I have read and loved The Silent Companions and The Corset, so I was really excited when I saw LP had a new book due out. Bone China continues LP’s reign as the new Queen of Gothic Fiction.

The book opens with Hester Why on her way to Morvoren House, In Cornwall, where she has acquired the position of a nurse, for Miss Louise Pinecroft. Suspenseful… This smart and sophisticated historical thriller will appeal to fans of Sarah Waters’s Fingersmithand Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” —Publishers WeeklyPurcell excels at creating a spooky Gothic ambience…A dark and unsettling novel for lovers of Rebeccaand Jane Eyre.”— Kirkus

Having loved The Silent Companions and The Corset by Laura Purcell I was excited to read Bone China as it was described as a A brilliantly atmospheric and chilling tale and seemed like my kind of book and while I enjoyed the story I found it a little confusing and had trouble connecting the threads within the story. Forty years later, Hester arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralyzed and mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try to escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers her new home may be just as dangerous as her last. A gothic tale set in a rambling house by the sea in which a maid cares for a mute old woman with a mysterious past, alongside her superstitious staff–from the author of The Silent Companions. I enjoyed the past story line more than the present. I found the characters in the past story line were more interesting and more fleshed out. I felt that there was something missing with Hester's character. I wanted to know a little bit more about her and her past before she was employed by her previous employer. We do get some info but I really felt as if her character was a little flat. The past actions of Louise Pinefield (the lady of the house that Hester cares for) are still having repercussions to this day, and as Hester discovers more about the house certain revelations will change her forever.I have had Bone China on my list for some time, and considering how much I loved "The Silent Companions" I was hoping for something just as good. Unfortunately, this just wasn't the case. Purcell paints a colorful portrait of her tale’s distant time and place and immerses the reader in an era when superstition was a tenacious thread in the social fabric that bound its people. Her tale of secret guilt and atoning for it through ancient customs will please fans of classic gothic melodrama.”— Publisher’s Weekly Set on the cliffs of Cornwall, the scene is set for Hester Why to join the staff in Morveron house, and within a very short timeframe things become increasingly odd. The book focuses on Hester’s story, and the medical experiments that took place in the cliffs under the house forty years previously. This is a good book, if you like slow burning gothic horror. I love Author Laura Purcell she is one of my favorites. This particular book is not my favorite of hers. The book is true to Purcell, a slow burn into the story with a sudden end. I loved the first half of the book but the second half when a new characters past started up I was a bit confused. I also didn't understand some of the dark fae? The unsettling ambience of the book keeps you on the edge of your seat, as it’s quite chilling. You’re never too sure of some of the characters’ intentions, and whether the fairy legends and folktales are true after all.

Forty years ago, Louise and her father, Dr Pinecroft, lost their entire family to consumption, leaving them the only survivors, weighed down by an unbearable grief. Dr Pinecroft becomes convinced that sea air is the key to a cure for the ravages of the disease. To prove his controversial ideas, he undertakes an experiment, acquiring some prisoners with the disease, with his daughter, Louise helping him to manage. He brings them to the house, has them taken down into the caves, looked after by carers. What happens there has consequences that echo down the years, and form the basis of local legends and myths. Hester is a woman with the love of gin and opium, it is rather difficult to discern just how far we can trust her through the blurring haze of unreliable experiences. The author excels in creating the psychological conditions where ambiguity runs throughout the narrative, is it the supernatural at work or is it madness? The story was similar to The Corset in that the main character considered herself responsible for the deaths which seemed to follow her. She was in fact a very unreliable narrator since she was mostly under the effects of either gin or laudanum but that just added to the overall sense of suspicion and confusion. It's not a good sign when I'm hoping I can finally get through that last hour my kindle is showing me I have to go until it's finished. The book's beginning held great promise, so I was disappointed with the book's progression. There were a lot of really strange things going on with supposed fairies, bone china that sometimes changed pictures, sounds of drips and disembodied singing, that all added up to a lot of hogwash to me. My favorite part of the book was when Hester was first welcomed upon arrival into the warmest part of the house, the kitchen- fussed over and made to warm up with freshly baked bread and hot tea. I also loved hearing about how they made hot chocolate each morning for Miss Pinecroft. I guess you could say my favorite part of the book was in the kitchen! Although I was slightly disappointed with this offering, I will definitely look forward to reading her next one. I think at this stage, we can say the only book I enjoyed from Purcell is The Silent Companions. The Corset was a miss being very crowded and having plot holes in it. Could not tell him that to my eyes, this was when she was truly beautiful; at the moment of fragility, when she required only me.Also, the use of same content now feels like a copy paste. The spooky house, the creepy staff, a furniture related to the story (in this case, the china). I personally don't want to read the same book that feels like it's built over a formulation. I would like to see some originality even if it's the same writer. I had high hopes for this book as I have enjoyed her other books The Silent Companions and The Corset. Perhaps I was holding this book up to a very high standard, but I feel it wasn't quite as good as the other books I have read by her. I'll still be on the lookout for future books by this Author. Creeda, who is an unnerving young woman at the time is just as obsessed with fairy legends and folk tales in the past, as she is in the present and tells Louise all sorts of stories about fairies and changelings.