Victoria
Holt has always been my go-to author for gothic romance. I found her early in high school when I was
visiting my family in WA. We’d flown up for the summer and I was going through
my grandmother’s books trying to find something to read. I found a Reader’s
Digest on her shelves with 6 gothic romances inside. I read them all and
enjoyed them, but the one that caught me and held me was Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt. During the vacation, my cousin
and I scoured used book stores trying to find a copy of it. Which we did
thankfully, in a mom and pop store that is no longer there. This moment began
my love affair with her novels.
Now, they’re all packed tightly in a
box right now so I haven’t really had a chance to read any of them in some
time. Then one night I got a text from Amanda asking if I’d read Pride of the Peacock or Shivering Sands. My response was “probably.
I’d have to get the box out and look!” So when Amanda said we were going to read The Shivering Sands for May, I grew very
excited at reconnecting with one of my favorite authors. It felt like hugging an old friend to me.
One thing I’ve always loved about
Holt is when she deals with murder, you guess until the reveal. I was going
through various characters trying to figure out who it was, but failed until
the last moment. Heck, I was even considering it to be the new vicar, lol, for
a while but it didn’t make sense. Perhaps it was partly (or largely since y’all
know me) because I didn’t want Caroline having any attraction to him. I was all
for Napier, even though it took a long time to warm up to him. All the
characters kept me interested. I was fascinated by Pietro’s hold over Caroline
so well after death. The impression I got from her was that he wasn’t the
nicest guy. Napier wasn’t either, but he didn’t seem to taunt her the way
Pietro’s memories did. The mystery behind Roma, then a later character (who I
suspected was gonna get it) definitely amped up the tension, as well as Sybil’s
actions.
Various revelations made for some
great surprises as the climax came and went. I had at least one moment of “Hoooollllyyy
crap!” lol. The biggest revelation for me was the whodunit. Didn’t expect it,
but knowing Holt, I probably should have! I really enjoyed getting back to some
of my reading roots. I’m gonna have to go out and look at the rest of the books
I have. It could be a lot of fun to go back and re-immerse myself in the world
of Victoria Holt.
On that note, YAY! For Victoria
Holt. Enjoyed May’s book! :-D
No comments:
Post a Comment