Customer Reviews

Beneath the Raven's Moon

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Catherine Carmichael learns that she has been named as one of the heirs in her Uncle Malcolm Blount's estate. Catherine has not seen her deranged uncle, an author compared with Poe for his horror tales, since her mother fled their jointly shared upstate New York castle over two decades ago. Though she does not need the money, the London Symphony Orchestra concert pianist is curious about her renowned relative and wants to find out anything about her father who vanished just before her mother and she fled Ravenswood Castle.

At the castle, Catherine meets three other beneficiaries, actor Everett Steele, an illegitimate cousin Billy Fortune, and her uncle's agent Madeline Treadwell. The estate lawyer Jacob Steiner plays a video in which Malcolm manipulates everyone from the grave as he did in life to play in his game of inheritance. As Everett and Catherine fall in love strange things happen as if the castle possesses an evil presence that no one can escape as the ice has stranded everyone.

BENEATH THE RAVEN'S MOON is an intriguing modern day gothic romance with an eerie Twilight Zone twist that will shock the audience. The story line has all the elements of the sub-genre so much so that readers will feel the foreboding atmosphere through Catherine's concerns and contrast that with her growing love for Everett. Though some purists may dislike the closing coil, Emily LaForge knits a delightful tale that most gothic fans will savor.

Harriet Klausner

I normally do not post bad reviews; however, by the first page I had this unresistable urge to break out the proverbial red pen and start making corrects. For a die hard reader the fact that I never made it past the 3rd chapter is a telling comment. I've better things than to spend my free time reading poorly written books. I'd rather clean my toilet.

I really wanted to like this book... the setting was amazing, the mystery behind the characters was a bit intriguing, but.... alas, the overall story was actually a bit dull. The author tried so hard to create suspense in this story that it ended up crawling at a snail's pace. The "paranormal" elements of the story were not really all that interesting and were slim compared to the dragging suspense. And as far as the romance between the leading lady and her dashing hero, I would say it was lukewarm at best. And I can't stress enough how annoying it is to have everything explained and clarified in what seems to be a hurried rapid fire mess of a last chapter. I would say this book had some potential, but just wasn't executed to the full extent that it could have been.

that doesn't mean it stuck strictly to the Gothic romance formula most writers use.I expected it to lean much more on the Supernatural. For the story to be supernatural in its very nature.It wasn't.I have to admit that I didn't see the twist at the ending, but I found the secret of the story and the ending to be preposterous. I don't think it fit well.

However, the writing is more than decent and the characters are well fleshed out.It kept me totally engrossed for several hours.