Mist of Midnight by Sandra Byrd ~ Review + Giveaway

My Review:

Rebecca Ravenshaw returns from the mission field of India to find that another has come before her, claiming her identity...

This book grabbed me from the very first page, and swept away to Hampshire, not letting me go until the final page had been turned down. It's the first book that I have read within 24hrs in a long time, and I stayed up wwwaaaaayyyyy too late reading this one, I started it at 12:34am and kept reading until 3:47am when I decided to take a nap. Then first thing in the morning I was reading it again!

I loved absolutely everything about this book, from Rebecca's backround growing up in India, to the "chill" that wove itself into the tapestry of the storyline. I never knew who to trust, who might be lying to protect another, or who might want to cause Rebecca harm, and what they would gain.

My favorite, besides Rebecca, had to be Captain Whitfield. Strong, kind, yet with secrets and regrets in his past that haunt him, clever, honorable to his core, but mysterious and dangerous as well. I found myself looking forward to the scenes between Rebecca and Captain Whitfield the most, because of their inevitable connection and the mystery surrounding them both.

The setting was like that of a Jane Austen novel, yet with the darker twist of Jane Eyre woven into the undertones, making it everything and more that I could have ever wished for in a Victorian gothic novel. Mystery, romance, murder, faith, and wrongful impersonation, what more could you possibly want?

Overall, I cannot stop raving about Sandra Byrd's newest book, it's by far the best book I have read this year. I loved everything about this spellbindingly beautiful, and intrigue-filled novel from beginning to end. I already recommended it to my mother, and she can't wait to get started reading it. Highly recommend!


Thank you to Howard Publishing for providing me with a copy of this wonderful book to read and review.

About the Book: 

In the first of a brand new series set in Victorian England, a young woman returns home from India after the death of her family to discover her identity and inheritance are challenged by the man who holds her future in his hands. 

Rebecca Ravenshaw, daughter of missionaries, spent most of her life in India. Following the death of her family in the Indian Mutiny, Rebecca returns to claim her family estate in Hampshire, England. Upon her return, people are surprised to see her… and highly suspicious. Less than a year earlier, an imposter had arrived with an Indian servant and assumed not only Rebecca’s name, but her home and incomes.

That pretender died within months of her arrival; the servant fled to London as the young woman was hastily buried at midnight. The locals believe that perhaps she, Rebecca, is the real imposter. Her home and her father’s investments reverted to a distant relative, the darkly charming Captain Luke Whitfield, who quickly took over. Against her best intentions, Rebecca begins to fall in love with Luke, but she is forced to question his motives–does he love her or does he just want Headbourne House? If Luke is simply after the property, as everyone suspects, would she suffer a similar fate as the first “Rebecca”?

A captivating Gothic love story set against a backdrop of intrigue and danger, Mist of Midnight will leave you breathless.

The book can be purchased here: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Mist-of-Midnight/Sandra-Byrd/The-Daughters-of-Hampshire/9781476717869 

About the Author: 

Sandra Byrd is a best-selling author and has earned Library Journal's Best Books of the year pick twice, in 2011 for To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn, and in 2012 for The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr.  She's twice been a Christy Award finalist, for To Die For and for Let Them Eat Cake: A Novel. Roses Have Thorns: A Novel of Elizabeth I published April 2013

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