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hannas_heas47's review
4.0
Thanks netgalley for a free read in exchange for a review.
This was a well written novel that captured my attention and held it until finish. The idea was unique and it stayed well within the genre. Alistair has a daughter born with an allergy to sunlight. He stumbles upon Violet by accident and hires her to be his daughters governess. This is a very moving book, and I found Violet to be the hero of the story. Thanks so much for such a wonderful read. Overall entertainment was four stars.
This was a well written novel that captured my attention and held it until finish. The idea was unique and it stayed well within the genre. Alistair has a daughter born with an allergy to sunlight. He stumbles upon Violet by accident and hires her to be his daughters governess. This is a very moving book, and I found Violet to be the hero of the story. Thanks so much for such a wonderful read. Overall entertainment was four stars.
suzanne's review
5.0
Dear Ms. Ridley:
I don’t buy any romance novel unless I’m certain, based on past experience, that I’ll enjoy it. But you were offering a free novella and I like the price of free. I downloaded it from Amazon and read it in a quick evening. Nice story, loved the heroine, wish it could have been fleshed out into a novel. With sex scenes next time? Sigh. All in all, a decent morsel, but I wanted a meal. And you certainly gave me the solution.
The last pages of the novella included a link to your website to sign up for discounted pricing on new releases. Me, I love a discount. I’m a sucker. If you tell me I’ll receive 50 cents off a refrigerator by joining an email list, I will do it and stare proudly at the 50-cent discount once I’ve purchased, like I accomplished something clever that was only reserved for the privileged.
I dutifully signed up for your mailing list, confirmed my email, and received an unexpected bonus: another free story. Oh, you’re good. You know me. I downloaded it immediately, mailed the file to my Kindle app on iPad and iPhone both, and settled in. And it was great.
Okay, you proved yourself. I was ready to buy.
I decided to read the second in your Dukes of War series, since the free book from Amazon was the first in that series. But I don’t just start a book all helter-skelter like the young kids do, without looking before they leap, without considering the full state of affairs amongst story and author and series and characters. You don’t just push in without any context. That would be wrong. One must engage in foreplay to properly facilitate a smooth entrance into new territory. Was that crude? I was referring to sex. That was a sex joke.
Before I start reading a book, I analyze the summary. I also read the Amazon reviews (taken with a billion grains of salt). I also tend to read every single page on the new-to-me author’s website. And their Amazon author page. And at least one or two (or five) pages of the author’s blog. Okay, sometimes I read all the pages. That’s how I roll.
So as I was performing due diligence before reading the second in the Dukes of War series, I got distracted by your marketing video for Dark Surrender, posted on your author page on Amazon. It was the third in a series that included two paranormal historicals (one of my favorite genres!), except this third in the series wasn’t paranormal. Your description of the heroine intrigued me: You described her as a strong-willed woman who had experienced everything already and was not ashamed of her past. She wasn’t ashamed of her upbringing, of not being a virgin, of experiencing horrors.
To be honest, I am not a fan of heroines who grew up in the streets. Sometimes it works but usually it’s an awful jumble of cliché and bad accent attempts. There is almost always a sense of inferiority combined with trite feistiness, and your average author cannot pull this feat off without repeating all the same things hundreds (thousands, these days) of authors before her did. Still, my interest was piqued. I flitted around your website until I found the Dark Surrender page.
I promise I meant to return to the Dukes of War pages, but I happened to see an excerpt. A three-chapter excerpt. I started reading, figuring I would just get a glimpse of this heroine and pop back to see her later, after the Dukes of War series.
Nuh-uh. By the end of the first chapter, I already loved the heroine. By the end of the second chapter, I was a fan of the hero. By the third, I was a wild fan of the hero’s daughter, of the heroine, and of the hero all at once. This wasn’t fair. I basically had a gun to my head, telling me my only option was to pay you 99 cents for the whole novel and immediately read it all. Well, 99 cents isn’t going to break the bank—not this month, anyway—so I paid my dollar and I opened my iPad and commanded it to download the book. There is a primal satisfaction in seeing a download-in-progress become an actual book to read and experience.
