Book Blurb
Isabella Farrington’s marriage was hasty. For all her new husband’s riches, Lord Draven Winthrop is whispered about, avoided, and feared. Yet Isabella is drawn to Draven’s dark good looks, his strength, the charm he can turn on as easily as she can blink. The impoverished daughter of an Egyptologist, she knows there are rumors about her, too, and the amulet she wears. Nothing more than superstitious babble…
But when Isabella returns to Draven’s remote coastal manor, she senses there is something more at work in the grim gardens of Thorncliff Towers than superstition. Draven is passionate and seductive, but he has a brutal, uncontrolled side too, and a history of secrets. To live in peace she must discover the reasons behind a gypsy curse and a mother’s scorn. Especially when she learns Draven believes his sweet young bride is doomed to a fate even darker than his own…
Toot's Review by Stacy Sabala
Isabella Farrington is marrying Lord Draven Winthrop, the
Earl of Dunwich. She has heard many
rumors about him but his money will help her father fund his latest
archaeological dig. She also wants to
have children desperately. So when he
shows up late for the wedding, she over looks it. Even the fact that he forgot her bridal
bouquet of red roses and his behavior at the wedding reception does not alter her
from her course. However his cold
behavior and flash of violent temper on her wedding night drives her back to London where she stays
separated from her husband for two years.
However, she finds herself back in Dunwich with her husband
to try again. She still wants to have
children and is determined to seduce her husband. Her plan is thwarted as he has a dark secret
which puts her life in danger. He
refuses to tell her what it is. This
secret stops him from fathering children.
In her anger, hurt and frustration, she searches to learn his secret where
she finds his journal and learns of his curse.
She confronts him for the truth and learns more than what she bargained
for. He was cursed by a gypsy after he
accidentally killed a young gypsy girl.
He was also committed to an insane asylum. She learns that Draven believes in the curse
that accompanies the amulet her father gave her and this is one reason that
Draven married her.
Her fear overwhelms
her, but her love for Draven grows.
These two emotions constantly battle each other. She has to decide whether to leave him
forever or help him break the curse. Is
she brave enough to look the danger in the eye and win against it?
This story is a twist on the beauty and the beast
fairy tale. I like the play on the story
which was very interesting, where gypsy magic collided with Egyptian
magic. The author also added a
fascinating sub-story line with Isabella’s own family issues. However, I was extremely frustrated with
Isabella. She would have moments of
strength and then turn into a simpering coward, which would frustrate me. I
really wanted her to be more fearless and stop battling herself. She needed to
trust herself and her love for her husband when she learned the kind of man he
was. At times when Isabella would run
screaming in fear from the room, I almost stopped reading the book. So I liked the story but the main female
character, in my opinion, had her annoying moments throughout.
I would give it 3 out of 5 books.
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