Picking up a Carol Goodman novel, readers know they are about to join a strong female lead character as she is immersed in a dark and brooding landscape filled with smart literary allusions and traditional Gothic elements. This is an author who knows her brand and always delivers— manipulating tropes, juggling common themes, and deploying familiar elements in ways that never feel rehashed or passé. Return to Wyldcliffe Heights is immediately recognizable as a Carol Goodman novel and is sure to please the many fans she has amassed since her unforgettable debut novel, The Lake of Dead Languages, while also embracing new fans who have yet to discover the magical wonders of this author’s oeuvre.

Veronica St. Clair is a fictional author whose breakout book, The Secrets of Wyldcliffe Heights, has become a cult classic, with ravenous fans practically begging for a sequel. Informed readers will immediately recognize The Secrets of Wyldcliffe Heights as an homage to Jane Eyre—particularly two distinct sections of that legendary novel: the early chapters when Charlotte Brontë recounts the friendship between Jane and Helen Burns while at the Lowood Institute and then the climactic mansion fire that inevitably results in tragedy. As Return to Wyldcliffe Heights opens, Veronica is living in isolation on her estate in the Hudson Valley—a home that was once a psychiatric hospital for troubled girls.

Agnes Corey is an editorial assistant at Gatehouse Books, the struggling publisher of Veronica St. Clair’s classic novel. Her duties include reading slush pile manuscripts and forwarding fan correspondence to authors such as Veronica. Knowing it is against the rules, Agnes decides to slip in her own plea, requesting that the author consider granting her fanatics—of which Agnes is one—their dream of seeing Veronica’s tale of Jayne and Violet continued in a subsequent novel.

Everyone is surprised when Veronica responds requesting that Agnes come to live at the mansion where she will take dictation of the new sequel—a needed role given that Veronica was blinded in a fire years earlier. Only a few days into this new assignment, Agnes begins to suspect that she was chosen for a reason. The tale Veronica is telling has links to both Agnes’ own history and an unsolved murder from years ago.

Carol Goodman makes Agnes Corey so relatable that readers will feel compelled to care about the outcome of her journey. The tales—both the novel and sequel, the story of the works inspiration, and the current situation Agnes finds herself in—all contain allusions to the many classics of Gothic literature, including but not limited to works by all the Brontë sisters. In typical Goodman-esque style, the tangled plot unspools with atmospheric abandon and countless labyrinthine detours before the complex truths are revealed with a realistic, albeit shocking, resolution.

Reading Return to Wyldcliffe Heights—or really any Carol Goodman novel—is reminiscent of being enveloped in nostalgia, longing to relive the moments and feelings of first discovering these novels that have become our constant companions through the literary landscape of our lives. They are classics for a reason, and Carol Goodman gives them the respect they deserve, while simultaneously using them as a springboard for newer works of similar grandeur. Carol Goodman has more than earned both the critical acclaim her works have achieved and the loyalty of her fervent fan base simply by owning her trademark brand and giving readers just what they desire, time and time again. Add Return to Wyldcliffe Heights to your reading plans immediately and let yourself be swept away.

BUY LINKS: Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman


Disclaimer: A print galley of this title was provided to BOLO Books by the publisher. No promotion was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.