Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟 🌟💫 

by Christa Carmen

I love books integrate characters acknowledging when plot elements are typical for the genre. This thrilling book, full of classic gothic novel references and elements, goes so far as to have two characters laughing while discussing their rules for navigating a gothic novel – many of which the characters ultimately break during the story.

Blake Bronson grew up in foster homes with books as an escape from her difficult life. Struggling to maintain her sobriety, Blake decides to follow a handful of clues to find her birth mother, a quest that takes her to the classic gothic novel setting of Block Island and spooky White Hall manor. Thalia Mills left her childhood home on Block Island and never looked back, but she receives a shocking letter from a stranger named Blake Bronson claiming to be her sister. Even more shocking, Blake was murdered in White Hall manor the same day the letter was written. Thalia embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth about her family and, along the way, uncovers the dark history of Block Island and its residents.

This book took me entirely by surprise. I could not put it down. Written in two parts, the first from Blake’s POV and the second from Thalia’s, you become so invested in a character that, from the novel’s onset, you know is the victim. So many secrets are uncovered, and the house serves as a central character. It was great that the author referenced so many gothic novels, including my favorite – Rebecca, in the story as it pays tribute to its predecessors. It is also a mix of fact and fiction. Block Island and the house that inspired the White Hall, the Searles mansion, are real. The picture in the background of this review’s first slide is of the house, now long gone.

The audiobook narration draws you even more completely into this tale.