Ms. Ridley, I am ashamed to say I didn’t even visit the website pages for the first two books in the series. My whole meticulous system fell away in the face of impatience to read the fourth chapter. Chaos, I say. I finished Dark Surrender that night.
If I were to summarize this book, I would say Violet, a woman down on her luck and wrongly accused, crawls into an old abbey, which turns out to be the lair of our hero and his daughter and their servants. Classic gothic start. The hero, Alistair, is desperate for someone to watch his daughter because she’s basically a horrid child who is impossible to deal with. Bear with me; it’s not as trite as you think.
Violet ends up being the only person the child can stand (she despises her father) and the father is both jealous and impossibly grateful to the heroine. So grateful he would do anything to keep her there. Here’s your salary, and here is your salary again. And just in case, here you go: it’s your salary a third time. And a fourth. And a fifth. Not enough? Let me know. Violet’s the only one Lillian will talk to in a civil way. Violet inspires Lillian to finally learn to read. Violet is teaching Lillian how to draw and paint. Violet is magic. Violet must stay. Violet, here: it’s your salary a sixth time.
22% into the book, you just wrecked me. I loved them so much. The father/daughter relationship was so horrible, and yet so believable. I don’t even like children in romance. They’re annoying and cutesy and I feel obligated to like them or I’m a jerk. So what happens is that I don’t like them and I’m a jerk.
Lillian was not annoying. She was awesome. I haven’t enjoyed a child in romance so much since Lord Perfect introduced me to Peregrine and Olivia.
I took in every accusation flung by nine-year-old Lillian and I swallowed it all without the slightest hesitation. Every word was painful. So many words. That poor father. That poor child. Lillian was pretty much a terrible daughter, screaming and attacking and always insulting everyone, never letting anyone close. When I say this scene included the worst conversation she ever had with her father, that’s saying something. My heart: IN PIECES.
I already mentioned I don’t like children in romance. Even more, I dislike problem child tropes. Yes, yes, the child just needs someone to communicate on their level, to accept them and love them, bla bla bla, Lifetime TV Original Series, weepy weepy, get a kleenex. Will the fake humanity never stop? But Lillian is a problem child for jerks like me. She was contrary and brilliant and stubborn and vicious and overall pretty damned fantastic.
I also tend to avoid governess novels like all governesses have leprosy. Unclean, unclean. But Violet was so sincere in how she handled Lillian. She understood this sort of child. She immersed herself in the Lillian of things, and I knew, instantly, that she was going to make this family’s life better, and they’d complete her as well. And I wanted to see that.
And this is the difference between two books, each employing tropes I dislike: the disliked tropes no longer matter, because what matters to me is these characters, and whether they’re okay or not, and anticipating the story that unfolds around them. Make me care about the characters and you could throw my most hated tropes at me—virgin wife in marriage of convenience comes in contact with estranged husband, rake extraordinaire and of course a duke with some hackneyed nickname related to the Devil or Sin or Wickedness, who mistakes his wife for an experienced whore and tries to tempt her to become his mistress, and she doesn’t correct him, and she doesn’t kick him in the balls, but instead goes along with it in some attempt to get payback, but instead she falls in love with the bastard, and he is laid low and comes back to the fold, and this blushing virgin bride is the best he’s ever had, and he always loved her, really, from the moment he first saw her, but just didn’t know it, and they lived happily ever after, but I didn’t get that far because I purged the book from my Kindle after half a chapter—throw that all at me and I will still love your book. All you have to do is make me care.
I adored this heroine. She took nonsense from no one, and I am such a fan of women who speak their mind and won’t be walked over. Violet was brave and resourceful and most of all, she had a true heart. This heroine deserved the love she received.
