Rate this book

Dark Obsession (2008)

by Allison Chase(Favorite Author)

3.57 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

045122387X (ISBN13: 9780451223876)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Signet

series

Blackheath Moor

review 1: Mystery due to vagueness and self deception. Hero did not kill his brother but keeps saying he did (out of guilt).STORY BRIEF:An artist painted a nude picture of Nora from his imagination. People falsely believed Nora had a love affair with him, and she was ruined. Nora’s father was wealthy and arranged her marriage to Gray by giving Gray a large amount of money. Gray needed the money to support his estate. Nora and Gray immediately fall for each other, but Gray is back and forth about it. One moment he is close to Nora and the next he is brooding and distant because he is haunted with guilt related to his brother’s death. Gray’s brother Tom fell off a cliff and died several years earlier.REVIEWER’S OPINION:I did not like it. The voice and writing style did... more not work for me. The main mystery is about Tom’s death. The ghost of Tom’s wife has conversations with Nora, but when Nora asks how Tom died, the ghost won’t say. Instead the ghost talks in riddles and says Nora and Gray need to discover the answer for themselves. Of course, if the ghost answered Nora, that would end the book. Throughout the story people suspect the wrong people, and Gray keeps saying he did it (which was not true). The story feels like one long vague misunderstanding. I couldn’t get into the characters or events.Some examples of things I did not like are listed below.Page 169: An example of the ghost’s riddle: “You must find the truth that will free you all. You must see it with your own eyes, know it, believe it with your mind and heart and soul.” This riddle was not linked to anything. All they needed to learn was who was with Tom when he died. Once someone confesses later, the mystery is solved and the book is over. There was no reason for someone to believe with their mind, heart and soul.Page 163: Gray tells Nora that he killed his brother (which was a lie). Then he says “Tell me now how you feel about your husband. Will you defend me to the gossipmongers? Will you write your mama about how wildly happy we are? Will you welcome me into your bed at night?” Nora runs off.Gray loves Nora but he writes a note telling her to leave. Nora loves Gray but she locks her doors so he can’t visit her at night.I did have a favorite line on page 347. Nora says “My love, an artist sees the world with remarkable clarity.”DATA:Story length: 350 pages. Swearing language: none. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 6. Total number of sex scene pages: 15. Setting: 1830 London and a Cornwall Estate. Copyright: 2008. Genre: historical romantic mystery.
review 2: Dark Obsession by Allison Chase is a well thought out story with fairly descent characters. The storyline was good and the book did have great potential to be classified as running in the “true gothic” genre. The author failed to find that high degree of suspense that I find lacking in a large majority of historical romantic/suspense. This author has a second title coming out in November, Dark Temptation, which is going on my to-read list. Allison Chase shows such good promise in her work; this title is worth picking up! less

Download links for: Dark Obsession

Advertising