Tag Archives: gothic

The Shadows of Stormclyffe Hall by Lauren Smith – a Review

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The Shadows of Stormclyffe Hall by Lauren Smith – a Review

 

The Shadows of Stormclyffe HallAmazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / BAM

Description:
To defeat a dark evil, they must face his family’s past…

Bastian Carlisle, the Earl of Weymouth, doesn’t believe in ghosts. Even though tragedy and mysterious hauntings have driven his family away from his ancestral home, Stormclyffe Hall, he is determined to restore the castle to its former glory. His plans are disrupted when a stubborn American shows up on his doorstep hoping to pry into his family’s tragic history.

Jane Seyton, an American graduate student, is convinced there’s more to the tragedy of Stormclyffe Hall than history claims. Ever the scholar, she is determined to discover the truth, even if it means putting up with the arrogant, yet sexy, Bastian.

Although Bastian wants nothing to do with the pushy American, it soon becomes clear that something evil is in the house—and that something is targeting both Jane and Bastian. The two must join forces to purge the ghosts of Stormclyffe Hall once and for all—even as they try to fight a physical attraction between them that grows more and more impossible to deny.

 

Review:

I had the pleasure of reading THE SHADOWS OF STORMCLYFFE HALL by Lauren Smith on a dark and stormy night. Lightning and thunder booming overhead greatly enhanced this reading experience! I would classify this novel as a modern gothic novel on par with the greats!

Bastian Carlisle, the Earl of Weymouth has returned to his family’s castle to restore it, even though the castle has only seen tragedy for the past two hundred years. Jane Seyton, an American graduate student has shown up on the castle’s doorsteps to finish her doctoral dissertation. She doesn’t admit to the arrogant Brit that she has been having nightmares about the castle for years.

Together, Bastian and Anya learn the secrets behind the evil that lurks in the hallways and the ghosts that appear to each of them! Bastian tries to make Jane leave, to protect her and his heart, but the castle needs both of them to defeat the curse.

I won’t give away too many spoilers, because everyone needs to experience the hair rising on their necks for themselves! I am a fan of this author and I love a good scare, but I have to say, I’m still questioning every noise I hear in the dark now! This novel is for the reader who loves the paranormal mixed with a hot romance!

Reviewed by Jules

Copy provided by Author

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The Descent (The Taker #3) by Alma Katsu-Promotion and Giveaway

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The Descent (The Taker Trilogy #3) by Alma Katsu-Promotion and Giveaway

Katsu contest

The Descent
The Taker #3
by Alma Katsu
Release Date: January 7, 2014
Genre: paranormal, gothic, contemporary, suspense, supernatural

The Descent

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk/ Barnes and Noble / The Book Depository

Lanore McIlvrae has been on the run from Adair for hundreds of years, dismayed by his mysterious powers and afraid of his temper. She betrayed Adair’s trust and imprisoned him behind a stone wall to save Jonathan, the love of her life. When Adair was freed 200 years later, she was sure that he would find her and make her existence a living hell. But things turned out far different than she’d imagined.

Four years later, Lanore has tracked Adair to his mystical island home, where he has been living in self-imposed exile, to ask for a favor. She wants Adair to send her to the hereafter so she may beg the Queen of the Underworld to release Jonathan, whom she has been keeping as her consort. Will Lanore honor her promise to Adair to return? Or is her intention to reunite with Jonathan at any cost?

Of all the forces of the universe, the most mysterious, confounding, and humbling is the power of love. The epic story of love and loss, magic and destiny that began with The Taker and sparked a chase around the world in The Reckoning comes to a surprising conclusion with The Descent.

The Taker Series

Click HERE for our review of THE TAKER (The Taker #1) by Alma Katsu

Click HERE for our review of THE RECKONING (The Taker #2) by Alma Katsu
About the author

FOLLOW: Website / Goodreads/ Facebook / Twitter

Alma KatsuAlma Katsu’s debut, The Taker, has been compared to the early work of Anne Rice, Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander for combining the historical, supernatural and fantasy in one story. The novel was named a Top Ten Debut Novel of 2011 by the American Library Association and rights have sold been in 16 languages. The Reckoning, the second book in the trilogy, was published in June 2012, and the third and final book, The Descent, will be published in January 2014. The Taker Trilogy is published by Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster and Century/Random House UK.

