I'll be the first to admit that I rarely read romance of any kind, much less delve into books with supernatural elements, but I have to say that I really enjoyed this gothic suspense novel by an author whose books I've read since I discovered her medical thrillers back in the day. I've not kept up with the R and I series, but I was curious and decided to give this departure a go: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4
Yes, there's a damsel in distress. Ava Collette, a 30-something food writer, has done a bad, bad thing and she escapes Boston and her beloved older sister, Lucy, to Maine to finish a book that has gone way past deadline. She also wants to forget so she drowns her sorrows in cooking and alcohol. She arrives in August and plans to stay until October. She brings her Maine Coon cat, Hannibal.
The setting: Ava runs to Tucker Cove and a 150-year-old mansion on the cliff overlooking the ocean. The place she has rented is known as Brodie's Watch and was built by a sea captain who went down with his ship in about 1861 so the place has a history. The house is a bit forbidding at first, but when she enters, she feels that she is welcomed and safe. Plus it has a great kitchen and is beautifully redone inside, especially after the workmen finish a turret room and a widow's walk up top. Tucker Cove is a very small New England town where everyone knows the "insiders" and of course, are a bit distrustful of the tourists.
The characters that interact with Ava are all quite interesting and seem a bit secretive. The most intriguing is what appears to be the ghost of Captain Jeremiah Brodie himself. In fact, Ava soon believes that she is actually able to hear, see and touch him, "Here in my house, what you seek is what you will find."
The plot is where things get a bit crazy as Ava soon discovers that every single woman who has stayed in the house has died -- some in the house, but things escalate when a woman's body is found in the sea and it turns out that...well, NO SPOILERS. Is Ava gone crazy in some sort of alcohol fueled hallucination sequence or is there a killer in Tucker Cove?
The writing is fantastic and when combined with the gothic overtones and the supernatural elements, the narrative zings along and I couldn't put this book down as I was desperate to find out what was going on and if Ava would be OK. The crazy erotic scenes and Ava playing amateur sleuth just added to the whole package and, while unbelievable to this skeptic, I found it all quite fun.
I had almost decided to skip this one entirely after reading some reviews, but I like to form my own opinion and I hope you will enjoy this one as much as I did. Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this e-book ARC to read, review and recommend.
This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre -- gothic romantic suspense, mystery, erotica, supernatural elements
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