Greythorne

by Julia Trevelyan

Two brothers looked at her with ardent eyes -- one filled her with fear, the other with love.... — All too soon Suzann Hampton discovered that Greythorne Mansion was a house of dark secrets. She had come there at the invitation of Anthony Thorne, her mother's brother-in-law, but found him bizarre -- full of mystery and volatile emotion. Yet there was no doubt he was drawn to her and wanted to lure her into his life. But Suzann was engulfed by fear -- should she turn to Thorne's handsome younger brother, Edward, to unravel the tangled threads of her terror? Or was she destined to become captive to this brooding man? only after a long, lonely wait did Suzann realize that she must uncover the shrouded secrets of Greythorne Mansion -- trace the muffled sobs in the night -- before she would be free to dictate the course of her life...and her love.

Genres: Gothic, Horror, Gothic Romance

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published April 2, 1974

Reviews

[Library Ghost]

She fell too easily for red flag men. Lordy! After her parents die, our heroine goes to live with an aunt, who can't really afford her but loves her dearly. It feels like the beginning of a historical romance for a bit, before she gets a letter inviting her to live with her dead aunt's husband. So...he's an uncle by marriage but without cousins there is technically no longer a tie between them. This is the rationale for things that unfold in the book, anyway. This surprisingly handsome and not-that-old uncle has a younger handsome brother who runs his estates, including the plantations in the Caribbean. ugh...I know. There is a biracial child who is a ward of the uncle but whom he disdains. Our heroine bonds with her and the Black maid who takes care of her. Descriptions of the maid were pretty bad, and I'm pretty sure she was still a slave rather than a servant, but it's ambiguous. Our heroine was also intensely naive. She continuously forgave violent or frightening outbursts from these men, and kept giving the benefit of the doubt. Most books from this era have women with a lot more gumption this character, so it was odd. There was also a little bit of Rebecca/Mad-Woman-in-the-Attic happening with a villainous dead aunt. Entertaining read, but you will raise your eyebrow more than a few times.