The Island House
By Amanda Brittany
Blurb
A DARK FAMILY SECRET
When Alice’s father dies after a tragic hit and run, his death stirs up unanswered questions about her childhood. Who was her mother, why did her father never speak of the past, and why can’t she remember anything before the age of seven?
AN ISLAND CUT OFF
But when she receives an anonymous letter containing a photograph of a refurbished gothic guesthouse surrounded by water, and an invitation to stay, old memories fight to resurface.
Alice has visited before. She is certain of it.
WHO WILL SURVIVE?
Convinced the clues to her past lie at the hotel, she checks in. But once on the island, a wild storm rages, waves crash violently into the rocks, and the house is cut off by the roaring sea.
Then two guests are found dead. And the hotel owner is missing. Will Alice ever uncover her secret past?
And will anyone leave the island alive?
Our Review
"The truth is she desperately wants to go. The place is pulling her - begging her to visit. She feels certain she knows the place, that she may find answers there, a connection to her father perhaps."
The Island House was a bit of a guilty read for me...because it was the book that had been on my Netgalley TBR the longest. I finally got round to it last week and the pages might as well have turned themselves.
The book begins with two representatives from a restorative company investigating an old gothic house without express permission from the owner. The house can only be reached via a causeway at certain times of the day and once belonged to Felix Flynn, a famous puppeteer. This scene from the book really sets the tone for the reader.
"There's no doubting Flynn House in Suffolk was once a grand property, and Jan knows her company can restore it to the stunning gothic building it once was. But James is right, there's a foreboding about the place, as though it's crying out to be left to decay."
Alice tragically losing her father to a hit and run driver. Shortly after his death we discover someone has outed him to the press as a famously reclusive gothic author, and they have revealed Alice's identity at the same time.
"Everything her father hid so long is on display - including her."
As time passes Alice begins to ponder on her past and the fact that she doesn't really remember anything before the age of seven. Then there are the strange dreams of a gothic house situated on a causeway.
In the aftermath of her father's death Alice relies heavily on the support of her ex Leon and her friend Faith. She and Leon split because they wanted different things from life but the feelings remain on both sides. Both Faith and Leon don't hesitate to accompany Alice when she receives an invitation to stay in the newly opened hotel at Flynn House...the house from her dreams.
If there is one thing any reader of gothic fiction knows, it is, don't visit a house on a causeway on Halloween weekend!
Our Final Rating...
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