Book Review: The Haunting of Willows Cottage By Isobel Blackthorn

It’s a pleasure to be welcoming Isobel Blackthorn to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Haunting of Willows Cottage, the third story in the Strathbairn Trilogy. 

Ingrid and her daughter Susan return to the Western Highlands of Scotland, staying at Strathbairn with Gertrude McCleod while their new home, a cottage by the loch, is redecorated. The very same day, the ghosts of Ingrid’s past return when Gertrude’s brother Miles arrives with his new bride and his friend Timothy.

When her former beau turned betrayer Hamish starts work on a barn conversion, Ingrid is desperate to leave Strathbairn. She rushes to move into the cottage only to find she is sharing her new home with a violent ghost.

Realising the haunting is somehow connected to Strathbairn and sensing that something at Willows Cottage must be returned, she makes every effort to discover what that it is.

While Hamish and Gertrude conspire to force Ingrid into marriage, Timothy becomes a regular caller with a romantic motive. With two suitors and two marriage proposals, who will she choose – and can she solve the haunting of Willows Cottage?

A gripping conclusion to a classic gothic mystery trilogy laced with dark family secrets.

*****

Ingrid is hoping that her return to the Western Scottish Highlands will be a fresh start for both herself and her daughter, Susan. It’s not long after her arrival that she begins to feel unwelcome by both the living and ghostly inhabitants of Strathbairn.

I do like my paranormal mysteries and so I jumped at the chance to be a part of the blog tour for The Haunting of Willows Cottage.

This was my introduction to both this author and series. This novel is the third in the Strathbairn series and can be read first. However, I feel that some clarity would have been gained if I’d read books one and two first. It would have enriched the experience.

Told from the point of view of Ingrid, the style of writing makes it very easy to get invested. There is a bubbling tension all the way through – a strange and well put together atmosphere, both with the setting and between the characters. The Highlands lends itself to this kind of gothic, ghostly tale. There are secrets, lies, death and alliances.

Trust runs thin betweeen Ingrid and some of the other characters. The dynamic between her and Gertrude is one I found interesting. The others were a good variety of people. Hamish, Miles and Kate were a little harder to like than Ramsey, Derwent and Mary. I wanted to give Ethel and Anna a piece of my mind, especially when it came to Susan. They were frustrating characters. The author does a good job with Susan at representing what I feel would be diagnosed as autism today. I could be wrong but that’s the impression I got.

Suspense is present all the way through as Ingrid tries to gain her footing. She needs to believe in her own abilities and not bow to social pressures. The plot reveals the revelations at a good pace and was an interesting commentary on how widows were seen in the 1900’s. I am on the verge of revealing too much so I will leave it there.

The Haunting of Willows Cottage is a perfect example of gothic, paranormal, storytelling. It offers mystery, suspense, tension and strong characters. I know it’s billed as a trilogy but I’d love to catch up with these characters again. In my opinion, this book is well worth a read.

About Isobel Blackthorn –

Isobel Blackthorn is an award-winning author of immersive and inspiring fiction. She has penned over twenty-five books including a number of bestsellers. She majors in strong female leads and empowerment narratives.

Among her credits, Isobel’s biographical short story ‘Nothing to Declare’, which forms the first chapter of her biographical novel Emma’s Tapestry, was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019. One of her Canary Islands novels, A Prison in the Sun, was shortlisted in the LGBTQ category of the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2020 and the International Book Awards 2021. The Cabin Sessions was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award 2018 and the Ditmar Awards 2018. And The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Reader’s Favorite Book Awards.

Blackthorn is the author of the world’s only biography of Theosophist and mother of the New Age movement Alice Bailey – Alice A. Bailey: Life & Legacy.

Isobel has a background in Western Esotericism. She holds 1st Class Honours in Social Studies, and a PhD from the University of Western Sydney for her ground-breaking research on the works of Alice A. Bailey. Her doctoral thesis has been downloaded over 13,000 times.

Isobel’s first work, which she wrote in 2008, is Voltaire’s Garden. This memoir is set in the mid 2000s and tells the story of building a sustainable lifestyle B&B in Cobargo on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, which gained international attention when a firestorm razed the idyllic historic village on New Year’s Eve 2019.

Isobel’s writing has appeared in journals and websites around the world, including Esoteric Quarterly, New Dawn Magazine, Paranoia, Mused Literary Review, Trip Fiction, Backhand Stories, Fictive Dream and On Line Opinion. Isobel was a judge for the Australasian Shadow Awards 2020 long fiction category. Her book reviews have appeared in New Dawn Magazine, Esoteric Quarterly, Shiny New Books, Sisters in Crime, Australian Women Writers, Trip Fiction and Newtown Review of Books.

Isobel’s interests are many and varied. She has a long-standing association with the Canary Islands, having lived in Lanzarote in the late 1980s. A humanitarian and campaigner for social justice, in 1999 Isobel founded the internationally acclaimed Ghana Link, uniting two high schools, one a relatively privileged state school located in the heart of England, the other a materially impoverished school in a remote part of the Upper Volta region of Ghana, West Africa. After working as a teacher, market trader and PA to a literary agent, she arrived at writing in her forties, and her stories are as diverse and intriguing as her life has been.

Isobel has performed her literary works at events in a range of settings and given workshops in creative writing.

British by birth, Isobel entered this world in Farnborough, Kent, UK. She has lived in England, Australia, Spain and the Canary Islands. She now lives and writes in Spain. She is currently at work on two novels composed in Spanish.

Say hi to Isobel via her website, Facebook, Goodreads, and Bluesky.

The Haunting of Willows Cottage is book 3 in the Strathbairn series and was released in October 2025. Click to buy on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Books and Kobo.

by

Laura

I'm Laura. I started Novel Kicks back in 2009 as I wanted a place to discuss books and writing - two loves of my life. As someone who has anxiety, these two things give me, and I am sure countless others, a much needed escape.
There is a monthly book club, writing exercises, prompts, reviews, author interviews, competitions and guest posts. I cover many genres and I hope there is something for everyone.
I grew up by the sea in Dorset and currently live in Poole with my husband, Chris and three cats. I love writing and have a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Falmouth University. I am writing my first book. If only I could stop pressing delete. Chris has threatened to stop it from working. Haha.
I have always loved creative writing since I was in first school and would very much like to meet my teacher, Miss Sayers, to say thank you for all the encouragement she gave me then.
When not writing, I love reading, cats, Disney, singing (I can't sing but this doesn't stop me,) and falling into a good TV show or film. If I could step into any fictional world, it would be amongst the characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time.
I love reading many genres and discovering new authors.