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The Visitant by Megan Chance

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Source: TLC Book Tours
Paperback, 339 pgs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

The Visitant by Megan Chance is a ghost story with Gothic romance elements, reminiscent of the Brontes but not as dark.  Elena Spira arrives in Venice in the late 1900s (given the use of Bromide as a cure) with high expectations of caring for Samuel Farber in a plush palazzo, but Ca’ Basilio is rundown and falling apart, with few rooms furnished, a staff that’s very abrasive, and a family with dark secrets.   Samuel’s ailments are a secret as well, as the Basilio family believes him to be merely the victim of a robbery and beating, but there are those in the house who are aware of his true sickness.  Nero Basilio is Samuel’s best friend and when he returns from his trip to Rome, Elena captures his attention.  As he fervently pursues her, Samuel warns her against his darker nature given her virginal innocence, but it’s clear he has designs on her as well.

“When I was finished, the trunk was still half-empty.  So sad, really, that a life could be compressed to so few things.  Three or four books, a photographic portrait of my parents and me.   Should someone wish to write my biography, a paragraph would be enough.” (pg. 88 ARC)

Elena wants more from her life that the future that awaits her if she fails in her mission to return Samuel to health.  Her one mistake led her to this place of desolation, and her success can not only affect her own life, but that of her parents.  Her failure would be devastating for them all.  But even as she finds the palazzo in disrepair and the family without a fortune to repair it, she’s less curious about the house than one would expect in a ghost story, particularly one with Gothic elements.  However, given her heavy guilt, her focus remains where it should be for the most part, though she is not unaware of the oppressive spirit of the house and its former inhabitant.

Chance weaves a captivating story from beginning to end, though Elena could have been a little more perceptive about Nero than she was given her past mistakes, which are referenced a few times.  In the fall season and Halloween around the corner, The Visitant by Megan Chance is a good fit.  It provides enough ghostly elements and enough mystery to keep readers going, and the romantic elements are not over the top.  Another solid novel from this author.

Other reviews:

Inamorata

About the Author:

Megan Chance is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author of historical fiction, including Inamorata, Bone River, and City of Ash. Her novels have been chosen for the Borders Original Voices and Book Sense programs. A former television news photographer and graduate of Western Washington University, Chance lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.  Visit her Website, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mailbox Monday #337

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog.

To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links.  Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Vicki, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what I received:

1. The Visitant: A Venetian Ghost Story by Megan Chance for review with TLC Book Tours.

After she nearly ruins her family with a terrible misstep, Elena Spira is sent to Venice to escape disgrace and to atone by caring for the ailing Samuel Farber. But the crumbling and decaying Ca’ Basilio palazzo, where Samuel is ensconced, holds tragic secrets, and little does Elena know how profoundly they will impact her. Soon she begins to sense that she is being watched by something. And when Samuel begins to have hallucinations that make him violent and unpredictable, she can’t deny she’s in mortal danger.

Then impoverished nobleman Nero Basilio, Samuel’s closest friend and the owner of the palazzo, arrives. Elena finds herself entangled with both men in a world where the past seeps into the present and nothing is as it seems. As Elena struggles to discover the haunting truth before it destroys her, a dark force seems to hold Samuel and the Basilio in thrall—is it madness, or something more sinister?

2.  How the Trees Got Their Voices by Susan Andra Lion for review.

Awarded 11 national awards and honors! While camping with a group of girls, Susan Andra Lion was given this tale about trees, nature and also the relationship of living things within a forest ecosystem. This highly visual story book not only presents a fascinating story that children ages 3 and older will enjoy, but also tells a second story about animals, plants, birds, and the Earth itself. Children will learn about the integrated way in which Earth’s inhabitants live in relationship to each other, and learn the value of respect for each form of life. This is a unique and marvelous book helps its readers to regard their world as a complex tapestry of life and living things. Children will be delighted by the thumbnail descriptions which surround the outside of each page, inviting them in and helping them learn about the world of the forest and greater ecosystem of Mother Earth.

Winner of the Moonbeam Children’s Literacy Award — Mind, Body, Spirit Category. Winner of the Mom’s Choice Award Gold Medal; Winner of Creative Child Magazine 2014 Book of the Year; Overall Winner, 2015 Next Generation Indie Awards, Best Design Fiction; Finalist, 2015 Next Generation Indie Awards, New Age Category; National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) Silver award winner; Coalition of Visionary Resources: Winner — Visionary Fiction Category; Winner — People’s Choice Award Book of the Year 2015; Finalist, Children’s and Teens Books; Finalist, Conscious Living Books; Winner 2015 International Book Awards: Children’s Mind/Body/Spirit category.

3. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, which I purchased at the library for 50 cents.

On the faded Island Books sign hanging over the porch of the Victorian cottage is the motto “No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World.” A. J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means.

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island-from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

What did you receive?

Inamorata by Megan Chance

Source: Lake Union Publishing and TLC Book Tours
Paperback, 420 pages
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Inamorata by Megan Chance is dark, mysterious, and twisted.  Odile Leon is a former courtesan turned dark muse, and if you are as talented in the arts as your ego lets you believe, she will choose you.  But the bargain could cost you your soul.  Nicholas Dale knows this too well, and he’s made it his mission to stop her.  Add to the mix mysterious twins, Joseph and Sophie Hannigan, from New York.  These twins carry their own dark secrets and they intrigue not only the entire art community in Venice, but Dale and Odile.  These twins are not torn between the struggling forces of good and evil, but something darker, more singular — desired by both sides.

