I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

After growing up on a farm in Virginia, Walthingham Hall in England seems like another world to sixteen-year-old Katherine Randolph. Her new life, filled with the splendor of upper class England in the 1820s, is shattered when she discovers the corpse of her brother George in a lake on the estate-the tragic accidental drowning of a young man, the coroner reports, despite the wound to George's head.

Katherine is expected to observe the mourning customs and get on with her life, but she can't accept that her brother's death was an accident. A bitter poacher prowls the estate, and strange visitors threaten the occupants of the house. There's a rumor, too, that a wild animal stalks the woods of Walthingham.

Can Katherine retain her sanity long enough to find out the truth? Or will her brother's killer claim her life, too?

Short and Sweet

Katherine and her brother George Randolph live in Virginia, but their lives change when they discover that they are heirs to the Walthingham country estate in England. Katherine and George try to adjust to their new life in British aristocracy. Not long after their arrival George is found dead in an icy lake. Everyone believes it was just an accident, except for Katherine. After hearing rumors about the beast of Walthingham, she believ es that their is something more to her brothers death and she won’t rest until she learns the truth.

My Thoughts

~ Alright where should I start? I ordered this book mainly because of the time period and the plot I love mysteries and I also like historical fiction. Gray does a great job making the time period seem realistic and authentic.

~ Katherine is an okay character, she didn’t have a lot of power I often saw her as helpless during some parts of the book. I did like the fact the she was determined and inquisitive about her brothers death and she wouldn’t give up until she learned the truth, she was a sweet character that tried to see the good in others she also had a temper which only made the other characters refer to her as a “Wildcat.”

~ We don’t learn much about George except for the fact that he was Katherine’s older brother and a painting, I think he was only in a chapter or two before the accident occurred.

~ Katherine’s cousins Henry and Grace were awful I couldn’t stand the way they treated her. I took the time to think about this and in the end decided to compare them to characters from Gossip Girl. Katherine would be Dan a girl who worked on a farm without much money, Grace would be Blair and Henry would be Chuck.

~ Characters would often point out how Katherine was impolite and improper, I mean she was still trying to get the hang of things.

~ Oh yeah there were some romantic interest but I didn’t like it I mean Katherine hooked up with one and then something happened and then she moved on to another guy.

~ We don’t learn much about the Beast of Walthingham mainly because no one will say anything about it.

~ Something happens near the end of the book towards the end I don’t want to spoil it for you guys but I thought it wasn’t necessary to have in the book.

Overall

In my honest opinion there was something that was missing, and that just made me change my rating for this book. I thought there could have been more in discovering what happened to George I feel like that was just thrown out there and like I said the beast of Walthingham isn’t even mentioned enough to make it relevant. Things just felt too rushed to me I don’t think this book was anything special. I was into it at the beginning but towards the end the downward spiral ensued.