correctly placed each character. Very clever  

e.g. Adeline digging in the garden

I had no idea about there being a third child, and find it 100% plausible that there was. It was such an odd household that anything could easily become the norm. I liked looking back through the novel piecing it all together - esp Vida's shift from 'we' to 'I' (although I'm sure Vida said 'I' before Margaret first noticed it).

Really liked the way the characters were drawn. Loved Hester and her affair with the Doctor. I also assumed Adeline/Vida was Emmeline, but didn't understand why she loved John-the-Dig so much, so knew there had to be more to it. I agree with Nicnic that the real slap in the face was the realisation that it was Adeline she saved from the fire, not Emmeline. That was so tragic.

I loved the references to Jane Eyre which really came alive towards the end of the novel. I liked the reversal of roles - Adeline the mad woman at large in the house, whereas sane and practical Vida was hidden away. Really liked the Gothic atmosphere of the novel too. It reminded me a little of Bram Stoker's Dracula with Margaret as Jonathan Harker, what with the sense of her being almost imprisoned in the house.

Really liked the tying up of loose ends - made for a satisfying finish, which you'd expect from a character who likes stories with a beginning, middle and end. I liked the last two pages and was grateful for them. To be honest I found the constant refs to her sister irritating as the novel wore on, I wanted to shake Margaret and her mother into talking about their loss in order to come to terms with it. It nagged at me that it needed to come out into the open - as Vida said, silence isn't a natural environment for stories, they eat away at you etc. So the ending that showed Margaret finally finding peace and coming to terms with her loss and moving on in her life, I found very satisfying and necessary. I didn't take it as Margaret seeing an actual vision of her sister. The whole Vida Winter experience was cathartic for her. Something shifted in her so that at the end of it she was able to see her sister in a different light, not as a ghost, something to be feared and mourned, but as a person she was able to lay to rest.

Loved the ref to Shadow being a Yorkshire cat & preferring the moors to town life!

I really liked the idea behind the book but I don't think it was executed that well.  It was well written and easy enough to read but I found large chunks of it boring.  I like to get involved with characters from a book to get the most from it but none of them really grabbed me.  Like some of the other posters I wondered what time it may have been set and I thought the 80's for the up to date stuff and going back to the 20's for the birth of the twins.  I didn't guess that there was 3 girls but there were a number of clues along the way.  Not least of all the multiple personalities that Adeline was supposed to show.  I think that was some of the problem of the book, in that it was trying to hide the third girl which made some parts of it too convoluted.  I also wondered what happened to Charlie, is his skeleton still out there with a shotgun by his side. Or was his body discovered and I missed that bit.  Also at the end were we actualy sure which twin was killed in the fire.  I was under the impression that it could have been either of them.

Yes, I wondered if anyone would discover Charlie's remains. Or maybe they're still there, undiscovered.