The House of Brides (R)

Trade Paperback

Mirandas life and career has been a roller-coaster ride. Her successful rise to the top of the booming lifestyle industry as a social media influencer led to a humiliating fall after a controversial product she endorsed flopped. Desperate to get away from the hate-spewing trolls shaming her on the internet, she receives a mysterious letter from a young cousin in England that plunges her into a dark family mystery.

Mirandas mother Tessa Summers, a famous author, died when Miranda was a child. The young womans only connection to the Summers family is through Tessas famous book The House of Bridesa chronicle of the generations of women who married into the infamous Summers family and made their home in the rambling Barnsley House, the familys estate. From Gertrude Summers, a famed crime novelist, to Mirandas grandmother Beatrice, who killed herself after setting fire to Barnsley while her children slept, each woman in The House of Brides is more notorious than the next. The houses current bride is the beautiful, effervescent Daphne, her Uncle Maxs wifea famed celebrity chef who saved Barnsley from ruin turning the estate into an exclusive culinary destination and hotel.

Curious about this legendary family she has never met, Miranda arrives at Barnsley posing as a prospective nanny answering an advertisement. Shes greeted by the compelling yet cold housekeeper Mrs. Mins, and meets the children and her Uncle Maxnone of whom know her true identity. But Barnsley is not what Miranda expected. The luxury destination and award-winning restaurant is gone, and Daphne is nowhere to be found. Most disturbing, one of the children is in a wheelchair after a mysterious accident. What happened in this house? Where is Daphne? What darkness lies hidden in Barnsley?