And Alistair was a man equal to her, devoted and loyal to the core—almost too loyal, really. He was so committed to his daughter. He read to her every night. He talked to her every day, attempting to teach her things, hoping she absorbed a tenth of what he said. The entire time, she was beyond rude, kicking, biting, pushing, yelling, ignoring. He came back every day. He brought flowers. He never quit on her. He understood she has reasons why she was angry and dreadful and he loved his daughter all the same. And he always came back.
He needed someone to love him, and more importantly, he just wanted to be allowed to love his daughter and see her happy. And Lillian was very, very unhappy. She refused to give him an inch until Violet arrived and everything fell into place. They were a broken puzzle until they pieced themselves together and became a family.
My only complaint is that the villain was like a cardboard cutout, checking all the vilest boxes. Liar, check. Rapist, check. Murderer, check. Denying poor orphan girls education because a sanitarium makes more money than a school, check. There was nothing decent in this man, nothing redeemable. He was so predictable in his evillainy (this is a word; I have made it one by telling Microsoft Word to learn the spelling) and I just didn’t care enough about anything he said or did.
I also thought the villagers were a bit too cruel and ridiculous in their witch hunting. I dunno; they’ll all band together and kill the daughter if they know she’s living? Because she has an ailment that makes them think she’s possessed by a devil? Really? The whole town? Eh.
But I can move past all that because other than those two elements, it was lovely. Dark Surrender was a satisfying and emotionally charged read from top to bottom, like bittersweet chocolate drizzled over…over…god, I suck at similes. It was good, people. It was really damned good. The prose was fresh and the emotion was solid and I’d like to live in a former English abbey now, please. It was a quick read, the sex scenes were hot, and most importantly, the people in this book mattered. They were good people. They deserved each other’s love, and they earned mine as well.
A-.
PS: As of this review’s publication, I’m caught up on all current Dukes of War books. Good times. I still liked this one the best.
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-a-reviews/a-minus-reviews/review-dark-surrender-by-erica-ridley/
I don’t buy any romance novel unless I’m certain, based on past experience, that I’ll enjoy it. But you were offering a free novella and I like the price of free. I downloaded it from Amazon and read it in a quick evening. Nice story, loved the heroine, wish it could have been fleshed out into a novel. With sex scenes next time? Sigh. All in all, a decent morsel, but I wanted a meal. And you certainly gave me the solution.
The last pages of the novella included a link to your website to sign up for discounted pricing on new releases. Me, I love a discount. I’m a sucker. If you tell me I’ll receive 50 cents off a refrigerator by joining an email list, I will do it and stare proudly at the 50-cent discount once I’ve purchased, like I accomplished something clever that was only reserved for the privileged.
I dutifully signed up for your mailing list, confirmed my email, and received an unexpected bonus: another free story. Oh, you’re good. You know me. I downloaded it immediately, mailed the file to my Kindle app on iPad and iPhone both, and settled in. And it was great.
Okay, you proved yourself. I was ready to buy.
I decided to read the second in your Dukes of War series, since the free book from Amazon was the first in that series. But I don’t just start a book all helter-skelter like the young kids do, without looking before they leap, without considering the full state of affairs amongst story and author and series and characters. You don’t just push in without any context. That would be wrong. One must engage in foreplay to properly facilitate a smooth entrance into new territory. Was that crude? I was referring to sex. That was a sex joke.
Before I start reading a book, I analyze the summary. I also read the Amazon reviews (taken with a billion grains of salt). I also tend to read every single page on the new-to-me author’s website. And their Amazon author page. And at least one or two (or five) pages of the author’s blog. Okay, sometimes I read all the pages. That’s how I roll.
So as I was performing due diligence before reading the second in the Dukes of War series, I got distracted by your marketing video for Dark Surrender, posted on your author page on Amazon. It was the third in a series that included two paranormal historicals (one of my favorite genres!), except this third in the series wasn’t paranormal. Your description of the heroine intrigued me: You described her as a strong-willed woman who had experienced everything already and was not ashamed of her past. She wasn’t ashamed of her upbringing, of not being a virgin, of experiencing horrors.
