Cursed Once More - Amanda DeWees

Cursed Once More

By Amanda DeWees

  • Release Date: 2015-06-13
  • Genre: Historical Romance
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 17 Ratings

Description

The sequel to the highly acclaimed Gothic romance With This Curse, winner of the 2015 Daphne du Maurier Award for historical mystery/suspense!

She went in search of her past… and found danger in the present. Former seamstress Clara Blackwood seems to have found happiness at last. Now a blissfully married baroness, she is mistress of a grand estate. But soon a mysterious summons shatters her contented life.

Clara grew up believing that her mother's family had disowned them. But now the grandmother Clara never knew is on her deathbed and anxious to disclose vital family secrets before it's too late—for Clara's unborn child may be cursed with a horrible fate.

When Clara and her husband, Atticus, arrive at dismal Thurnley Hall, they find intrigue brewing.  Her boorish uncle, Horace Burleigh, is greedy for her wealth and desperate to protect the family's mysteries. Superstitious fear of Atticus torments the hulking Romanian servant, Grigore, and even the soft-spoken young ward, Victor Lynch, may have secret motives for getting close to Clara and her husband.

When her grandmother dies under suspicious circumstances, Clara feels compelled to investigate. And when Atticus vanishes mysteriously, she must draw on all her strength and determination to find him before his time runs out… before her life can be cursed once more.

Fans of the Gothic romances of Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, and Barbara Michaels won't want to miss this thrilling, romantic sequel to With This Curse, in which Clara faces new challenges and dangers. Just Book Talk gives Cursed Once More five stars and calls it "another exciting adventure . . . [with] a rich cast of spooky and strange characters." And be sure not to miss Nocturne for a Widow, in which Clara's former employer, vivacious actress Sybil Ingram, is plunged into adventure in a haunted house in the Hudson River Valley.

Reviews

  • knocks it out of the park

    5
    By peytms
    Once again, Amanda DeWees knocks it out of the park. We pick up right where we left off in the epilogue of With This Curse, less than a year after the wedding, the happy couple setting up homes for unwed mothers and Clara just aware of her own impending bundle of joy. Can I briefly mention my disgust for books (and films) that think that a series featuring the same couple means you have to keep breaking them up for stupid reasons to keep up the “tension”? It’s like they look at something that is working great, and ask, “How can we ruin this?” (Stephenie Meyer, Jerry Bruckheimer, I’m looking at you.) Fortunately, Amanda DeWees is not one of those authors. The relationship between Atticus and Clara is as adorable and endearing and sweet and the highlight of the story. I so loved the strength and support they got from one another. All of the characters were excellent, realistic human beings (the realism perhaps highlighted in the number of times I wanted to punch a character or two in the nose—but we all know people like that too). Our villain was thrillingly creepy and shudder-inducing. I enjoyed the introduction this gives to Eastern European folklore; it added some great flavor to the story. The atmosphere was great—I’ve never had the opportunity to visit England, but Ms. DeWees’s descriptions conveyed the loneliness and isolation in the misty bogs and moors. I also appreciated the little touches of modern morality/ethics that Atticus and Clara offered. Sometimes the Victorians really were confused about how the world should work. This was a great read, and—once again—I can’t wait for the next one. She can’t put them out fast enough. I should probably go reread it now while I wait.

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