Morgan Hall
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781937593513 |
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| Publisher: | World Castle Publishing |
| Publication date: | 11/23/2011 |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.58(d) |
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Customer Reviews
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Morgan Hall
4 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
4 reviews.
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Christie Morgan was one lucky gal. She had one man who adored her unconditionally, one man who wanted her for what he could obtain and one man who acknowledged her presence but was employed by Morgan Hall a great estate, and wouldn¿t cross that line. Anthony, the first, was sort of a ¿shirt-tail relation.¿ They¿d been friends since childhood and, while Christie too him for granted, he truly did love her. Tristan, estate dark, dreary and inhabited by some very odd servants¿ was a handsome man but Christie had some reservations ¿ he made her uneasy. Jonathan was the gameskeeper and handsome in his own right but, as I said, wouldn¿t cross the line.When she begins seeing/hearing things everyone is sympathetic but writes it off to her ¿feminism and dreams¿ when, in fact something is there. More than one and they want Christie. She nearly drowns in her bath tub, wanders off into the forest, visits the estate¿s chapel which she is frightened to death of. While there, she hears children singing and sees the past of one of her ancestors being beaten and losing a hand. When she comes to, it¿s Christie with the bruises!Holidays are spent at Anthony¿s home in London. They have a lovely time but Tristan is making his play and, surprisingly, Christie is falling for it. Does she make the right choice? Who are the children she keeps hearing? What of Morgan Hall and its occupants both human and non?This tale by Bo Briar is well written. Christie is a bit of an odd-duck because throughout the story, I kept thinking ¿you idiot! What did you do that for!!??¿ A tale of England, ghosts bad humans and ghosts and, I think, a morale in there as well. Not a very long book, but it seems that way while I was reading ¿ a lot of story in few pages. It read like a Victorian novel and was quite good.
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Since first reading Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier many years ago, I have a fondness for all things gothic. I was particularly gratified to have the opportunity to read Morgan Hall, a modern day gothic tale. It delivers.
Gothic books can be a tricky business, at least in my opinion. You need a slow, measured build up, keeping your audience intent and interested, and desperate for the payoff at the end. Where it gets tricky is not moving too quickly and not moving at a lethargic pace. It needs to be a literary perfect storm, if you will. Not every book gets this. Morgan Hall does. The writing is plotted to perfection, with wonderfully moody descriptions of the estates, - - which are characters in their own rights - - the English countryside, quaint villages, the main heroine and heroes and the supporting characters that the reader will find himself or herself giving the side eye to, particularly those that bring to mind Mrs. Danvers from DuMaurier’s penultimate work.
I loved Morgan Hall, the place. Are ghosts hiding around every corner? Does this ancient estate have its own stories to tell? I desperately wanted to know. Truth be told, I felt a stronger bond to the estates than I did to the three principles of the story, Christie, Anthony and Tristan. I felt that author Bo Briar sketched out the estate so well, so clearly that it’s a greater presence than Christie, Anthony and Tristan.
Morgan Hall is meant to be savored and enjoyed, leisurely, and preferably with a raging storm outside and wrapped in a warm blanket with a mug of your favorite hot beverage beside you. You can read this book in the dog days of summer, as I did, but the general unease and impending sense of doom will make you shiver. This isn’t a cozy mystery and there is a healthy dose of the paranormal and ghosts but you won’t find graphic, titillating violence here and the sexual situations are relatively PG-13. Your imagination will be sent into overdrive with author Bo Briar’s slow buildup and the incredible tension. This is what a well written and well paced gothic novel aspires to be and should be.
Was there anything I didn’t care for with Morgan Hall? It did start a bit slow (again, a slow boil) and it did have a part or two that I felt dragged a bit, but it’s worth overcoming these small bumps in the road in order to arrive at your rewarding destination.
If you prefer your books with substance and aren’t looking for an extremely faced paced read, Morgan Hall is a perfect choice. The book itself isn’t long (clocking in at less than 300 pages) but it’s such an intensive and thought provoking work that it packs quite the punch. Pick up Morgan Hall and get your spooky on.
