[Review] Sommersgate House, by: Kristen Ashley

Ghosts and Reincarnation #2

SOMMERSGATE HOUSE

by: Kristen Ashley
Publication Date: December 7th, 2013
Read Date: June 28th, 2018
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Adult
Format: eBook
Pages: 461

 

Douglas Ashton is the cold and unfeeling owner of the gothic Victorian Mansion, Sommersgate House. Julia Fairfax is his stubborn American sister-in-law. After tragedy strikes, Douglas and Julia are forced to live together at Sommersgate and raise their newly orphaned nieces and nephew.

Douglas has no desire to raise his dead sister’s children nor does he want the distraction of the tempting Julia living under his roof. Julia is struggling with grief and trying to make a go in a new country without much help from impossibly handsome but even more impossibly remote Douglas. Not to mention, she has to deal with the active hostility of Douglas’s frosty, Attila-the-Hun-in-a-skirt mother, Monique.

Douglas decides the best way to give the children what they need, get his mother to behave and give himself what he wants is to marry Julia. When he tells her (yes, tells her) she will be his wife, Julia thinks Douglas is (probably) insane. And anyway, she’s decided if she ever has another husband (since the last one wasn’t so great), he was going to be short, balding, have a paunch and worship the ground she walks on (none of these characteristics define Douglas in the slightest).

One more thing, Sommersgate House is haunted by the ghosts of the man who built the house and the woman who was the love of his life. They both died mysteriously at Sommersgate months after it was finished. When they did, a curse settled on the house making it seem strangely alive. And the only way for the beautiful but frightening house to rid itself of this curse is for its owner to find true love.

my rate

When I opened this book on my device, it went to chapter two or three… meaning that I already started the book. I went in without reading the first chapter again, so I was a little confused in the beginning, but I caught up real fast.

Let me tell you that the ghost story behind the romance story was really creepy. The ghost couple is separated because she was murdered inside and he, outside, and hence they cannot move on. To do so, the owner of the house has to find his true love. Now, Douglas is not a lovey kind of guy. He is cold and a matter of fact guy. He does not believe the story or has seen the ghosts like Julia has. Julia is in the house for one purpose, to care for her nephews that just lost their parents. But Douglas wants her, bad. So these two might actually break the spell of the house.

I really love the story, is no surprise because is a KA story. But I don’t like ghosts, but KA writes them well. I loved how Douglas started to open up little by little to the warm and lovely Julia. The book was long, but it was worth it. And it because it was a long, it was a little slow, but that end made it all worth it. Douglas finally opened his eyes to the magic that surrounded his love for Julia, and the kids were truly happy.

another review in the series