“That I was not always in his shadow, that there was something in the world that could belong just to me.  To truly be as special on my own terms as Joseph said I was — sometimes my yearning for it was so strong it took me by surprise.”  (page 109)

There is talk of ghosts, succubi, murders, suicides, and more, but Chance weaves artistry so well into the narrative readers will get lost in the canals, wondering how it all will turn out.  There are points in the narrative that drag a little, perhaps there are too many points of view shared, which slows the pace a bit, but many readers would not want to trade any of those points of view because they could lose the full scope of the story.  These points of view enrich the story, making it fuller, and the characters themselves are dynamic and well developed.  These characters are trapped by their yearning and desire to be bigger, recognized, and made whole.

Chance has created a heavy, twisted novel about romantic Venice, and the artists who are struggling to gain recognition. Inamorata by Megan Chance is enveloping, and readers will fall under its spell as each page is turned and more is revealed.  Will these characters achieve their darkest desires, will they be beholden and enslaved by them, or will they find the solace they are seeking?  Another contender for the 2014 Best Reads list!

About the Author:

Megan Chance is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author of historical fiction. Her novels have been chosen for the Borders Original Voices and IndieBound’s Booksense programs. A former television news photographer and graduate of Western Washington University, Chance lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.  Connect on Facebook and Twitter, and visit her Website.

48th book for 2014 New Author Challenge.

Mailbox Monday #280

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page, has a permanent home at its own blog.

To check out what everyone has received over the last week, visit the blog and check out the links.  Leave yours too.

Also, each week, Leslie, Vicki, and I will share the Books that Caught Our Eye from everyone’s weekly links.

Here’s what I received:

1. Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis for review in September.

Just like any other morning, Skylar Rousseau is late for school, but when she is greeted by a blanket of silent stares upon entering Blackfin High, she discovers that the whole town thought she fell from the pier and drowned on her sixteenth birthday three months earlier. However, Sky remembers the last three months living her life as normal, and since she is a full, living breathing human being, she has no idea whose body is buried underneath her tombstone. Everyone seems reluctant to help except her steadfast friend and crush, Sean . . . and a secretive man who draws her to a mysterious circus in the woods.

2.  Inamorata by Megan Chance for TLC Book Tours in August.

American artist Joseph Hannigan and his alluring sister, Sophie, have arrived in enchanting nineteenth-century Venice with a single-minded goal. The twins, who have fled scandal in New York, are determined to break into Venice’s expatriate set and find a wealthy patron to support Joseph’s work.

But the enigmatic Hannigans are not the only ones with a secret agenda. Joseph’s talent soon attracts the attention of the magnificent Odilé Leon, a celebrated courtesan and muse who has inspired many artists to greatness. But her inspiration comes with a devastatingly steep price.

3.  This Is How I’d Love You by Hazel Woods from the publisher for review in September.

As the Great War rages, an independent young woman struggles to sustain love—and life—through the power of words.

It’s 1917 and America is on the brink of World War I. After Hensley Dench’s father is forced to resign from the New York Times for his anti-war writings, she finds herself expelled from the life she loves and the future she thought she would have. Instead, Hensley is transplanted to New Mexico, where her father has taken a job overseeing a gold mine. Driven by loneliness, Hensley hijacks her father’s correspondence with Charles Reid, a young American medic with whom her father plays chess via post. Hensley secretly begins her own exchange with Charles, but looming tragedy threatens them both, and—when everything turns against them—will their words be enough to beat the odds?

4.  Tall, Dark, & Dead by Tate Hallaway, which I got from a book swap with friends.

A delightful new comedy about witches, vampires, and the search for the perfect man. Recovering witch Garnet Lacey manages Wisconsin’s premier occult bookstore. And a fringe benefit of the job is getting customers like Sebastian Von Traum–piercing brown eyes, a sexy accent, and a killer body. The only thing missing is an aura. Which means he’s dead. And that means trouble. So what’s a girl to do if she’s hot for a dead man walking? Run like hell-and take full advantage of the nights.

5.  Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition by Rev. Robert Sirico and Jay W. Richards also from the book swap.

A fair and honest debate about religious responses to environmental issues should always distinguish theological principles from prudential judgments.  The Cornwall Declaration and the accompanying essays in this volume were written to do just that.  They were not written to provide theological rationale for current environmentalist fashion.  Rather, they seek to articulate the broad Judeo-Christian theological principles concerning the environment, and to distinguish those principles from contrary ideas popular in the environmental movement.

6.  Summer Blowout by Claire Cook from the book swap.

A good makeup artist never panics. Bella Shaughnessy knows this. She’s the resident makeup maven in a family of Boston Irish hair salon owners; she has an artful solution to almost every problem. But Bella feels bruised beyond the reach of even the best concealer when her half-sister runs off with her husband. What could she come up with to cover a hurt like that? Plenty, it turns out. She conceives an invigorating new business idea, and soon meets a cute entrepreneur who can help out. Despite their bickering, they can’t seem to stay away from success–or from each other.

 

7.  Daemons Are Forever by Simon R. Green from the book swap.

Eddie Drood’s clan has been watching mankind’s back for ages. And now he’s in charge of the whole kit and caboodle. But it’s not going to be an easy gig…

During World War II, the Droods made a pact with some nasty buggers from another dimension known as the Loathly Ones, which they needed to fight the Nazis. But once the war was over, the Loathly Ones decided that they liked this world too much to leave. Now it’s up to Eddie to make things very uncomfortable for them or watch everything humanity holds dear go up in smoke.

What did you receive?