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| image copied from Bookshop.org |
Lovers' Leap by Rikki Goodwin starts off with a bang and doesn't let up from there. Hazel, our narrator, and her best friend and former high school sweetheart, Finn, are both terrified of their respective partners and trying desperately to escape them as the novel opens. Things do not go well and from there we are taken back to three days earlier before everything went horribly wrong.
Hazel, who is happy with her boyfriend Dimitri but miserable working a dead end job as a barista, is happily surprised to get a call from Finn inviting her and Dimitri to dinner to discuss a business proposition. It turns out that Finn and his wife Lucy are thinking of purchasing a bed & breakfast and they'd like to run it with Hazel and Dimitri. But before signing on the dotted line, Finn invites them to accompany him and Lucy to the Lovers' Leap Inn for a long weekend away to see the property for themselves before they decide. It sounds like an amazing opportunity as well as a fun weekend escape. Of course, all is not what it seems and there is definitely a reason for the venture to sound too good to be true.
From the moment they arrive things seem off. The longer the two couples stay, the spookier things get. Lovers' Leap is definitely haunted but why and by whom is the question. The novel delivers in creep factor and in suspense as well. The more we learn about each of the characters involved the more we start to question whether Hazel herself has something to hide. I knew there would be ghosts and possibly other supernatural elements involved. But I was intrigued as much if not more by these characters as we watch them all slowly start to unravel as a group and individually. The novel deftly explores the horrors that can be inflicted on the human heart when individuals hold on to relationships that are toxic. The fallout from the mixture of both elements in the story kept me invested emotionally in these characters and turning pages to find out how everything was going to turn out. Just when I thought I had it figured out, some unexpected twists took me completely by surprise. And wow! That ending really got me!
If you love horror with complex characters, gothic haunted mansions, and lots of unexpected twists and turns, then you'll love Lovers' Leap by Rikki Goodwin. If you like supporting indie bookstores as well, simply click on the title link to purchase your copy from Bookshop.org.
Stay tuned, on Monday I'll be posting a spotlight for a Legend of Sleepy Hollow inspired magical school romantasy that sounds spicy entitled Hollow by Karina Halle.
In a couple of weeks I'll also be reviewing the first in a new urban fantasy series that I've heard lots of good things about by author John Evans. Check out the cover and blurb below that are both copied from Bookshop.org.
Riding to the rescue with quick wits and snappy one-liners.
Tobias Halson, a young paranormal hunter, is charged with protecting the city of Philadelphia from the undead creatures of the night. A corporate board member is thrown out of an office building showing signs of vampire attack, and Tobias is called in to investigate. But he soon realizes he's out of his element, lost in a world of white collar politics and water cooler plots. With the innocence of a young woman in danger, it's a race against time to find the killer, preferably before Tobias ends up the next victim.
Fans of Ilona Andrews, Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Nalini Singh, Faith Hunter, and Nalo Hopkinson will enjoy John Evans's Urban Fantasy books.
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