To be honest, I am not a fan of heroines who grew up in the streets. Sometimes it works but usually it’s an awful jumble of cliché and bad accent attempts. There is almost always a sense of inferiority combined with trite feistiness, and your average author cannot pull this feat off without repeating all the same things hundreds (thousands, these days) of authors before her did. Still, my interest was piqued. I flitted around your website until I found the Dark Surrender page.
I promise I meant to return to the Dukes of War pages, but I happened to see an excerpt. A three-chapter excerpt. I started reading, figuring I would just get a glimpse of this heroine and pop back to see her later, after the Dukes of War series.
Nuh-uh. By the end of the first chapter, I already loved the heroine. By the end of the second chapter, I was a fan of the hero. By the third, I was a wild fan of the hero’s daughter, of the heroine, and of the hero all at once. This wasn’t fair. I basically had a gun to my head, telling me my only option was to pay you 99 cents for the whole novel and immediately read it all. Well, 99 cents isn’t going to break the bank—not this month, anyway—so I paid my dollar and I opened my iPad and commanded it to download the book. There is a primal satisfaction in seeing a download-in-progress become an actual book to read and experience.
Ms. Ridley, I am ashamed to say I didn’t even visit the website pages for the first two books in the series. My whole meticulous system fell away in the face of impatience to read the fourth chapter. Chaos, I say. I finished Dark Surrender that night.
If I were to summarize this book, I would say Violet, a woman down on her luck and wrongly accused, crawls into an old abbey, which turns out to be the lair of our hero and his daughter and their servants. Classic gothic start. The hero, Alistair, is desperate for someone to watch his daughter because she’s basically a horrid child who is impossible to deal with. Bear with me; it’s not as trite as you think.
Violet ends up being the only person the child can stand (she despises her father) and the father is both jealous and impossibly grateful to the heroine. So grateful he would do anything to keep her there. Here’s your salary, and here is your salary again. And just in case, here you go: it’s your salary a third time. And a fourth. And a fifth. Not enough? Let me know. Violet’s the only one Lillian will talk to in a civil way. Violet inspires Lillian to finally learn to read. Violet is teaching Lillian how to draw and paint. Violet is magic. Violet must stay. Violet, here: it’s your salary a sixth time.
22% into the book, you just wrecked me. I loved them so much. The father/daughter relationship was so horrible, and yet so believable. I don’t even like children in romance. They’re annoying and cutesy and I feel obligated to like them or I’m a jerk. So what happens is that I don’t like them and I’m a jerk.
Lillian was not annoying. She was awesome. I haven’t enjoyed a child in romance so much since Lord Perfect introduced me to Peregrine and Olivia.
I took in every accusation flung by nine-year-old Lillian and I swallowed it all without the slightest hesitation. Every word was painful. So many words. That poor father. That poor child. Lillian was pretty much a terrible daughter, screaming and attacking and always insulting everyone, never letting anyone close. When I say this scene included the worst conversation she ever had with her father, that’s saying something. My heart: IN PIECES.
I already mentioned I don’t like children in romance. Even more, I dislike problem child tropes. Yes, yes, the child just needs someone to communicate on their level, to accept them and love them, bla bla bla, Lifetime TV Original Series, weepy weepy, get a kleenex. Will the fake humanity never stop? But Lillian is a problem child for jerks like me. She was contrary and brilliant and stubborn and vicious and overall pretty damned fantastic.
I also tend to avoid governess novels like all governesses have leprosy. Unclean, unclean. But Violet was so sincere in how she handled Lillian. She understood this sort of child. She immersed herself in the Lillian of things, and I knew, instantly, that she was going to make this family’s life better, and they’d complete her as well. And I wanted to see that.
