Havencross Author: Julie Daines
Genres: Historical Romance
Format: Audio, eBook, Print
Pages: 240
Date: August 1, 2017
Publisher: Covenant
When a shocking scandal involving her father spreads through London society, Elaine Cardinham and her parents are forced to retreat to their country home in Cornwall for refuge. But Havencross is no sanctuary for Elaine. She is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her brother—and the heartbreak she left in her wake all those years ago.
It has been five long years since Gareth Kemp last saw Elaine—when she rejected his marriage proposal. Her reappearance convinces him of one thing: he has never stopped loving her. To put his feelings for her aside, he focuses his attention on the dangerous smuggling plaguing the Cornish coast.
As Elaine attempts to run from her past, she ventures ever closer to a dangerous truth—and Gareth may be the only one who can save her from a deadly finish.
Rating: Mild+. Mild kissing; mild sensuality; mild (nonsexual) violence or horror.
[bctt tweet=”Can Gareth save Elaine from a deadly finish? #regency #romance @juliedaines HAVENCROSS”]
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About Julie Daines
Julie Daines is an award-winning and best-selling author. She loves reading, writing, and watching movies—anything that transports her to another world. She picks Captain Wentworth over Mr. Darcy, firmly believes in second breakfast, and never leaves home without her vervain.
For the first half of this book I kept feeling like I had read it before, yet I knew I hadn’t. I knew who the bad guy was and basically that there would be kidnappings and where they would be stowed away. During the last half I wasn’t surprised by anything but still needed to see how everything would come about and I still felt my heart pounding during the climatic suspenseful part. Basically I felt like I’d read the book before but couldn’t remember the ending. So, perhaps that means that the author researched the smuggling rings so thoroughly that she was dead on accurate with what other authors have written?
Still, even if it felt like a second reading, I enjoy rereading books so I didn’t mind it except that I couldn’t come up with the book that I’d read previously that might have been similar to this one. And I enjoyed reading Havencross. There was romance and suspense. Descriptions were vivid. I’ve never been there but Tintagel is a favorite of both of my daughters so as I read the descriptions I felt like I could understand why my girls loved it so much. The story was also a little mystical with the legends and appearances of Gwen never fully explained.
In the end, we have the sense that the bad guys are going to get what is coming to them and the good guys get their happily ever after but I wondered what would happen with the smuggling in the area. Was it stopped completely having lost their leaders or did someone just as dangerous step into the roles left empty by the villains that were caught? Did they round up everyone that worked in the smuggling ring? Did they move to a different location to continue the illegal activities? These questions were not answered for me.
There was a lot of sadness in the book mostly due to loss of loved ones but also from bad choices. Yet by the end I had the sense that they would be able to move past their sorrow to make a better life.
The book is clean but contains violence. Murders happen previous to the book and during the timeline of the story people are kidnapped, beaten, threatened and shot. A couple people die in the final shoot out.