©Psychotic State Book Reviews, 2012
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There are times when a gothic thriller is the perfect thing to read, and
I was lucky enough to read the bulk of Bo Briar’s modern gothic Morgan
Hall on a murky, moody, rainy August morning that perfectly complimented
the book. Why do I call it a “modern” gothic? Because while Morgan Hall
has all the requisite elements of a classic gothic – huge old manor
houses with disturbing histories and some disrepair, orphan heiresses
with tragic pasts, unrequited love, stormy weather, ghostly apparitions,
and creepy housekeepers, it’s actually set in a time not too far removed
from today, and the characters all have cars, computers, and cell phones
(not that the latter ever work reliably). In fact, about the only thing
missing is someone hiding behind a billowing curtain. But don’t assume
that I mention this because I didn’t like the book. In fact, I enjoyed
it immensely. Sure, Christie Morgan’s behavior was often frustrating to
my feminist sensibilities, and true, I didn’t quite buy the instant-love
between Christie and Tristan (the best friend of Christie’s lifelong
friend and ‘kissing’ cousin Anthony), but when an author is spinning a
good story, the willing reader overlooks minor things like that, just as
the good audience member engages in willful suspension of disbelief when
watching Harry Potter and friends soar around on broomsticks to play
Quidditch. And make no mistake, Bo Briar spins a good story. Her
descriptions of place, whether she’s talking about the afore-mentioned
manor houses (one of which was a castle) or just describing modern
London or a pub in York, are so vivid that when she wrote about gusts of
wind or rainwater puddling in the street, I found myself looking outside
to see if my weather was the same. I felt like I was walking through the
corridors of the titular Morgan Hall with Christie Morgan. As well,
Briar knows how to set a tone. In my “I finished this book” tweet, I
mentioned that Morgan Hall is wonderfully moody, but what I didn’t say
was that, while reading the first part of the novel late at night, I had
to insist that my husband come to bed RIGHT NOW because her writing
worked with my over-active imagination to give me goosebumps. I read
across many genres. I love science fiction and contemporary literature,
but I also love good mysteries. While I don’t read a lot of gothic
fiction, when I do, I always enjoy the pleasantly shivery feeling of
being just a little bit scared. Briar’s book gave me that feeling – I
put aside my disbelief in some of the plot elements (like Christie,
Andrew and Tristan all having inherited big old houses, or the three of
them platonically sharing a bed) but was involved enough in the story to
worry when Tristan turned out to be less – and more – than he seemed,
and to worry for Christie when we learned what jeopardy she was in.
There are perfect times and places for gothic fiction. I was lucky
enough to read Morgan Hall over a late August night and a rainy August
morning, but even if you read this in the bright sunshine of a happy
summer day, I think you’ll find this tale both compelling and just scary
enough to make the hair rise on your arms. Goes well with shepherds pie
and a tall glass of hard cider.
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Christie Morgan was one lucky gal. She had one man who adored her unconditionally, one man who wanted her for what he could obtain and one man who acknowledged her presence but was employed by Morgan Hall a great estate, and wouldn’t cross that line. Anthony, the first, was sort of a “shirt-tail relation.” They’d been friends since childhood and, while Christie too him for granted, he truly did love her. Tristan, estate dark, dreary and inhabited by some very odd servants’ was a handsome man but Christie had some reservations – he made her uneasy. Jonathan was the gameskeeper and handsome in his own right but, as I said, wouldn’t cross the line.
When she begins seeing/hearing things everyone is sympathetic but writes it off to her “feminism and dreams” when, in fact something is there. More than one and they want Christie. She nearly drowns in her bath tub, wanders off into the forest, visits the estate’s chapel which she is frightened to death of. While there, she hears children singing and sees the past of one of her ancestors being beaten and losing a hand. When she comes to, it’s Christie with the bruises!
Holidays are spent at Anthony’s home in London. They have a lovely time but Tristan is making his play and, surprisingly, Christie is falling for it. Does she make the right choice? Who are the children she keeps hearing? What of Morgan Hall and its occupants both human and non?
This tale by Bo Briar is well written. Christie is a bit of an odd-duck because throughout the story, I kept thinking “you idiot! What did you do that for!!??” A tale of England, ghosts bad humans and ghosts and, I think, a morale in there as well. Not a very long book, but it seems that way while I was reading – a lot of story in few pages. It read like a Victorian novel and was quite good.
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