And this is the difference between two books, each employing tropes I dislike: the disliked tropes no longer matter, because what matters to me is these characters, and whether they’re okay or not, and anticipating the story that unfolds around them. Make me care about the characters and you could throw my most hated tropes at me—virgin wife in marriage of convenience comes in contact with estranged husband, rake extraordinaire and of course a duke with some hackneyed nickname related to the Devil or Sin or Wickedness, who mistakes his wife for an experienced whore and tries to tempt her to become his mistress, and she doesn’t correct him, and she doesn’t kick him in the balls, but instead goes along with it in some attempt to get payback, but instead she falls in love with the bastard, and he is laid low and comes back to the fold, and this blushing virgin bride is the best he’s ever had, and he always loved her, really, from the moment he first saw her, but just didn’t know it, and they lived happily ever after, but I didn’t get that far because I purged the book from my Kindle after half a chapter—throw that all at me and I will still love your book. All you have to do is make me care.
I adored this heroine. She took nonsense from no one, and I am such a fan of women who speak their mind and won’t be walked over. Violet was brave and resourceful and most of all, she had a true heart. This heroine deserved the love she received.
And Alistair was a man equal to her, devoted and loyal to the core—almost too loyal, really. He was so committed to his daughter. He read to her every night. He talked to her every day, attempting to teach her things, hoping she absorbed a tenth of what he said. The entire time, she was beyond rude, kicking, biting, pushing, yelling, ignoring. He came back every day. He brought flowers. He never quit on her. He understood she has reasons why she was angry and dreadful and he loved his daughter all the same. And he always came back.
He needed someone to love him, and more importantly, he just wanted to be allowed to love his daughter and see her happy. And Lillian was very, very unhappy. She refused to give him an inch until Violet arrived and everything fell into place. They were a broken puzzle until they pieced themselves together and became a family.
My only complaint is that the villain was like a cardboard cutout, checking all the vilest boxes. Liar, check. Rapist, check. Murderer, check. Denying poor orphan girls education because a sanitarium makes more money than a school, check. There was nothing decent in this man, nothing redeemable. He was so predictable in his evillainy (this is a word; I have made it one by telling Microsoft Word to learn the spelling) and I just didn’t care enough about anything he said or did.
I also thought the villagers were a bit too cruel and ridiculous in their witch hunting. I dunno; they’ll all band together and kill the daughter if they know she’s living? Because she has an ailment that makes them think she’s possessed by a devil? Really? The whole town? Eh.
But I can move past all that because other than those two elements, it was lovely. Dark Surrender was a satisfying and emotionally charged read from top to bottom, like bittersweet chocolate drizzled over…over…god, I suck at similes. It was good, people. It was really damned good. The prose was fresh and the emotion was solid and I’d like to live in a former English abbey now, please. It was a quick read, the sex scenes were hot, and most importantly, the people in this book mattered. They were good people. They deserved each other’s love, and they earned mine as well.
A-.
PS: As of this review’s publication, I’m caught up on all current Dukes of War books. Good times. I still liked this one the best.
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-a-reviews/a-minus-reviews/review-dark-surrender-by-erica-ridley/
perfectphlaws's review
5.0
This book really surprised me, I didn't expect to like, especially given its title which I found a bit cheesy. The plot and characters were deep and intricate. They were flawed, and sometimes I didn't like their actions, but it made them very human as well. Ridley also did a great job of portraying the nine year old girl. Getting children right is difficult for many writers, but Lillian was a very accurate 9-year-old at least from my experience.
booksuperpower's review
4.0
Dark Surrender by Erica Ridley is a 2014 Intrepid publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Violet Whitechapel, an orphan that thought she had finally found a place to land comes upon a child in danger she rushed to intervene and commits a terrible crime in the process. Now on the run from the authorities, Violet finds refuge in a crumbling Abbey as a governess to a nine year old child named Lillian. Lillian has "sun sickness" and must always remain in the dark. She is difficult to handle because she has never been properly socialized and does not understand her father's actions.
Alistiar's sole purpose in life is to find a cure for his daughter's malady. He also lives in the dark and spends his time contacting scientist and doctors searching for a way to cure his daughter. Violet's appearance in his life changes so many things for him and his daughter. The attraction between Alistair and Violet grows daily and the progress Lilly makes is slow but promising as Violet helps father and daughter overcome some of the resentfulness and misunderstandings they have.
