The Particulars: Gothic romantic suspense, 2013, Harlequin Intrigue #1421, First book in duet, out of print, available in digital
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Seriously? Look at the cover. Also, I've read and liked books by Connor in the past.
The Review: There was a brief stretch of time when the Intrigue line would slip in the occasional Gothic or Gothic-adjacent story. There's definitely some Gothic vibes here, what with a dead bride and a mysterious old manor house, but this struck me more as Gothic homage. The Scooby Doo version of Gothic. Which hey, nothing wrong with that. Honestly this book was a lot of fun until the end when things kind of ran off the rails for me.
Jillian Jones is at Sutton Hall for two reasons: to solve her best friend's murder and guilt. Guilt because Courtney was the only "family" that Jillian had and Jillian made excuses to avoid making the trip to help plan Courtney's wedding at Sutton Hall because, ugh - she'd rather be boiled in oil than deal with planning a wedding. Now Courtney is dead. Having fallen off the balcony attached to her room. It was windy that night, dark, Courtney got too close to the ledge. At least that's what the official report says since the cops found no evidence to suggest it was anything other than a tragic accident. However, Jillian knows better. Courtney was deathly afraid of heights. No way in hell would she have opened the doors to that balcony let alone go outside on it! She has no choice in the matter. She's going to travel to Sutton Hall herself, pose as a prospective bride, and find out what happened to her friend.
Adam Sutton inherited the hall with his sister, Meredith, whose dream it was to start a wedding planning business and venue. Adam let his sister down before so he is determined to help her realize her dream. That said, he doesn't trust Jillian Jones as far as he could throw her. Their first bridal client died tragically on-site a month ago and suddenly here comes Jillian with no reservations about holding her wedding in a venue where another bride just died. She's also asking a lot of "innocent" and "I'm just curious" questions and oh look, there she is snooping around again. To aggravate him even further? He's attracted to her. Yes, even though he doesn't trust her and even though she's "engaged."
The plot and suspense are confined to Sutton Hall and the cast of characters who work and live there. Adam, Meredith, a handyman, cook, housekeeper, gardener, and the gardener's 20-something son. The author does a good job of casting suspicion on all of them, even though yes, this is a romance so of course Adam didn't do it. Jillian is typical amateur sleuth, being sneaky, thinking on her feet when it comes to lying, and bungling a few things along the way. She reads very Every Woman and you can't help but admire her tenacity and determination with wanting to do right by her friend.
This is a romance though that doesn't stand up to too much scrutiny. The elephant in the room is that Jillian is supposedly engaged, everyone thinks she's engaged, and yet there's this chemistry pinging off of her and Adam. However while there's some "standing too close" moments, they don't actually succumb to any of their mutual lust until after the truth comes out. Which is one element that really works here - when it's time for Jillian to come clean, she comes clean. It makes sense within the framework of the story when that actually happens. Also, while I'm not entirely sure the sex scene fits in the narrative (I would have leaned more towards hot n' heavy just kisses here I think), the author doesn't try to do too much with the HEA. No snap marriage proposal, no sweeping declarations of true love. It leans more on the Let's See Where This Goes Happy For Now spectrum than full-blown Happy Ever After with Wedding Proposal and Heroine Pregnant with Triplets in the Epilogue (in fact, there is no epilogue....)
The Sutton Hall setting is great, I'm a sucker for the whole Gothic house vibe and this is a pretty fun and nostalgic ride until the ending when it all kind of falls apart. Of course our killer is unstable. Of course there's a history of mental illness. And how our bad guy is dispatched? It's exciting, but if Adam and Meredith thought their business might not survive Dead Courtney, I'm not sure how they're going to spin things after the ending here. Although obviously they figure it out because Meredith is the heroine of Book 2, although after reading that plot description it sounds like she's got bodies dropping left and right. And before you ask, of course I'm curious enough to read it. Which as far as unearthing books from my TBR, I'm counting this one as a success.
Final Grade = C+
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