Week 6 - Romance Annotation

 

I don’t believe in curses, but if I did? If you can cast one, you can break one. 

(p. 181)

Author:  Nora Roberts

Title:  Inheritance

Genres:  Contemporary Romance, Paranormal Fiction

Publication Date:  2023

Number of Pages: 419

Geographical Setting:  Maine

Time Period:  Present Day, Flashbacks to 19^th & early 20^th century

Series: The Lost Bride Trilogy #1

Plot Summary: 

Inheritance opens in 1806 on the wedding day of Astrid Poole, a giddy new bride who can’t wait to begin her married life. These happy musings end abruptly when she is murdered, her wedding ring taken, while the murderer proclaims, “Die a bride, and know he’ll come to me. He will come to me, or by your blood on my tongue, bride after bride will join you in death.”

Present day: After a shattering revelation upends both the relationship with her fiancé and her stable job as a graphic designer, Sonya MacTavish finds herself facing an enormous, life-changing decision - an unexpected visit from a lawyer reveals that Sonya has inherited a centuries-old Victorian manor and its estate in Poole’s Bay, Maine, all from an uncle she never knew existed. The surprises keep coming, as the lawyer, a close friend of her uncle, Collin Poole, tells Sonya that Collin and her late father were twins, unknowingly separated at birth, and that there is a stipulation to receiving her inheritance - Sonya must live in the manor for at least three years. Realizing her life is at a crossroads, Sonya thinks this just might be the adventure she needs to kickstart the next chapter in her life; she also cannot deny the intriguing mystery surrounding why her father and uncle were separated at birth and the reasons for its being kept secret so long.

When Sonya arrives to Poole’s Bay, she is met by Trey Doyle, son of the lawyer who informed her of the inheritance. Trey welcomes her, and in addition to relating the Poole family history, mentions that it is common knowledge in the village that her new house, referred to as Lost Bride Manor, is the bearer of a curse and a little haunted. Even with her logical mind and strong self-confidence, after experiencing unnerving events - objects being moved about the house, music and the sound of weeping drifting in the night - Sonya starts to believe there may be something to the curse after all, and it’s a puzzle far too compelling not to be solved…

Subject Headings:

Inheritance and succession -- Fiction

Brides -- Fiction

Haunted houses -- Fiction

Blessing and cursing -- Fiction

Man-woman relationships -- Fiction

Appeals:

Tone 

“An evocative, emotional tone draws readers in…Readers participate in the love story and read toward the emotionally satisfying, happy ending” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 216).

Atmospheric - Suspenseful - Moving

Characterization

“Characters are vividly, if quickly, drawn. Men are powerful, confident, and slightly dangerous; women are strong, bright, and independent” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 216).

Well-developed

Story Line

“…told in such a way that the reader becomes emotionally involved in the outcome of the relationship and experiences satisfaction and fulfillment in its emotionally resonant conclusion” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 216).

Intricately plotted

Language 

“…full of lush and expressive language, pulling readers into each scene and into the overarching tone of the novel” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 218).

Style

“Characters trade rapid fire and witty banter, they exchange letters, talk on the phone, and otherwise flirt with outrageous charm” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 218).

Engaging - Descriptive - Lush

Frame / Setting

“Engaging details of time and place attract readers, and these historical, cultural, and social particulars often frame the stories” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, p. 216).

Pacing

“…fast-paced…and offer stories that readers fall into,” and “…rely more on dialogue…focus on witty and sexy conversations…[and] have a strong and clearly projected outcome” (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019, pp. 216, 219-220).

3 Terms That Best Describe This Book:  Intriguing, Heart-warming, Atmospheric

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors:

The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James

Investigating her birth family upon inheriting a centuries-old English manor, an adopted art gallery curator uncovers the story of a mid-20th-century governess who was cruelly treated by the curator’s unknown ancestors. 

--NoveList Plus

Common Appeals

Gothic Fiction - Moving to a haunted house - Atmospheric - Suspenseful

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen

Moving to a coastal community in Maine, a woman trying to outrun her past is confronted by a string of murders and the ghost of a sea captain who is haunting her isolated home. --NoveList Plus

Common Appeals

Gothic Fiction - Intricately plotted - Atmospheric - Suspenseful

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WWII. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in ‘the distant hours’ of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.     --Goodreads

Common Appeals

Gothic fiction - Well-developed characters - Intricately plotted - Suspenseful

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors:

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro

The author of Hourglass now gives us a new memoir about identity, paternity, and family secrets—a real-time In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. She woke up one morning and her entire history—the life she had lived—crumbled beneath her.

Inheritance is a book about secrets—secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. 

It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in—a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.  --Goodreads

Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times by Thomas Waters

Cursed Britain unveils the enduring power of witchcraft, curses and black magic in modern times. Few topics are so secretive or controversial. Yet, whether in the 1800s or the early 2000s, when disasters struck or personal misfortunes mounted, many Britons found themselves believing in things they had previously dismissed – dark supernatural forces.

Historian Thomas Waters here explores the lives of cursed or bewitched people, along with the witches and witch-busters who helped and harmed them. Waters takes us on a fascinating journey from Scottish islands to the folklore-rich West Country, from the immense territories of the British Empire to metropolitan London. 

We learn why magic caters to deep-seated human needs but see how it can also be abused, and discover how witchcraft survives by evolving and changing. Along the way, we examine an array of remarkable beliefs and rituals, from traditional folk magic to diverse spiritualities originating in Africa and Asia.  --Goodreads

Haunted: The Incredible True Story of a Canadian Family’s Experience Living in a Haunted House by Dorah L. Williams

It was an irrational decision. Despite having just moved into a beautiful new house, the Williams family gave in to an odd, overwhelming desire to purchase and move into a Victorian home they had come upon by chance. They were curious, of course, as to why the house had, in the past, had such a high vacancy rate - no one ever seemed to live in it for a long period of time. But that curiosity didn't last long, because shortly after moving in, strange things began to happen. 

It became abundantly clear that the home's past owners had all had a reason for leaving: fear. The Williams' new home was haunted. At first, the family tried telling themselves there were logical explanations for the strange things they all were witnessing. But before long they came to accept the fact that they were sharing their home with ghosts. --Goodreads

References

Goodreads. (2024). Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44174545-cursed-britain?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_14

Goodreads. (2024). Haunted: The Incredible True Story of a Canadian Family’s Experience Living in a Haunted House. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/395420.Haunted?ref=nav_sb_ss_2_16

Goodreads. (2024). Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40364332-inheritance?ref=nav_sb_ss_2_14

Goodreads. (2024). The distant hours. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6746018-the-distant-hours?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=W1R0vEiGlw&rank=1

NoveList Plus. (2024). The Shape of Night. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.monroe.lib.in.us/novp/detail?vid=4&sid=cfa0fb1b-a58b-47e3-bba2-ec638769a8db%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9bm92cC1saXZl#UI=10805065&db=neh

NoveList Plus. (2024). The Woman in the Mirror. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.monroe.lib.in.us/novp/detail?vid=2&sid=cfa0fb1b-a58b-47e3-bba2-ec638769a8db%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9bm92cC1saXZl#UI=10667145&db=neh

Roberts, N. (2023). Inheritance. St. Martin’s Press.

Wyatt, N., & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The readers’ advisory guide to genre fiction (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.