Violet will learn that she is being sought after by the law and they are much closer than she thought. She will also learn she is not the only one with a few dark secrets.
This historical romance that raises a toast to the Gothic genre, has a dark and moody tone mixing traditional Gothic with traditional historical romance and it turns out to be a good match, at least in this instance. Fiercely loyal staff, rumors of vampires, suspicions, a dark shadowy abbey and a man that has left his wife's room like a shrine but finds himself falling in love with Violet sets the stage for this unique story. Alistair doesn't know Violet's story of course and although she will eventually have to come clean about how she came to be at the Abbey, other areas of her young life remain obscure allowing Alastair to continue on with a fantasy about who Violet really is, all the while harboring some pretty dark secrets of his own. The old double standard comes into play as Alastair makes judgments about Violet that are hypocritical to say the least. This attitude will have far reaching and devastating consequences for Lily who has blossomed under Violet's care.
Being a huge fan of Gothic novels I couldn't resist this one when it was offered on Netgalley. I wasn't disappointed. My hats off to Erica Ridley for attempting such a difficult task. Mixing Gothic and more modern romance expectations would have to be a challenge. I thought she did a wonderful job of staying true to the Gothic genre while keeping the historical romance readers happy at the same time. Yes, this is a much more somber romance and atypical from what most of us think of when we think of Historical Romance. The younger readers may also be completely unfamiliar with true Gothic stories and hopefully this book will inspire some to discover this genre and maybe even help bring it back to popularity again. This one gets 4 stars.
( Besides the obvious Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights Gothic literature that so many think of , try looking into the "horrid" novels Jane Austen mentions in Northanger Abbey and then check out Dorothy Eden, Barbara Michaels, Dorothy Daniels, and other Gothic Romance authors from the 1960's and 70's. Some of these do have supernatural elements, but most do not. It's more a an atmospheric tone than anything else. )
When Violet Whitechapel, an orphan that thought she had finally found a place to land comes upon a child in danger she rushed to intervene and commits a terrible crime in the process. Now on the run from the authorities, Violet finds refuge in a crumbling Abbey as a governess to a nine year old child named Lillian. Lillian has "sun sickness" and must always remain in the dark. She is difficult to handle because she has never been properly socialized and does not understand her father's actions.
Alistiar's sole purpose in life is to find a cure for his daughter's malady. He also lives in the dark and spends his time contacting scientist and doctors searching for a way to cure his daughter. Violet's appearance in his life changes so many things for him and his daughter. The attraction between Alistair and Violet grows daily and the progress Lilly makes is slow but promising as Violet helps father and daughter overcome some of the resentfulness and misunderstandings they have.
Violet will learn that she is being sought after by the law and they are much closer than she thought. She will also learn she is not the only one with a few dark secrets.
This historical romance that raises a toast to the Gothic genre, has a dark and moody tone mixing traditional Gothic with traditional historical romance and it turns out to be a good match, at least in this instance. Fiercely loyal staff, rumors of vampires, suspicions, a dark shadowy abbey and a man that has left his wife's room like a shrine but finds himself falling in love with Violet sets the stage for this unique story. Alistair doesn't know Violet's story of course and although she will eventually have to come clean about how she came to be at the Abbey, other areas of her young life remain obscure allowing Alastair to continue on with a fantasy about who Violet really is, all the while harboring some pretty dark secrets of his own. The old double standard comes into play as Alastair makes judgments about Violet that are hypocritical to say the least. This attitude will have far reaching and devastating consequences for Lily who has blossomed under Violet's care.
Being a huge fan of Gothic novels I couldn't resist this one when it was offered on Netgalley. I wasn't disappointed. My hats off to Erica Ridley for attempting such a difficult task. Mixing Gothic and more modern romance expectations would have to be a challenge. I thought she did a wonderful job of staying true to the Gothic genre while keeping the historical romance readers happy at the same time. Yes, this is a much more somber romance and atypical from what most of us think of when we think of Historical Romance. The younger readers may also be completely unfamiliar with true Gothic stories and hopefully this book will inspire some to discover this genre and maybe even help bring it back to popularity again. This one gets 4 stars.
