While written almost twenty years ago this is still a modern tale of secret passions, family quarrels and haunted houses with eerie appearances that are not of this world. The story is about Pat and Mark, a widow and her son who welcome new neighbors: Josef and his daughter Kathy into the house n...
This spooky story is about a woman who will do anything to care for her younger brother. Andrea has been in charge of her younger brother Jim since their parents' deaths when Andrea was 19 and Jim was 7. The parents left nothing and it has been a major struggle for Andrea. She became hyper-focuse...
This year I have been participating in a "read a new book, reread an old book" challenge, and boy, does Ammie, Come Home exemplify the latter. Not only is the novel itself over 40 years old, but I myself read it the for the first time at least 20 years ago. Barbara Michaels is my favorite author ...
My second re-read of Barbara Michaels this year.It had the potential to rock a lot more than it did - it would have made a brilliant little novella. Instead, the middle sagged and slowed so much it became dull. The beginning was interesting, if not misleading into making the main seem completely ...
I wasn't sure what to expect with this novel, since the author is new to me and I haven't read any others in this series- but I actually really enjoyed it. It surprised me in several ways. First, it was its own contained novel. The characters seemed to be recurring, but that didn't prevent me fro...
Hooray! A Barbara Michaels book I actually liked better upon rereading than I did as a teen! Barbara Michaels's books generally fall into the category of romantic suspense, although some of the earlier books are pure Gothic in tone. In Someone in the House, the two genres are well blended; the n...
It was a review at Radish Reviews that made me pick this one up for a reread. This and the trilogy it's part of have always been amongst my favourite Barbara Michaels books, and ones I've reread again and again. Clearly not in the last 10 years, though, as I was surprised to find I haven't review...
A black rainbow is a moon rainbow. It is the also the opening scene for Black Rainbow by Barbara Michaels. In this gothic romance Megan O'Neill, governess falls in love with the handsome but dangerous Edmund Mandeville while sister Jane looks on helpless.Black Rainbow is the prequel to Someone in...
Barbara Michaels delivers everything you could want in a Gothic mystery - a young, innocent heroine; a creepy estate, remote from all civilization; ghost stories and ghostly appearances; a nefarious murder plot; several folks who are not what they seem; and a dashing hero who comes to the rescue ...
From the moment she arrived on King's Island, Joanne McMullen knew that her sister's grief over losing her child had driven her dangerously close to madness. But when Joanne heard the same child's voice that her sister had heard wailing in the woods, she knew something terrible was happening!
Written 1968. Harriet and Ada, and their peculiar guardian, Yorkshire Moors 1856; gothic/historical suspenser, old-fashioned fem-jep. Entertaining, very early fem-jep historical suspenser from a now extremely famous writer not yet into her stride. Before "Amelia Peabody" there were many similar h...
But it was several days before Michael could make himself stop listening for footsteps coming toward his door. He threw himself into work as a cure for mental degeneration, and found that after a while he didn’t have to force himself; the hunt was up, and as usual it gradually gripped him. Even t...
The muffins were dark with cinnamon and sticky with warm sugar. I ate three of them, sitting at the kitchen table while Mrs. Willard watched approvingly. “Don’t suppose you usually eat a decent breakfast,” she said. “That instant stuff, or dry cereal. That’s just like gras...