House of Shadows by Chastity Bowlin

 

HOUSE OF SHADOWS is title-twinning with another one of my favorite recent gothic novels involving a sinister marriage of convenience, one by Darcy Coates! This one is slightly steamier though, and I feel like the horror element is slightly better done here, just because everything is so much vaguer and suspicious.

Adelaide nearly died while traveling with her father by ship. Worse still: in that same wreck, she saw him disappear between the waves. Though no body ever turned up, he's been presumed dead, and now she lives with her emotionally abusive stepmother, Muriel, who basically tells Adelaide that she can marry and get out, or be evicted with a bootstamp on her behind, as Muriel inherited everything but a small allowance and a dowry accorded to Adelaide.

Not wanting to be homeless, Adelaide turns to one of her father's business partners, Eldren, who is also a Welsh lord. He's got an asshole family of his own but they're even worse: his mother, who goes into violent fits that have harmed the staff, and who blames him for the death of his older brother and refuses to call him by name. He also lives with his alcoholic brother, Warren, and his sister in law, Frances, who is just as cruel and vain as Muriel, and encourages his brother to drink because it amuses her to see him tear himself apart. Bitch!

As if ALL THAT wasn't enough, the house might be haunted. People of Llewelyn blood hear voices before they end their own lives or those of their so-called loved ones. It all comes down to a terrible curse that lies soaked in the moors like old blood. And by marrying Eldren, Adelaide might just have made herself vulnerable to it... and to Eldren as well.

So this book was pretty good although the blurb is a little misleading in the sense that the author says that this is the first in a series "but each book is complete on its own." This is really not true, and going off some of the reviews, it seems like others have gotten upset by this as well. What I think the author means is that there's no cliffhanger ending, which is sort of true. She closes off the main story arc but there are a number of glaringly unresolved threads that are going to be addressed in books two and three. I personally think it would have been better if these 100-something installments had been combined into one book for readability purposes, because I do think it does the story a disfavor, chopping it up and ruining what is honestly some pretty smooth plotting.

Adelaide is a likable heroine and Eldren is charmingly brooding. The scares were well done and highly atmospheric, and I love how this checks off all the main tropes of a classic gothic romance. HOUSE OF SHADOWS is not an erotic work by any means, though it does have some steam. It reminds me of a Victoria Holt novel, but sexier. I just wish it was all one book.

3.5 out of 5 stars