When Emma Stiles arrived in Haven Falls from New York, she was
fortunate to find employment as a governess to twelve year old Henry Havens.
Emma is to live in at the dilapidated Havenswood Plantation, home of the Havens
family.
Cole Havens, his sister Jane and Henry are all offspring of
the late Colonel Vincent Havens, a civil war hero. Cole has neither the money or
the enthusiasm to restore Havenswood back to it’s former beauty. Most of his
days are spent drinking himself into oblivion. As a consequence, Henry has been
allowed to run wild. Hence the decision to employ a governess.
Jane Havens is the mistress of Havenswood. She’s a light
hearted, but lonely young woman. She does her best to keep things running on an
even keel, but it’s not easy when she has no backing from Cole. She loves her
family, but she is restless.
When Emma and Jane meet, Jane is immediately smitten with the
beautiful Emma. It transpires the feeling is mutual. It’s not long before they
are both head over heels in love and begin a passionate affair.
However, Emma is hiding a deep, dark and terrible secret. A
secret so awful, that it may well be the demise of Emma and others alongside of
her.
It isn’t long before strange things begin to happen in the
Havens household. The blame is being laid at Emma’s door by some. Jane, of
course, won’t hear one word said against her. Is Jane right though? Should she
be siding with a virtual stranger? A stranger she doesn’t really know very
well.
The Havens family are about to have their closets thrown wide
open and all their family skeletons come tumbling out. Secrets hidden for years
may well destroy the Havens family in it’s entirety. But even this doesn’t
compare to what Emma is hiding.
What is Emma’s dark secret? Will the all consuming passionate
love Emma and Jane share be enough when Emma’s secret is finally exposed? Or
will the Havens family have been destroyed?
This is Patty G Henderson’s third gothic historical romance.
It is in my honest opinion, the best she’s written yet. This is a book that once
started I couldn’t put down. I found myself tearing through the pages in order
to see which direction the story was going to take and how it was going to end.
There are lots of twists and turns throughout. Just when I thought I’d figured
out the plot, so it veered off in another direction. Because I read this so
quickly in my haste to find out what happened, I had to start it all over again
when I’d finished to do this book the justice it deserves.
The two main characters, Emma and Jane, are as different as
night and day. Jane is light hearted, Emma carries within her the darkness
thrust upon her by the actions of others. However, the two women compliment each
other. They are both multidimensional and their interactions are like watching a
synchronized dance. They simply flow together. The other characters are all
essential in the progression of the story.
As the story unfolded, I began to realize that it wasn’t going
to be a simple straight forward gothic historical romance. Oh no, it’s much,
much more. I’m not at liberty to put in anything that would possible spoil this
for you, but please do look for the message here that Patty G Henderson is
telling us.
From the scenic descriptions I was able to totally immerse
myself in this story. The dark and brooding run down plantation house, the
surrounding fields and forests, the smell of the wisteria, all had me
transported back in time.
The love story told between Emma and Jane is deep and
profound, with some rather hot scenes added in for good measure. All tastefully
written, of course. This is a first for Patty, she’s never before ventured into
writing love scenes. Now she’s shown us how good she is at writing such
titillating romantic hot sexy scenes, I’m hoping she will do it more often.
This is without a doubt, the best gothic historical romance
book I’ve read to date. I’m hoping there will be many more books from Patty G
Henderson in the very near future.
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