( Besides the obvious Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights Gothic literature that so many think of , try looking into the "horrid" novels Jane Austen mentions in Northanger Abbey and then check out Dorothy Eden, Barbara Michaels, Dorothy Daniels, and other Gothic Romance authors from the 1960's and 70's. Some of these do have supernatural elements, but most do not. It's more a an atmospheric tone than anything else. )
atunah's review
4.0
This was a wonderful gothic flavored historical romance.
We start with the grown up on the streets waif, running from the law, stumbling over gravestones at an Abbey that is inhabited by Alistair Waldegrave.
Inflicted by something horrible, he and his daughter are basically boarded up in the dark inside the Abbey. There are catacombs, dark and scary corridors, suspicious villagers and of course secrets.
This has all the drama that I want out of a gothic, murder, secrets, passion, villains.
But what really got me the most was the emotional portrayal of the characters. The hero horribly tortured by life and circumstances and the heroine with her own scars. I really felt their despair, their longing and most of all, their loneliness.
There were some scenes in here that ripped my heart out, right along with the characters. I love when I find authors that can give me that.
I always am most satisfied reading, when an author can make me feel all of the emotions. And when the characters go through a lot and the payoff is absolutely worth it. I pretty much read this in 2 sittings.
** Thanks to Netgalley, Intrepid Reads and Erica Ridley for providing this novel for review.
We start with the grown up on the streets waif, running from the law, stumbling over gravestones at an Abbey that is inhabited by Alistair Waldegrave.
Inflicted by something horrible, he and his daughter are basically boarded up in the dark inside the Abbey. There are catacombs, dark and scary corridors, suspicious villagers and of course secrets.
This has all the drama that I want out of a gothic, murder, secrets, passion, villains.
But what really got me the most was the emotional portrayal of the characters. The hero horribly tortured by life and circumstances and the heroine with her own scars. I really felt their despair, their longing and most of all, their loneliness.
There were some scenes in here that ripped my heart out, right along with the characters. I love when I find authors that can give me that.
I always am most satisfied reading, when an author can make me feel all of the emotions. And when the characters go through a lot and the payoff is absolutely worth it. I pretty much read this in 2 sittings.
** Thanks to Netgalley, Intrepid Reads and Erica Ridley for providing this novel for review.
georgiewhoissarahdrew's review
1.0
I'd read [b:The Viscount's Christmas Temptation|23277433|The Viscount's Christmas Temptation (The Dukes of War, #.5)|Erica Ridley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411872808s/23277433.jpg|42816293] and thoroughly enjoyed it - it was an energetic & funny read - so I was keen to read more by Erica Ridley. Unfortunately, none of her other books seem to have the same sense of wit & character as that novella. This - and her other full-length books - sacrifice character coherence to plot. There is so much plot, so many incidents (not all of them logical, even), that there is no room for character development. The central relationship is barely credible, and I found it difficult to care about any of the characters, when the author clearly didn't. A pity, as I thought I'd found an author to follow.
isalavinia's review
3.0
arc received from Intrepid Reads through netgalley
tw: attempted child rape, mentions of abuse
Violet Whitechapel, a teacher at an orphanage for girls, saves one of her charges from a brutal crime and, in doing so, murders the perpetrator. To avoid the gallows, she takes what little money she has and runs away, eventually reaching Waldegrave Abbey, home to Alistair Waldegrave.
Waldegrave Abbey is a dismal place, one the villagers swear harbours a demonic creature: a vampire.
In fact, Alistair lives in reclusion and darkness, searching for a cure for his daughter Lilly's illness: a rare and extreme sensitivity to sunlight, making exposure to the sun as good as fatal.
A fugitive from justice, Violet agrees to be Lilly's governess.
