"Gothic and paranormal romance"

With the death of her mother, Makenna Lindsay is vulnerable, as she feels alone in the world though she is engaged. Still Makenna believes she loves her fiancé and they make love prior to their marriage. To her shock, the rat dumps her.

Among her mother's possessions, Makenna finds the deed to a small house on Carnal Cove on the Isle of Wight. Needing time to heal from the two blows she just received, Makenna decides the isolated isle is the ideal spot to recuperate. Her widow neighbor Captain Nicholas Saintjohn disrupts her serenity when he persuades a reluctant Makenna to tutor his son in the fine arts. Even more disturbing, a not so friendly ghost appears and Makenna hears the sound of a weeping child while she falls in love with her neighbor.

Gothic and paranormal romance readers will enjoy THE GHOST OF CARNAL COVE. The story line combines elements from both sub-genres as the isolated house and the brooding captain with an innocent woman provide Gothic elements while the ghost represents the paranormal. Though the plot takes a bit long to decide on which path serves as the prime theme, Makenna turns the tale into a fine novel as she struggles with otherworldly essences and a grim neighbor who has her heart.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 24, 2002

Summary

"I am a man without conscience," claims the dark stranger who accosts her amid the pounding surf and tearing winds of Carnal Cove. Taunting her with legends of the place, Captain Saintjohn accuses her of being a seductress herself. Little does he know that Makenna Lindsay has come to the isolated Isle of Wight to escape just such temptations. But her troubled mind seems to conjure equally disturbing hallucinations at every turn: the piteous crying of an abandoned child, the silvery figure of a ghostly woman in white. But is her enemy her own imagination or the all-too-tempting promise of passion with a lover as wild and remorseless as the sea itself?