Catherine is pretty unlikable so far. Very, very shallow. Her best friend Callie was a model in NYC who had a “disfiguring” car accident, and Catherine is happy that this means she had to move home and be her friend again, but she is even more happy that her high school crush, Jason, lost his wife in a boating accident. She only pursued him after getting the fortune because she knew it would be the only way to tempt him. She’s making her own bed here. The curse of an unforgiving first person narrative and seeing all of her ugly, inner thoughts. But, I’m still hopeful for character growth! I’m only 16 pages in and already swarming with opinions.
I have read about 5 books by Willo Davis Roberts and they are above average writing, but always have something off-putting. Mundane and acceptable, like when the hero has fingers described as sausage-y, or absolutely outrageous, like most of the book White Jade, about a missionary’s daughter who was raised in China. But I keep readin’ ’em because they are some of the easiest gothics to get your hands on. I have so many of them because they were overstock from my family owning a used bookstore in the 90s.
Catherine had a makeover and it turns out she was just bad at doing her hair and dressing herself. I think her real lack of appeal is personality. Her new husband Jason claims to find her a calming presence. Perhaps because she isn’t intellectually demanding? She is clingy and obsessive, but only internally. She is so terrified of upsetting him and having him leave her that she barely even speaks to him. He couldn’t know all of the horrible things that she is thinking. She has never truly expressed herself out loud. The most she has ever said to him is that the $2 million she inherited is too much of a headache to even think about and would he please manage it for her and don’t even ask her questions about it, please, make it go away. He seems to think that this is funny and cute (he ruffles her hair, “you make a terrible millionaire”) but that she needs to make some decisions about it. Help her family (which she is weirdly loathe to do), buy a car so she isn’t trapped at the old house on the hill with his alcoholic mother and indifferent sister, invest it so it’s not just sitting in the bank. She is only even a little bit happy when he is touching her physically, otherwise she is an endless internal stream of “I thought being his wife would be enough, but he has a job and a family and any moment he isn’t touching me is torture.” It’s torture for the reader, too.
This is a weird compliment, and even the most likable characters in this book are kind of unlikable…
Charlie Travers is a doctor at the hospital. Catherine is an RN. She keeps almost getting dragged into nursing her father-in-law who had a heart attack and has been stuck in the hospital for most of the book so far. Hospital talk is somewhat authoritative but also strange, like it was written by someone who knows what they are doing but not how to explain it. (The author, Roberts was a nurse.)
Charlie and Catherine dated a bit, and he and her childhood friend Callie are the only people who ever showed any interest in being a friend to Catherine before her fortune improved.
If Jason ends up being uxoricidal, perhaps Catherine will realize that Charlie was really there for her all along?
In a bit of exciting news, Eloise wants everyone to gather after dinner for a Tarot reading, and she wants everyone to touch the deck so the cards can really feel their vibrations. This is what it’s all about.
I’m going to scream if it doesn’t actually happen.
It happened! And it was probably the best part of the whole book.
In the midst of The Action the heroine was briefly less annoying, she even had two whole conversations with two characters that made her seem like a feeling human being, and then it ended like this.
To be clear, without any conversation beforehand, he went to the Dr, a Dr she has never seen, and picked up some birth control FOR HER but she was probably already pregnant and secretly never took the pills, which is all a great foundation of trust within a marriage. Just as long as he is touching her, and his baby is touching her womb, she will be happy…
My friends, I just don’t think she is going to be happy for long.
So, how accurate was the cover? Catherine never flees the house, but she does approach it from outside the gate once, as she is walking back to the house after a car “accident.” Someone WAS doing something sinister at the house on the hill, but she never saw them wandering the grounds in a hooded cloak. Our heroine is described as literally non-descript. She never gets so much as a hair color, but she does start dressing nice and wearing makeup so, sure, she could look like this.
It’s an interesting cover because it is rare for a Gothic to have more than one figure. I would say it was probably chosen pretty randomly, though. Just, it’s a modern setting, here’s a modern girl. Someone is up to no good! There’s a mansion!
No artist is credited.
Originally Published June 2022
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