Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll

How did I get the book?  From Netgalley, thank you @ Faber & Faber Ltd
and I bought a copy

Genre: Historical Fiction / Paranormal

Synopsis: The gates to Frost Hollow Hall loomed before us. They were great tall things, the ironwork all twisted leaves and queer-looking flowers. And they were very definitely shut.
Tilly’s heart sinks. Will’s at the door of their cottage, daring her to come ice-skating up at Frost Hollow Hall. No one goes near the place these days. Rumour has it that the house is haunted… Ten years ago the young heir, Kit Barrington, drowned there in the lake. But Tilly never turns down a dare.
Then it goes horribly wrong. The ice breaks, Tilly falls through and almost drowns. At the point of death, a beautiful angel appears in the water and saves her. Kit Barrington’s ghost.
Kit needs Tilly to solve the mystery of his death, so that his spirit can rest in peace. In order to discover all she can, Tilly gets work as a maid at Frost Hollow Hall. But the place makes her flesh crawl. It’s all about the dead here, she’s told, and in the heart of the house she soon discovers all manner of dark secrets…

Frost Hollow Hall is a thrilling historical fiction debut. Told in Tilly’s unique voice, it is a tale of love and loss, and how forgiveness is the key to recovery.

200words (or less) review: If you only gave me one word to describe Frost Hollow Hall it would be: beautiful. I loved the writing, I want to say it’s picturesque. Emma Carroll debut is one of those books where I feel I’m there instead of reading about it.

I liked Tilly, the story starts because Will dares her to go skating at Frost Hollow Hall. Tilly, unlike the rest of the village girls, goes because she never backs down from a dare and not because she’s ‘silly’ over Will. While Will’s first impression is greatly influenced by Tilly’s mind-set I did actually like him and this only increased as the story continued.

Both of these characters are a big part of why I enjoyed Frost Hollow Hall so much. Great writing will only take you so far (though Emma Carroll provides this in excess, thank you!) what you need to make a book shine is story and characters. And does this book deliver on those? You bet.

I pre-ordered Frost Hollow Hall the day after I finished, that’s how much I liked it.

Recommend it?

Sunshine Star

Expected publication: 3^rd Oct 2013 by Faber & Faber