Title: Wolf at the Door
Author: K. Drew
Genre: Paranormal
Length: Novel (200pgs)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (26th July 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3 Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: For Nicholas Ashbee, life has been a struggle. Growing up in the desolate town of Constance left him bitter and resentful, craving a more engaging life. While training to be a nurse, he is lucky enough to land a plush internship at luxurious Blackwood Manor on Staten Island, home to the wealthy patrons of his college. Nicholas is in charge of caring for Lilith, the sweet and aging matriarch of the Blackwood family who is slowly dying from a mysterious ailment. Nicholas must also deal with her brooding young husband, Sebastian, whose stunning beauty immediately captures Nicholas’s attention.
However, there’s something odd about the inhabitants of this remote manor hiding from the outside world, and Nicholas becomes increasingly suspicious of the Blackwoods when a young man from the neighboring area goes missing after being seen with Sebastian. Perhaps the Blackwoods are not the loving couple they pretend to be and their respectable life is merely a façade masking an ugly secret. Will Nicholas’s undeniable lust for Sebastian place him in danger, and will he discover the truth about his employers before he falls prey to the wolf at the door?
Purchase Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4036
Review: Nicholas is trying to better his life by making something of himself as a nurse, so when he gets the internship at Blackwood Manor he thinks he will have it made. The Blackwood family have sponsored Desentia College since it was first founded and every year one intern is sent to Blackwood Manor and they will go on to have great opportunities, Nicholas has been chosen to take care of the matriarch, Lilith, who has a mysterious ailment that needs monitoring. But Nicholas becomes suspicious of the activities at Blackwood and the moody Sebastian and begins to explore the grounds stumbling on secrets and working his way into Sebastian’s affections and Lilith’s wrath.
This story has a very creepy Gothic feel to it, with wonderful descriptions and a pretty good storyline. Nicholas has grown up on a trailer park and wants more for him in the future; to that end, he goes to college to become a geriatric nurse and is delighted when he wins the coveted internship at Blackwood Manor. Nicholas soon realizes that Blackwood Manor and its inhabitants are not quite, what they seem, but he develops a fondness for Lilith and a secret yearning for her young husband Sebastian. Nicholas is torn by the love he feels and disgust over what secrets he discovers, but soon the choice may be taken from him as the Blackwoods make their move.
I was drawn into this story from the first pages as we find Nicholas in a dazed and shocked state, from there we learn of the circumstances that lead to him being locked in a cell. This story is written in a first-person narrative so we see everything through Nicholas’ eyes and everything he is thinking and feeling, while it is a very interesting perspective I found that the story lagged at times with too much detail or in-depth narrative. While the descriptions of the house gave us a creepy setting Nicholas wouldn’t have been able to give us such details with his background, ‘Hieronymus Bosch’ and ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ is not a subject that I would expect someone who grew up on a trailer park and had shown no interest in art to know.
I also found Nicholas himself to be a contradiction, one minute desperate to escape and the next meekly following along like it’s the greatest idea in the world, I found it very difficult to understand why he would just suddenly just go along with Sebastian and Lilith’s idea. The relationship that developed between Sebastian and Nicholas didn’t feel right either, Sebastian is cold and aloof and has very little interaction with Nicholas but somehow they both fell in love with the brief flashes of, for Nicholas it was glimpses of shyness in Sebastian and for Sebastian seeing Nicolas’ backbone and stubbornness. I really couldn’t see how or when they fell in love.
There was some very nice creepy, goriness and some very interesting background details, some clues and hints that Nicholas never put together and then there is the roll that Desentia College played in it all, it is a very good story if you want something with a Gothic flavor to it but I actually felt the timeline of the story should have been at least a hundred years before. This is a great horror-ish type story but the writing style wasn’t for me.
I recommend this to those who love nasty secrets, horrific discoveries, great details, an interesting storyline and an ending that could just be the beginning of another horror story.