The year is 1928. Kate Moore is looking for a way out of the poverty and violence of her childhood. When a chance encounter on a transatlantic ocean liner brings her face-to-face with the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, she thinks she may have found her escape – as long as she can keep her past concealed.
After exchanging wedding vows, Kate quickly discovers that something isn’t quite right with her husband – or her new family. As Mrs. Matthew Lemont, she must contend with her husband’s disturbing past, his domineering mother, and his overly close sister. Isolated at Lakecrest, the sprawling, secluded Lemont estate, she searches desperately for clues to Matthew’s terrors, which she suspects stem from the mysterious disappearance of his aunt years before. As Kate stumbles deeper into a maze of family secrets, she begins to question everyone’s sanity – especially her own. But just how far will she go to break free of this family’s twisted past?
Disappointed I only read this book to the end to know what happened to Cecily. If the plot were developed more deeply around this it would had been an excellent book. I you don’t like to read about incest (two relationship on this book), or about a woman who is beaten by his husband while he is having nightmares and when he finally wakes up she has sex with him just to comfort him, or about a woman who married a man just for his money and even though she is a victim of physical abuse by him and emotional…
Quick but dark read I chose this as my Kindle First selection and it is a very quick read. However, it is a very dark gothic read. If you use the look inside feature and read the the prologue you might get the wrong idea about this book. The prologue focuses on Kate and her children but this book focuses on the time before they are born. After a quick set up in which Kate and Mathew meet and marry the book focuses on Kate moving into the family estate. Kate was penniless and focused on improving her life but now…
Meg Cabot was right! Elizabeth Blackwell IS a storytelling genius and I loved the 1920s Chicago setting of IN THE SHAWDOW OF LAKECREST. The story kicks off with a delicious homage to Daphne DuMaurier’s opening in REBECCA, but it’s all Blackwell after that as this Midwestern American gothic tale unfolds. Remember Victoria Holt? V.C. Andrews? This author clearly knows the classic beats of “modern” Gothic fiction and not only plays to those, but also remakes them. Heroine Kate is at once a relatable every…