After reading the prologue and part of the first chapter, I was expecting an engrossing story centered around mysterious magical realism. I was looking forward to reading this book after having just recently discovered the gothic genre. I’m unsure whether what I didn’t like was the genre itself or just that this book in particular didn’t engage me. I could only read about half of the book before admitting that life is too short to read books I don’t enjoy. I like history, mysteries and family drama. This story delivered all three, but for some reason fell flat - like the story itself was having an identity crisis about what it’s supposed to be. The author weaves in beautiful description and lots of interesting characters - but there’s too much description and too many characters that overshadowed the tension of the mystery that I desperately wanted. I was sad to quit the book because I really wanted to know what happened to Luke and Stoney, but I also wanted to know what was happening. I was frequently confused, trying to go back and remember parts of the plot that got lost. Part of me thinks I might try to read this one again another time because I didn’t give it a chance, but another part of me knows that I won’t.