TEST
My review copy of Shadow Haven describes it as “a contemporary gothic tale of romantic suspense.” Well, it’s fairly gothic, somewhat suspenseful, and not very romantic. All in all, it’s very much an average read.
When Gabriella Deveaux married her husband Charles, she left behind her family home in the Louisiana bayou to begin a new life in New York. Her marriage was a nightmare. Charles was cruel and abusive, constantly putting her down and trying to control her. The women in her family have always had special abilities, and when she revealed that she could speak to the dead, Charles began spreading rumors that she was crazy. Then Charles was killed in a plane crash. Eight years after she first left, Gabriella returns to the family plantation, Shadow Haven, hoping to start over with her six-year-old daughter Michaela.
She soon finds it’s not so easy to leave her old life behind. Her former in-laws, believing Charles’s claims of her mental instability, file for custody of Michaela. This brings attorney Jarrod Landry back into her life. Jarrod was an old friend of Charles’s who first introduced them. But the night before the wedding, Jarrod came to her, warning her not to marry Charles. She hasn’t seen him since. Now her in-laws have asked him to help them take her daughter from her. Instead, he offers to help her stop them. Gabriella just doesn’t know if she can trust him or if he’s really on her side.
Meanwhile, Gabriella discovers that Shadow Haven has fallen into ruin. Determined to restore her ancestral home, she soon finds herself dealing with a number of strange situations. Intruders try to break into the house in the middle of the night. She begins having dreams that seem to indicate imminent danger and receives ghostly warnings telling her to seek out an unknown woman. In order to protect herself and her daughter from a deadly enemy, Gabriella has to reconnect with her supernatural family legacy.
As Gothics go, Shadow Haven is neither a terrible one nor a great one. It has a decent sense of place. LaForge has a very readable style and for the most part this is a nicely told story, but the chapters are also very short. I don’t think there are many, if any, that are longer than ten pages, and they occasionally don’t end on a natural break. More than once I turned the page to find a new chapter starting for no good reason, which made for choppy reading at times. The supernatural elements are intriguing, and I enjoyed the parts of the story that focused on them. It’s just nothing special. The plot contains no surprises and is fairly predictable. The story is told in first-person, present-tense, so the only character we get the chance to know is Gabriella. She’s likable enough, but equally bland.
The romance is pretty much a nonstarter. When she and Jarrod begin to grow closer, Gabriella finds his dayplanner and discovers he has a standing dinner date with a woman once every week. Gabriella is so offended that he would even think of getting involved with her when he has a standing date with this other woman that she refuses to speak to him. She doesn’t tell him why she’s so mad and doesn’t let him explain. This seemed very extreme, and especially since she knows nothing about this woman – only a first name – and has no idea if it’s a romantic relationship at all (and seeing someone once a week doesn’t seem like an indication of a serious relationship). In any case, this is just an obvious means to separate them, but the result is that she and Jarrod don’t spend much time together. When they do get back together, they fall in love very quickly and it’s not all that romantic.
Sometimes it’s difficult to decide what grade to give a book. Sometimes it couldn’t be easier. A C is an average grade, and Shadow Haven is very much an average read. It’s a pleasant, readable story, but also nothing particularly memorable. Readers who absolutely can’t get enough Gothic romances may find it worth a look. For everyone else, there are better ones out there.
Grade: C
Book Type: Gothic
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 22/03/05
Publication Date: 2005/04
Related Reviews
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.