I must admit this all sounds a lot like Alejandro Amenábar's The Others, starring Nicole Kidman: shuttered windows, skeleton keys and doors being firmly shut as soon as they're opened, darkness everywhere, and a child who cannot withstand sunlight.
And though it could have followed the film's atmosphere this never really became a a gothic mystery. Since we get Alistair's POV along with Violet's, whatever mystery there was - even if it remained as such to Violet, was not a mystery to the reader. It is, however, gothic fiction: a decrepit abbey, darkness, tales of horror, and plenty of melodrama.
I have a tendency to nitpick, but bear in mind that, in this case, everything I point out though it may be a failing in the book, in no way hinders the delight of the reading experience. This is a good book. A 3 star rating, for me, means "I like it!" - and I really did like this book.
First the things I didn't much care for:
Violet is a woman who has known nothing but abuse at the hands of men since her earliest childhood. She distrusts them, and with good reason. Which is why it's so jarring and difficult to believe when she has trouble containing her lustful thoughts when meeting the strange and creepy (let's admit it) Alistair. Here is a man who, at first, she isn't even sure has an actual daughter - Violet thinks he made the child up to lure her into staying so he could rape her. With this in mind, she sits by him and dreamily admires his aristocratic features, and wonders how his lips might feel upon her skin. I mean... what.
Of course, Lilly, Alistair's daughter is quite real, and as it turns out Alistair may, in fact, be a genuinely good man... who suffers from really unsettling mood swings, abandoning Violet in complete darkness in a maze of tunnels, shouting at her, ripping a dress from her hands and tearing it to pieces and basically acting like a complete psycho. Pardon the neuronormative ableism, but... really. The Heathcliff-crazy thing is just not attractive.
Then there's the fact that Violet's side of the romance progressed too quickly, as I've pointed out - she was abused, she's worked all her life with abused little girls, and suddenly she's all over this man she just met literally 92 pages ago, most of which she spent with his daughter, or with him acting unbalanced?
And on that topic, I found it extremely unsettling that the passionate moments Violet and Alistair shared with each other would, 9 times out of 10, start with him making a tearful confession about his fatherly feelings for his ill daughter, I mean, literally:
“This miracle you wrought, it’s... How can I... There are no words for... Oh, did you see her? She actually—”
Violet rose on her toes and pressed her lips to his.
No, girl! There is a time and a place for sexy times, and it's not when you interrupt a dude talking about his sick child's progress towards a somewhat less dismal existence! Come on, now!
Then there's the fact that Violet suspects she may be a prisoner in the abbey. She confronts Alistair about this, asking him if he'd lock her up to keep her from escaping, and he jokingly says yes, and she finds this funny, and one more reason to trust him...
Like, if I were living with a dude and I went, "LOL J/W WOULD YOU LOCK ME AWAY FOREVER?" and he went, "LMAO I WOULD". My first reaction would not be, *fist-bump* "TRUST!"
Obviously that's not how it actually went down in the book, but basically... you get my point.
BUT!
Alistair, for all his weird, creepy, unbalanced behaviour, does evolve into a normal person and even I, a notorious reviewer for finding fault in every thing, ended up liking him.
And Violet was a lovely character, she was a survivor through and through, and she really wanted to help others who had been in her situation.
And of course, best of all, there is Lilly. Lilly is 9 years old and has been a prisoner inside her own room for the entirety of her existence. She knows going out into the sunlight would kill her, but she's reached the point where she just doesn't care. It took great writing skill on Ridley's part to write Lilly - she acted out, she did deplorable things, biting, hitting, kicking, ruining people's efforts to care for her, but she was always sympathetic. That takes talent. Pity Lilly will most likely eventually die of skin cancer, though...
Furthermore, yes, I did complain about Violet being all over Alistair way too soon in the book - but no one need fear that this is insta-love or that the romance is rushed. Lust, perhaps, but the romance is slow and a delight to read. As is the progression in these characters' relationships with each other.
If you like gothic fiction with a well-developed plot and a nice romance, be sure to read this book!
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