There were parts if this that I loved, and there were parts of this that didn't quite work for me.

The Death of Jane Lawrence follow Jane, a practical-minded young woman who's looking for a marriage of convenience. Her guardians, the Cunninghams, are moving out of town, and if she moves with them the funds left to her by her parents won't be enough to support her if she is to be out in society. And as an unmarried woman who's old enough to raise eyebrows about her unmarried state, she will have to be out in society. Her only option is to remain in her town of Larrenton, and marry.

But Jane does not believe herself to be suited to married life. She does not form attachments easily, and craves solitude and freedom; so a normal match won't work for her. Enter Augustine Lawrence, a surgeon in his thirties who is also raising eyebrows at his unmarried state. By all accounts, he seems to only have time for his surgery and his patients, and has the odd ritual of returning to his family home, Lindridge Hall, every night, even though it would be more prudent for him to stay in the rooms above his surgery. Augustine requires someone to stay at the surgery at night to fetch him if the need arises; and his steward really needs a night off. These little oddities put Augustine at the very top of Jane's list of potential husbands. He needs someone to live apart from him in the surgery, and she has no desire to be a traditional wife and bear a big brood of children. She can keep his books and play nurse until he arrives at the surgery in the nights. It's perfect.

And honestly, it would have been perfect, but this is what ended up being what disappointed me the most about this book. Jane's proposed marriage of convenience and business agreement didn't stay that way along. No sir, she and Augustine went completely gaga over each other the very second time they met - for almost no reason - and the emotional core of this book suffered for it.

I could absolutely, one hundred percent see it working if they'd stuck to their "business deal" marriage for a bit; if they'd stayed business partners for a little bit during their marriage and slowly grown to love each other. THEN I could see Jane doing everything she did to save him and break the spell the house had on him. THEN I could have understood the horrors and tortures this woman endured. For a husband she had learned to respect and love over time? Sure! Inject it into my veins!

But going through all that for a man she barely knew, had met only, what, two weeks ago, and was only attracted to because of unexplained heat and tension between them??? No. No thank you. You cannot sit here and tell me this woman was willing to die for this dude just because of a magnetic pull. No.

It's so disappointing, because I cannot fault the horror aspect of this book one bit. It's a glorious mind-fuck that ties itself very cleverly to maths of all things. The magic system is complicated and dark AF, and Jane's slow decent into madness was beyond compelling. It even wrapped up pretty well. Not a completely happy ending, and no one's hands were completely clean - which is, to me, the best kind of ending you can have with a horror novel. Good in the grand scheme of things, but fucked up when you think about it too hard.

My ONLY hang up is that I couldn't give a damn about Jane's motivation. I was rooting for her to succeed, yeah, but in a very insubstantial way. If I'd had my way she'd have noped the fuck out of that house and moved on to greener pastures instead of breaking her literal body to save this guy she barely knew. Like I said, the emotional core suffered.

But if you that isn't a complete deal-breaker for you, then this is a solid horror that does its horror well. I'd definitely recommend it.