Ms. Katsu lives outside of Washington, DC with her husband, musician Bruce Katsu. In addition to her novels, Ms. Katsu has been a signature reviewer for Publishers Weekly and an occasional contributor to The Huffington Post. She is a graduate of the Master’s writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University, where she studied with John Irving. She also attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

Prior to publication of her first novel, Ms. Katsu had a long career as a senior intelligence analyst for several US agencies and is currently a senior analyst for a think tank.

rafflecopter giveaway

Three winners will receive:
1. a complete set of the trilogy in trade paperback,
2. a $50 gift card from their choice of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or iTunes.
3. Some neat Taker swag.

The contest begins on *January 7th, 2014* and runs through January 14th, 2014.

It’s open to US residents age 18 and older.

NOTE: The Reading Cafe is NOT responsible for the rafflecopter giveaway. If you have any questions, please contact the author.

Click HERE for the rafflecopter giveaway.

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The Reckoning (The Taker #2) by Alma Katsu-a review

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The Reckoning (The Taker #2) by Alma Katsu-a review

The Reckoning 2

=>$1.99 ebook special at time of posting (except Amazon.uk)<=

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk/ Barnes and Noble / KOBO / The Book Depository

THE RECKONING (The Taker #2) by Alma Katsu

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 22, 2013

Love saved her soul . . . but the shadows of the past condemn her.

Lanore McIlvrae is the kind of woman who will do anything for love. Including imprisoning the man who loves her behind a wall of brick and stone.

She had no choice but to entomb Adair, her nemesis, to save Jonathan, the boy she grew up with in a remote Maine town in the early 1800s and the man she thought she would be with forever. But Adair had other plans for her. He used his mysterious, otherworldly powers to give her eternal life, but Lanore learned too late that there was a price for this gift: to spend eternity with him. And though he is handsome and charming, behind Adair’s seductive facade is the stuff of nightmares. He is a monster in the flesh, and he wants Lanore to love him for all of time.

Now, two hundred years after imprisoning Adair, Lanore is trying to atone for her sins. She has given away the treasures she’s collected over her many lifetimes in order to purge her past and clear the way for a future with her new lover, Luke Findley. But, while viewing these items at an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Lanore suddenly is aware that the thing she’s been dreading for two hundred years has caught up to her: Adair has escaped from his prison. He’s free; and he will come looking for her. And she has no idea how she will save herself.

••••••••••••••••••••••

NOTE: The Taker series must be read in order or important information will not be understood.

REVIEW: THE RECKONING is the second full length novel in Alma Katsu’s dark and richly detailed paranormal, historical fiction, horror-esque series focusing on Lanore McIlvrae and Adair-the man who claimed her life and made her an immortal. Like the first book in the series-The Taker- The Reckoning is divided into three sections, told from first to third person points of view. This is not a story of vampires and blood but a story of centuries old magic, alchemy and the sins of life everlasting-til the end.

Alma Katsu’s wonderfully decadent imagination takes the reader on a journey of one woman’s fight for her freedom from the man who wants the only woman he can never have. Adair is an enigma-a man of wealth and power, but a power that comes from the ancient magical tomes of a physic long thought gone. But some of Adair’s secrets have been uncovered and Lanny hopes to stay one step ahead of the man who seeks revenge and reprisal for two centuries of imprisonment at the hands of the woman he cannot live without.

Lanore McIlvrae is a naïve woman who has truly loved only one man in her entire existence but that love was never shared or returned. Jonathan is beautiful, handsome and the epitome of every man and woman’s dream but with it comes a self centered ego that will never allow him to love anyone beyond that of what he is capable of giving himself.

Lanore is too trusting in her endeavor to seek help from the ‘other’ people who have succumbed to Adair’s charms and powers and in this, Lanny will fall victim to Adair once again. To save the people that she loves, she will be forced to make a choice that, in the end, will push away the man who is willing to die for the woman that he also loves.

Alma Katsu pulls the reader into the dark and dangerous sensual world of one man’s obsession, love, desire and need for the woman known as Lanore McIlvrae. Adair’s passion for immortality is tempered by the circumstances that have forced him into a prison not of his making and it is that passion that will have Adair focusing on the ultimate revenge against Lanny for her crimes against the man and his broken heart. His need for Lanny overpowers any sense of morality and with it comes the desire to destroy anything and anyone who stands in his way.

THE RECKONING continues to build on the story that began in The Taker and the story will come full circle with the release of The Descent on January 7, 2014. There are many questions left unanswered and many more yet to be addressed but with Alma’s ability to weave a tale of obsession and the fine line between love and hate, we know that the final instalment in Lanny and Adair’s story will be epic as Adair has willingly allowed Lanny to walk away with both his heart and possibly his soul.

Reviewed by Sandy

Click HERE for our review of THE TAKER (The Taker #1) by Alma Katsu

The Taker Series

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