When orphaned Claire’s fiance dies of a strange neurological disease, she thinks the happiness and belonging in she finally had in her life is over forever, but then Elias wealthy family invites her for three days to Harrow Point, their private island, for his funeral. Hoping to find the family she so desperately craves, Claire ignores the red flag’s and warning’s that something is very wrong at Harrow Point and in the Ashley family.

Hannah F Whitten is the author of the Nightshade Crown books and the Wilderwood duology, both of which have been very popular Romantasy book series.

This story has Gothic fiction, even Gothic romance, styling and sets out to be a horror story, but it’s really a Romantasy book with some horror elements. As a horror, it’s not tense or frightening, gory or eerie enough. It just has the odd tentacle worked in. It’s also too naval gazing and not dark enough to satisfy a horror reader.

The tone is quite melodramatic. Our heroine isn’t just a girl who was orphaned as a child, but it was a big, dramatic accident and she’s deeply traumatised by it and that trauma informs all her actions. She’s not a strong character, grappling with the issues of her life, but rather one who lies to her therapist and stays medicated. (No shade to people who need to do this, I’m just pointing out that as a character, this is used to make her a more passive victim of events than anything). Claire has OCD, depression, anxiety, paranoia, claustrophobia, and clearly is either trauma bonded or highly co-dependant. All this is a lot. I think as a horror MC, she could just have deceased parents and be drawn in because she feels alone, and that would be enough for us to be understanding and on board.

Which brings me to the point really: this is Romantasy and not Horror. We are meant to see Claire as a romantic victim, drawn into a Cinderella story gone wrong, that a Romance reader would relate to. The house that the Ashley’s live in on their private island is pretty cool: above ground it’s a castle, but everyone lives in the parts below ground, which is a second castle, almost, with mermaid and tentacle carvings, and huge windows that look out into the ocean. The castle above ground is pointless, and is just there to make the story Gothic. It could have been a modern, below ground compound and it would have worked as well. But Romantasy loves a castle. We also have the Enemies To Lovers trope here, with Claire blindly and rudely, and for no real reason, hating Ash, who is basically a Cullen from Twilight, rich and impossibly handsome. He calls her “C” and leans against walls, drinking moodily and making cryptic comments, while also clearly falling in love with her immediately. Again, Romantasy and not Horror.

Two more annoying things about this book: she thinks a car is following her, but she never writes down the licence plate, checks if it’s always the same one or tries to find out who owns it. Secondly, the book uses the word “dregs” way too often, and never correctly. It’s wild that the editor never picked up on this. Hopefully they got it before the final printing. It applies to liquid remains and sediment in a container, not to dry things like crumbs.

So, all of that aside, perhaps this book works well as a Romantasy novel? I haven’t read loads of them, because I’m not the target market for them, but Ash and Claire clearly belong together and her accepting the Ashley family and her desperation make more sense in that context. I was pretty shocked that Claire accepted a shopping trip from mother Audrey right after meeting her and let her spend loads of money on her without guilt, but it does make sense in a Cinderella, romance type story. I felt like it was odd when there were moments like the family forcing her to have cake with them as soon as she gets to the house, when normally it’s polite to let people go to their room and freshen up after a flight or trip, but in Romantasy, this makes sense. The house is cartoonish and makes no sense for maintenance or their lifestyle or even for maximum horror, and yet, for Romantasy, it makes sense. Her ignoring the absolute parade of red flags also makes sense in Romantasy, and not in Horror. I felt like Claire was almost using the family, loving their trappings of wealth and movie star attractiveness, allowing them to spend money on her and wilfully ignoring the issues and warning signs because they’re not convenient to her getting what she wants, which is essentially to sponge off them. She’s very childish and immature for an adult character, and it’s funny to me that two brothers are both in love with her in this story, even though she’s pretty bland and has no real life or anything.

I think really, this one just wasn’t for me, but I would recommend it to readers who want some Horror stylings with their Romance. I didn’t hate it by any stretch of the imagination. It’s got some atmosphere and I liked the moist, gross oceany stuff the author was peppering in. It’s not scary or body horror, but it had a certain dash to it. There’s no suspense, I think you can see the ending coming, and where it’s all going, and the last third gets pretty slow, with too much detail. But it’s not terrible.

Read It If: this one is a Romantasy in Horror clothing, If that appeals to you, definitely check it out. For me, it was too hollow and trope filled to really work, but it did have atmosphere.

Thank you to HBG Canada for the ARC of this book for review.