Author: Sophie Lark
Genre: Enemies-to-lovers, dark romance
Pages: 362
Release Date: October 13, 2023
Blurb
Remi Hayes has been on her own, taking care of her younger brother, Jude, since she was a teenager. When her uncle dies and leaves her his rotting mansion in the gothic beach town of Grimstone, Remi sees it as an opportunity to flip it and give her and her brother a better life. Good thing she’s got the skills to renovate it herself.
But nothing can be simple. Dane Covett is the reclusive doctor and most eligible bachelor (though everyone thinks he murdered his wife) that only comes out at night and lives next door. Unfortunately, Remi can’t get to Blackleaf Manor without using the road on Dane’s property. And he’s blackmailing her for work at his own house in return for using the road.
Dane is instantly obsessed with Remi, even if he doesn’t want to admit it’s more than hatred at first. Remi doesn’t think Dane could be a murderer, and she’s cautiously more and more interested in him, even if it’s against her new friends’ wishes.
When things start going awry at Blackleaf Manor – weird noises, things breaking, people getting hurt – Remi starts to wonder if the house is haunted, or is Dane as dangerous as people say, or is something or someone else making trouble in Grimstone.
My Thoughts on Grimstone
So. I read this book as an Advanced Reader’s Copy, and I genuinely like a lot of Sophie Lark’s work. But this was not it for me. I loved the setting – perfect for October spooky season. We’ve got a creepy town with an old inherited house that’s falling apart. Perfect.
I even liked Remi as a character. She’s an independent woman, taking care of her younger brother, and can renovate a house. That’s super cool!
And then there’s Dane. And that’s pretty much where the book fell apart for me. Most eligible bachelor? I think not. Everyone in town hates him and fears him. He’s the creepy doctor that only comes out at night and doesn’t talk to anyone. He was instantly obsessed with Remi, but also wanted to make things hard for her. He had some CHOICE phrases in the book…. Something about hot piss which still makes me cringe. *gag*
With literally zero getting to know you, it was instalove. And some weird hypnotism as well, which I don’t even understand why happened. He’s a doctor, not a hypnotherapist.
This book seems like it was written with a lot of shock factor in mind, specifically around the darkish romance. But the redeeming qualities of this book were around the strange happenings, injuries and missing people around Remi, and what happened with Dane’s deceased wife and child. You could probably just read the first 50 pages and then skip to the last 50-75 to get all of the useful, interesting plot.
Farewell Thoughts
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