Saturday, January 25, 2014

The House by Sebastiana Randone Review

“Perchance you are a spirit then, what glorious happenstance that you should visit me, how sublimely metaphysical!”

The House is an adult fairy tale, time travel romance mystery.

Clad only in a torn night dress, a woman finds herself, late one afternoon, in an ancient forest. How she arrived there remains a mystery, both to her and the reader. Finally a frightful looking house arrives in view. Night is moving in and faced with the prospect of remaining in a wood, where only wolves and predators revel, she reluctantly seeks refuge in this unwelcoming house.

Once inside, and taken aback by a most unexpected interior, she soon discovers a room where a magic portal laying in wait transports her to a Georgian estate. A baleful altercation with a beastly, drunkard Lord of the estate (archetype to the evil wolf in traditional tales) sets the tone for this narrative. Unable to find an escape route, she remains confined in this somber historical setting for many months, interacting with a curiously dysfunctional household.

Finally she finds her way back to the enigmatic house from which a journey to Regency London follows, where she meets with an interesting cast of individuals. Although it soon emerges that there is a relationship between the characters from both periods, the mystery surrounding her presence continues to confound all.

One foggy eve, a down cast man arrives and is introduced to the time traveller. When their eyes meet, an inexplicable sense of familiarity is felt by both. Returning home after a large stretch in Florence, the poet is instantly taken with this mysterious beauty, a meeting of which promises restoration for the heart broken man. Frustratingly however, there are obstacles hindering this unusuallove match. Soon a past life connection emerges, and by the last pages, many pieces of the puzzle form a startling picture.

Upon the final curtain, the biggest surprise of all is revealed. With a conclusion, that, although bizarre is positive, like all good fairy tales.
My Review:
This was a good time travel and paranormal book. A mysterious house in the woods is nothing new in literature. However added with a human "big bad wolf", a lost girl and time travel this book is definitely something worth reading. I loved the tidbits thrown in that reminded me of fairy tales. The time travel was well done and it was believable. The author's choice of words was what took me so long to read.  Accurate language for the time period was used, ad naseum. For someone that is not familiar with that time, I needed to use clues and look up a lot of words. However if you enjoy a historical time travel with a fairy tail twist, then that is what this book is. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review from OrangeBerry Book Tours, however all opinions are my own.

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