BOOK REVIEW: The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis @RowanColeman @BerkleyPub #TheVanishedBride #bookreview

I participated in an absolutely DELIGHTFUL buddy read of The Vanished Bride over the past few weeks. Are you a fan of mysteries? Women empowerment? Historical fiction based around read people or events? The Bronte sisters? If any of these are a yes, pick up a copy of this book!

Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Bronte live a quiet life, spending their time exploring their passion to write. When a young wife and mother is seemingly murdered just a few miles from their home, the sisters set out to investigate.

Elizabeth Chester, second wife of Robert Chester, has disappeared, leaving behind two small children and a large amount of blood in her place. Chester’s first wife also died under strange circumstance, leading to some suspicion about what happened to Elizabeth.

While Anne and their brother Branwell investigate inside of the house, Charlotte and Emily work the community, gathering information. The more they learn about the events surrounding Elizabeth’s disappearance, the more suspicious they become…

I loved this reimagining of the Bronte sisters in their younger years solving mysteries together. The dialogue on what women (particularly women of a certain class) were expected and able to do at the time was so interesting. I loved the alternating narrators as well, getting to know each sister a bit more and what their strengths are in this powerhouse crime-solving trio.

Their brother Branwell is a different story.. I liked the inclusion of him in this novel as a contrast to the Bronte sisters. Branwell is part of quite a scandal. In contrast, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne live a quiet, studious life. And yet, being male, Branwell has so much advantage over the sisters. The biggest strife they cause (besides the danger they get themselves into by solving this crime) is that they are approaching an age where they should be focused on getting married. As a non-spoiler for the real lives of the Bronte sisters, only Charlotte ended up married and it was in the last year of her life. It is also, in my opinions, the least interesting thing about her!

I loved the feminist themes in this book. A few that I buddy read with thought they were overdone, but I didn’t feel that way at all. I actually felt that among the three sisters, the discussions on women were so enlightening and informative for the time they lived in. Lest we not forget that all three originally published under male pseudonyms. Female writers, of course, not being taken seriously at the time.

The mystery was intriguing nearly right from the start. The idea of what seemed to be a murder but with no body was fascinating. There are a number of avenues this could take—did someone hide the body? Is she still alive? If so, whose blood is that? By the last quarter of the novel, I could scarcely put it down!

A truly engaging historical mystery that delighted me in every way!

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.