3 stars
A weird gothic tale of inheritance, revenge, and greed with a mix of mystery and romance.
Zeb arrives at his relative’s manor only to discover he’s been tricked into a strange competition against his estranged (married) brother, Bram, and deviant cousin, Hawley, to woo his cousin, Jessamine, in order to inherit the property. To make matters worse, his ex-lover Gideon is also present, a constant reminder of Zeb’s betrayal and their traumatic past.
An okay novel with some interesting elements.
The pacing didn’t really work for me. The first 200 pages are a slow ramble of Gothic elements, which I didn’t mind. But then it hits the gas and the bulk of the story is crammed into the last 100 pages. It felt like two very different books. I didn’t mind either of them separately, but together the change in pace was jarring.
I for the life of me could not keep straight how people were related. I wish I had started a family tree of some sort, because especially by the end I had just completely forgotten about certain characters and how they were connected to others.
Some really cool (and strange) elements with the mystery itself, but it takes so long to get there and it feels so rushed at the end. I wished certain parts had been developed more. The Epilogue was definitely the best part of the book.
I did really appreciate the content warnings at the start of the book and the link to a more detailed list of content warnings.
Includes some quite spicy scenes.
An odd story I couldn’t fully engage with. There were some interesting bits but it never really came together into a satisfying whole.