Review: Ravenscourt by Samantha Ward-Smith
Today, I'm delighted to welcome author Samantha Ward-Smith to Ruins & Reading. I'm sharing my review of her intriguing new novel, Ravenscourt – a Gothic romance with a twist. It's well worth checking out, and not only for fans of Gothic fiction. Read on!
Ravenscourt is currently on blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club. Find other fascinating tour stops HERE!
Ravenscourt
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Review:
Oh, I do love a Gothic romance mystery – an enthralling atmosphere with flawed characters, an intriguing hidden secret, and a manor house, set in remote countryside and haunted by past events.
Ravenscourt has all that, and more. It has a dark twist!
The story begins in Venice, a city already past its heyday, during the popular Carnival season. The palazzi are lit up, filled with people enjoying the unbridled freedom masks bring, dancing and flirting, playing card games and gossiping. And plotting suitable marriages!
When young Viscount Alexander arrives in Venice following a scandal that involved a married woman, his best friend Rupert – son of a successful merchant – knows just the places to distract Alex from recent events, and distract him from his parents’ wrath.
Yet unlike indomitable Rupert, Alex still suffers from the discovery that the woman he seemed to love had seen him as a fling, nothing more. And the discovery that he wasn't the only lover she had broke him.
Resigned, he attends the never-ending series of balls and recitals, bored witless by the insipid society beauties thrust his way – after all, he'll be a duke one day. Until he meets, by chance, it appears, beautiful widow, Arabella. Drawn immediately to the enchanting young woman, still fragile from her recent loss, he realises he has found a kindred spirit. Their mutual interest in women's rights is proof to him that there are women who understand his rather modern views.
He quickly falls in love with the intelligent, intriguing beauty, and they spend much time over the coming weeks. Certain in that he found a suitable wife, he ignores Rupert's and his parents' warnings. When his father dies in his absence, the dukedom is his, and in Arabella, he has found the perfect duchess.
Or has he?
After they settle in London, Alex soon finds himself in a changed situation. His wife spends his money, and attends soirées in the highest circles of society. But as her behaviour towards him veers from hot to cold, Alex realises he must travel, in secret, to the home of her previous husband – the remote manor of Ravenscourt. There, he discovers a hidden journal, and the revelations shock him to the core.
Will Alex be able to deal with his marriage – and save his life? Well, read the book!
Ravenscourt is all you want from a compelling Gothic novel: it has a (very!) dark romance, long-buried secrets, helpless victims, nefarious plots, and evocative locations. Venice past its old grandeur; London's glitzy but superficial society scene; neglected Ravenscourt's remoteness.
As the plot develops, you find yourself following Alex's unfolding discoveries with trepidation, as you keep reading – late into the night, in my case. Ravenscourt is the kind of novel you don't want to put down, regardless of time of day or night. The atmosphere of the story is captivating, weaving a web around you that you cannot escape. You just have to keep reading.
Arabella is a fascinating character, alluring and intelligent, and you can understand why Alex falls for her. She is the total opposite of the insipid debutantes keen to catch a husband with a title and estate.
Alex, however, is your anti-male. He's certainly not a confident alpha. His youthful naïvety is endearing, as is his support for women's rights. But he's not a connoisseur of women, and at times I wanted to shake him for his gullibility. But as his character develops, he finds his inner strength, and a sense of determination. And the events in Ravenscourt are a real learning curve for our young duke.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I can recommend it to readers of historical mysteries and Gothic fiction. It's not your traditional Gothic romance, though, with its dark romantic twist. It's a romance with a difference.
Ravenscourt is a highly memorable tale of love, seduction, deceit, and danger that you should definitely check out. It's well worth reading!
Blurb:
He wanted to be gone from the dark enclosing room, with its mocking misery, to be gone from this house of nightmares, of shattered dreams, and discovered secrets which could not be put back in the box.
Venice, 1880.
Alexander, Viscount Dundarran, seeks refuge from scandal amidst the fading grandeur of crumbling palazzos during the infamous Carnival in the city. There he encounters the enigmatic Lady Arabella Pembrook—a young, beautiful widow. Both are scarred by their pasts but find solace in each other and a chance at redemption.
But when duty calls Alexander back to England upon his father's death, a darker journey begins. Travelling to Ravenscourt, the decaying estate once belonging to Arabella’s late husband, Alexander must confront the house’s disturbing legacy which has echoed through the generations. Within its walls lie secrets that refuse to stay buried and will threaten everything he thought he knew. But can Alex uncover the truth in time?
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