Strange Beasts is so much fun that the minute I finished the book, I downloaded the audio for my husband to listen to. This is a paranormal adventure meets gothic mystery with a sapphic love story intertwined in all of that. It has shades of Penny Dreadful, non stop action, and it’s just a blast to read. The novel takes place in an alternate Victorian era where paranormal creatures openly exist with human beings. Sam … Continue reading Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris →
At the risk of sounding conceited, when you read as many thrillers as I do, at some point it becomes easy to predict the twist. It’s fairly uncommon for me to be completely surprised by the ending of a psychological thriller, but Lucy Foley does it every time. The Paris Apartment is no different. The Paris Apartment is told from multiple points of view, with the heroine being Jess, a barmaid from England. Jess is … Continue reading The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley →
The Wife in the Attic is a retelling of Jane Eyre where a lonely governess falls for her employer’s mysterious wife, and contemplates whether murdering him is the easiest way out of their predicament. For many of you, that’s all you need to know to one-click. Go forth and enjoy this audiobook which is available on Audible now, and as an ebook in Fall 2021. This book is a gothic delight. It’s unsettling but not … Continue reading The Wife in the Attic by Rose Lerner →
Content warnings: Lots and lots of grief and loss, also death of a secondary character Dearest Josephine is an epistolary novel about grief and coming of age, disguised as a paranormal gothic romance. It is a sweet, clever, beautiful book, and I adored it. In 1820, the recently orphaned Elias Roch meets Josephine DeClare at an inn, and falls instantly and passionately in love. But in the morning, she is gone, and he has no … Continue reading Dearest Josephine by Caroline George →
Promise of Darkness is a fantasy romance that intrigued me with its Gothic elements and excellent worldbuilding. The tone of the novel shifted midway leaving its Gothic premise behind for something more fantasy-adventure driven. While that shift felt abrupt and pulled me out of the novel momentarily, I was so invested in the plot it was fairly easy to jump back in. I will warn readers that this book ends with a HFN not a … Continue reading Promise of Darkness by Bec McMaster →
This is a joint review by Aarya and Claudia. Sometimes reviews here are in the form of a dialogue, and sometimes they are rather longform; this one is both, and we hope you enjoy our discussion. Claudia: I have a confession to make: I was today years old when I discovered what is really my favorite romance trope. Oh, for years I was pretty sure it was marriage-of-convenience. For me, a reader of (mainly) historical … Continue reading A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy →
CW: Domestic violence, violence against women, violence against animals, references to sexual assault A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh is a tightly plotted thriller that has pervasive feeling of rage coiled around it. Every character in this book feels angry and on edge, on the verge of snapping. This creates a superb tension that carries throughout the novel and, when combined with a perfectly plotted mystery and well-developed characters, results in a fantastic reading … Continue reading A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh →
I love creepy romance; before I started reading romance novels I read Old Skool Gothics by Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney. The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox contained some Gothic elements, but it’s really a historical romance with suspense elements. I enjoyed the spooky atmosphere, but I found the romantic development to be a little weak and I wasn’t happy with how the mystery was laid out. The novel is set in Pale … Continue reading The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox →
TW: This book contains the graphic depiction of a rape. The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea is billed a Gothic mystery set in 1686 in Iceland that has shades of Jane Eyre to it. It’s about the dangers of rumors, and how they can poison a community. It’s wonderfully atmospheric and creepy…at least at first. About two-thirds of the way through the book, The Glass Woman shifts from a traditional Gothic to something more like … Continue reading The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea →
His Wicked Charm is a fun Regency Gothic romance. This is one of many books in the “Mad Moreland Series,” which is about an unconventional upper class family in England. In this book, one of the Moreland brothers, Con, teams up with his sister’s friend Lilah to solve mysteries and fight crime (basically). Con is the “bad” brother and Lilah is the “boring” friend. The story kicks off with a kidnapping and winds up full-in Gothic … Continue reading His Wicked Charm by Candace Camp →
