Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasing Ghost Story, May 30, 2007
Holly Lisle started out her writing career with fantasy novels. However, lately she's turned her hand to paranormal suspense novels and become quite successful and quite well-known at them. She also manages her personal web site [....]
Her first novel paranormal romance, MIDNIGHT RAIN and her last, I'LL SEE YOU, had more violence inherent in the plot than the current book does, but her fourth book, NIGHT ECHOES, is more a southern gothic and ghost story. In all of her books, Lisle manages to present interesting characters in challenging situations, all with an economy of language that keeps readers turning pages. Lisle has such an easy touch with prose that it's hard not to just keep reading way past bedtime. The pages seem almost to turn themselves.
In NIGHT ECHOES, commercial artist Emma Beck buys an old Civil War-era house in South Carolina that she has ties to she has no explanation why. When she sees the house, she realizes that she's dreamed about it and painted it several times in her artwork. The author works this story with a slow burn, layering in character and building tension at a steady pace.
Emma was adopted by her parents. Before he died, her father gave her the name of her birth mother. Her father had hired a private detective to track the information down in case Emma ever needed to know. It was that search for the background on her mother and why she was given up for adoption that led Emma house that she buys almost on impulse.
The story picks up after Emma has been living in the house for a few days and is still moving in. She's also met Mike Ruhl, the contractor who did minor repairs on her house before she moved in. There are immediate sparks between Emma and Mike that leave no doubts about who the romance will concentrate on.
Lisle presents her character and a very human fashion and gives her a detailed background that allows the reader to get to know her very well. But it isn't long before Emma becomes embroiled in trying to find out more about her birth mother. The story she gets almost breaks her heart. Her mother was sixteen when she gave birth to Emma. The father betrayed her and left her alone and pregnant and at the mercy of her cruel father.
However this isn't the only story that Emma is told. The prevailing story is that the baby died, which means that she can't be that baby. But everything she finds leads her to believe that she is, and she feels that she is.
The book doesn't really offer anything new to the experienced gothic/ghost story reader. Those who have read in the genre before will easily keep pace with Lisle's twists and turns. Still, this is a well-crafted novel and the characters are pleasure to explore and journey with. The first three books Lisle wrote offered action and surprises. NIGHT ECHOES jogs along at a comfortable pace and delivers a satisfying ending that doesn't really come as a shock or surprise. While the novel may not build on the momentum of the previous three, it offers a diversion into a different style of writing and an old style ghost story that most of today's readers haven't seen in some time.
Readers who want something to take to the beach and vege out with will enjoy this novel a lot. And Holly Lisle's growing fan base will enjoy yet another winner.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fast-paced haunting thriller, June 1, 2007
Artist Emma Beck discovered a folder after her father died. In it was a record from a detective who was detailing the circumstances of Emma's adoption and the death of her birth mother.
Up to that moment, Emma had not realized she'd been adopted.
When she visited her birthplace, Emma found an old derelict house that both said 'home' to her and nearly frightened her to death. She'd been painting bits of this house in her art throughout her career. Then she discovers that Mike, her contractor, had also figured prominently in her illustrations.
As the story unfolds, Emma hears strange sounds in the house, finds her paints messed with while she's been sleeping, etc.
All in all, "Night Echoes" is a fast-paced, hard to put down thriller that could well defend a place with mainline thriller novels. It's also a paranormal that doesn't count on lycanthropy, vampires, or any similar character to keep it fresh.
I regretted when Holly Lisle left writing fantasy for the romance novel field, yet, I have read almost every romance she's written and enjoyed them. This comes from someone who doesn't particularly care for romance novels. Lisle so seamlessly blends the romance in with the storyline that it's a natural part of the flow.
Lisle has a way of creating sympathetic characters that pull you in because you care about their lives and want to see them survive--if not succeed and be happy. Emma and Mike, and to a lesser extent, Cara, are more than just constructs.
And the house itself became a being in this story. Lisle's scene setting really takes you there even if you've never seen a Southern Gothic style home before.
I'd definitely consider her as someone to study if you are interested in learning how to pull in and hook a reader with subtle foreshadowing. Lisle's a pro and she's a pleasure to read no matter what she writes.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting tale of Love and Murder, April 16, 2007
Artist Emma Beck was adopted as a baby. She is now alone since both her adopted parents are dead. She travels to the town she was born in and intends to search for her birth mother, she knows her name. But almost as soon as she arrives she sees an old house and her heart and mind say she has found her home. She quickyly buys the old house and hires someone to start renovating it as she returns home to pack for the move to the old pre-civil war farmhouse in Benina, SC.
Arriving with a U-haul and her old truck she is again welcomed by the old house. All of the work has been done and she intends to restore the old place. There is something warm and homey about the house but also mysterious. She finds the familiarity comforting.
Mike Ruhl, the carpenter, worked on the house but felt very uncomfortable in it. Now when he comes to check for a leak he meets Emma and with her presence the old place feels like home to him and Emma feels like the one woman he has been searching for forever.
Mike and Emma are pulled into the mysteries of the old house, mysterious leaks, footsteps, and a cat only Emma can see. Then Emma discovers her birth mother is dead, she was only 16 when she had Emma and died in a hospital where she was being treated for mental problems.
As death follows Emma to Benina, it seems she and Mike are caught up in two different mysteries. One of which is over 100 yrs old. The discovery of a civil war saber and other items allow more memories and revelations.
I loved the dark moody ambiance in this book, it will keep your attention and the two stories are fasinating, they lead to a final confrontation. I enjoyed it and hated to put it down. Do not miss it.
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