Author: Darcy Coates
Series: House of Shadows Duology, Book Two
Dates Read: July 16–17, 2026
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Point of View: Third person, primarily following Sophie
Content Note: This review contains spoilers for both books in the duology.

After giving House of Shadows five stars, I could not wait to return to Darcy Coates’s beautifully eerie world. Unfortunately, House of Secrets did not capture the same mysterious dread that made the first book so memorable.

Sophie and Joseph’s escape from Northwood is short-lived. The Grimlock survived and has now attached itself to Joseph’s young cousin, Elise. When Garrett writes begging for their help, Sophie and Joseph travel to Kensington, a long-abandoned mansion overlooking a dead town.

Kensington offers one small glimmer of hope. The house’s original owner, Bishop, dedicated her life to studying the creature now possessing Elise. Garrett believes her research may reveal a way to kill the Grimlock without also killing his daughter.

But Kensington is far from safe. Once the carriage leaves, the group is trapped within its collapsing walls, surrounded by shrouded figures, whispered voices, unmarked graves, and dead things that are not nearly as restful as they should be.

Darcy Coates remains incredibly talented at creating a setting drenched in decay. One sentence in particular perfectly captures the novel’s atmosphere:

“…the grand building held nothing but death and decay.”

That line is so poetic and wonderfully gothic. Unfortunately, while the atmosphere was strong, the story unfolding within it never fully came alive for me.

What Happened to Sophie?

One of my favorite elements of House of Shadows was Sophie’s character development. She began the series as meek, timid, and uncertain, but gradually became stronger and more confident. In House of Secrets, much of that growth seems to crumble.

Sophie discovers that the Grimlock survived. She learns that Elise’s life is in danger. She enters a haunted, deteriorating mansion filled with secrets, corpses, and supernatural threats. Yet her thoughts continually return to whether Joseph loves her or whether he cares about her at all. It was exhausting. With so much immediate danger surrounding the characters, I wanted Sophie to be more engaged with the mystery and less consumed by Joseph’s emotional distance.

Where Was the Urgency?

House of Shadows was slow at first, but its second half saved the story by building genuine tension and dread. House of Secrets was not as lucky.

There are a few exciting scenes, including the chase through the dead town, the confrontation with the Grimlock, and Sophie’s discovery of Elise after her fall. However, these moments are surrounded by long stretches in which very little seems to happen.

The first half was especially slow. Although the pace picked up slightly after the midway point, I never felt the mounting urgency or mysterious sense of danger that made the first book so effective.

Kensington should have been terrifying. It contains all the right ingredients:

• A crumbling, abandoned estate
• A dead and deserted town
• Restless corpses
• Shrouded figures
• A monstrous Grimlock
• The ghost of the house’s former owner

Yet the haunted estates, creatures, and Grimlock no longer felt especially mysterious.

Bishop and the Secrets of Kensington

I was glad Bishop’s ghost appeared in the story. Her research and legacy are the primary reasons everyone gathers at Kensington, and learning about her work should have added another compelling layer to the mystery.

Unfortunately, her appearances sometimes felt like detours from the main plot rather than meaningful steps toward its resolution. The ghosts and supernatural scares that were so effective in the first novel also barely showed themselves here.

I wanted Kensington to hold darker, more shocking secrets. Instead, the house often felt like a beautiful gothic backdrop waiting for a more compelling mystery to unfold inside it.

A Predictable and Rushed Ending

The Grimlock’s defeat felt inevitable and easy to foresee. When it finally happened, the resolution seemed rushed after such a slow buildup.

However, I was genuinely pleased that Elise played the most important role in bringing about the creature’s end. After everything it did to her, she deserved her own pound of flesh and that moment gave her some much-needed agency.

Final Thoughts

I still had a reasonably good time reading House of Secrets, mostly because Darcy Coates creates such wonderfully gloomy and immersive settings. Kensington is filled with death, decay, and gothic possibility. Unfortunately, atmosphere alone was not enough to make this sequel as satisfying as its predecessor.

I never fully reconnected with the characters, the romance remained frustrating, and the supernatural elements had lost much of their original mystery. After giving House of Shadows five stars, this conclusion felt repetitive and somewhat unnecessary.

If you enjoyed the first book, House of Secrets provides closure for Sophie, Joseph, Elise, and the Grimlock. Just do not expect it to recreate the same deliciously mysterious dread.

Final Rating: 3 out of 5 stars