This is a strange, quirky but engaging book that I mentally retitled as ‘Strange Tales From Whitby, Told By An Even Stranger Person‘.

The story is told by Brenda who owns and runs a small B&B in Whitby. The book opens with Brenda introducing herself:

I love it here.

It’s the only place I could have settled down. I’ve never found a town like it, never in my long. long life

My name is Brenda. Hello!

Since the beginning of summer I have lived here, deliciously inconspicuous: just one more Bed and Breakfast lady in a resort that teems with Bed and Breakfasts Here, the streets are narrow and intricate; the rooftops are ramshackle and the wind is biting. The seagulls are as big as Yorkshire terriers and, for a good nine months of the year, this town is steeped in a thick sea mist… and that’s probably a good thing.

There are things here you don’t necessarily want to see.

Keep your head down, Brenda. That’s what I tell myself. Fry those sausages and eggs and bacon. Make those beds. Be welcoming. Be at home.

Any horror fan reading this is going to wonder if Brenda was drawn to Whitby because it’s a picturesque port on the Yorkshire coast, or because it was the port where Dracula’s ship the Demeter ran aground with not a soul aboard except the near-dead captain lashed to the wheel.

Whitby: picturesque seaside town

Whitby: where Dracula landed in England
To me, ‘Never The Bride’ read like a TV series of the strange and weird kind, aimed at gathering a cult following amongst those who are amused by the benignly bizarre and who enjoy uncovering genre references. Each chapter is a complete ‘episode’ in which Brenda and her friend and neighbour, Effie get involved with Whitby’s strangest visitors and residents, solving a mystery while moving the overall story arc forward. As the two of them discover the true price of visiting The Deadly Boutique for a makeover, or the downside of working as an elf at the Christmas Hotel, or the secrets the family staying at Brenda’s B&B is trying to hide or what a ghost-hunting reality TV crew will find in Effie’s antique shop, we gradually discover who Brenda really is and the legacy Effie has inherited from the generations of women who lived in Whitby before her.

The adventures are mild and amusing with some moments of tension. A bit how Dr Who was before the Doctor became The Oncoming Storm and The Destroyer Of Worlds. I liked Brenda. Effie can be a bit of a pain but somehow that made her friendship with Brenda more convincing.

By the end of the book, Brenda’s origin story and Effie’s legacy have been revealed and the two of them are established as the go-to team for dealing with anything weird in Whitby and we have reason to believe that there will be a lot of weird in Whitby.

‘Never The Bride’ made me smile. It was original and well-told, if slightly chaotic. I’m sure I’ll be back for more but this is the kind of series that I can’t read back to back without it losing its edge – like eating a whole box of chocolates in one sitting. ( )

Brenda and Effie are two ladies living in Whitby, a little town by the sea with a very pitturesque graveyard. They are special ladies, Brenda drives a bed-and-breakfast and Effie owns a bric-a-brac store. They have keen eye and use this to study the strange happenings in their little town.... The ladies themselves have their own secrets.
A collegue of mine was really enthousiastic about this story. Maybe that's why I was a little dissapointed at first. My expectations were just too high. And I was a little stressed to read it because I really had to bring it back to the library. (So much to read and little time). In the end I got into it, and then I really liked it. For fans of gothic classics like Dracula this book has some extra, nice details. Easy, fun read. ( )

Quite amusing: two middle-aged ladies investigate mysterious and dark doings in Whitby, traditional home of mysterious and dark doings, but one of them is herself hiding a Terrible Secret. It is plainly obvious from about page 2 – if the title didn't give it away – who she is and what's her secret, but that doesn't hamper its entertainment value. The oddest thing about the book is that the whole of it is really just a prologue to the final chapter, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Presumably the author plans a series, but it's a little unsatisfying. ( )

This is the tale of Brenda, who runs a little B&B in Whitby. Summer is over, so she's settling into a quiet time of the year with her best friend Effie, who runs a junk shop next door. But it's not as uneventful as expected, with mysterious guests and incidents in the town. And neither Brenda nor Effie are quite who they appear to be either.

This was a fun read. Effie and Brenda are great characters, and while the book for a while felt like a series of disconnected incidents, it did all make sense as a whole by the end. The plot was not completely resolved, but left nicely open for others in the series. And since I liked Brenda & Effie, I'm happy with reading on in this series.

And if you're wondering why Whitby sounds familiar: it's where Count Dracula arrives in England. And that might give you a hint of what to expect with this series also. :) ( )

Good read, a bit slow and bitty, plenty of subplots while trying to keep the main story line flowing, I think he was trying to build in to a series from the start, and so was trying to give the main Characters some depth