Isn’t that all romance is? Deceit wrapped up in a pretty package.
River
Author: Claire Contreras
Genre: Gothic Romance
Pages: 224
Release Date: December 20, 2020
If I had to sum up Fables & Other Lies in one sentence, it would be: “I really liked this book, but I was really confused by this book.”
I’m here for a funeral. Or do you suppose I should wear a celebratory color to honor my own father’s death.
Penny
Fables & Other Lies Book Review – The Background
Our book starts with Penelope Guzman traveling back to Pan Island in the Caribbean to attend her father’s funeral, who died under unusual circumstances of course. Her family is famous on the island and has a longstanding feud with the Caliban family who live on Dolos Island which has broken off from the main island. Dolos Island is spooky and mysterious. It’s almost always covered in thick fog, and no one can see the house. To add to the feud, the Caliban family has been cursed by the Guzman family. Why? We don’t know.
Another facet of this book is the obsession with “haunts,” basically old and abandoned buildings. Penny has made a career out of it with a spooky and successful blog (yes, it makes me want to change my blog content, Better Be Haunted, coming soon, watch out y’all), and it’s also one of the reasons she comes back home to Pan Island.
She’s given a new house to take photos of… it just happens to be the Caliban mansion. But this isn’t the first time Penny has taken a photo of the mansion. On a night she doesn’t remember, she got a crystal clear shot of the mansion as though she were on the island itself… And Penny hasn’t been back to the island since this fateful night.
According to fake Ms. Cleo, I’m going to die soon and my best friend is going to get kidnapped by the Devil.
Dee
No one visits Dolos Island except for the week of Carnival where Caliban Manor throws parties every night. Each night of Carnival, the host for the year, who is a firstborn male from one of the island’s families, chooses a woman to spend the night with. River Caliban is the host this year and just so happens to pick Penny. But why does he want her so badly?
As a matter of fact, the moment you came back to the island, you sealed your fate.
River
My Review and Thoughts
Okay, babes. So let’s get into what I liked and disliked about this book because I have a lot of thoughts.
Likes
Overall, I loved that this book is so mysterious, dark, spooky, haunted, and mixed with lots of folklore, magic, myths, and ghosts. It’s just so different from what’s currently out there and what’s been released lately. I have to give Claire Contreras a lot of credit for her creativity!!
Personally, I loved that this a gothic romance set in today’s world with blogs, chat boards, and travel, etc. I think it made it so fun. Wuthering Heights, this is not. But there are still surprise elements that make it seem like you’re back in time occasionally!
This book has 10/10 quotes! Just look at them.
I pity those who can’t get lost in fictional worlds.
River
Dislikes
And some dislikes…
I found the “choosing someone for the night” a bit strange in this context. It seemed like something that should be in high fantasy, not a gothic romance? Also, it’s the law to agree or you go to jail? Okay, big yikes.
I also didn’t love all the Devil talk. River was the ~Devil~… This is mainly just a personal preference for me, but if we’re talking Demon Daddies and you say he is the devil, babe, I want him to be the devil 1000%. Thank you.
Also, if you’ve already read the book… I never really understood what was going on with the Devil’s Chair. Why do people keep ending up at it??
Lastly, the ending kind of just spiraled so quickly that I’m not sure what happened. The questions were answered, but I felt like I was still missing things and didn’t have the closure that I needed. I NEEDED MORE which is a pro and a con. Okay, one more thing, I have to comment on the romance, silly me. The romance in this book, to me, was second to the mystery, but I wasn’t mad! We had so much intrigue going on that we didn’t need it, and more would have just been out of place.
Let me know if you read this book – in the comments or over on Instagram! If you liked this slightly ranty book review, I’d love for you to share this post!
