The Ruby Tears of Edgecliff Manor

by Elizabeth Carroll

"The ruby ring - the blood and the tears -- will bring the family back together." — The letter was a godsend. After struggling for so long to make ends meet as a music teacher, Emily Woodstock was astonished to learn that she was the closest living relative of Sir Ralph Woodstock. Suddenly, poor and lonely Emily was a member of a wealthy family, with Edgecliff Manor as her new home. It was all she had ever dreamed, and upon first meeting her handsome cousin Richard, she wondered if she might find riches of the heart as well. But when the death of her uncle left Emily the sole heir to his vast fortune, her dream was shattered for she was certain that someone was out to kill her.

Surely it wasn't her charming cousin Charles or their lovely, yet aloof, neighbor Evonne DeVere. And even the grim-faced housekeeper did not seem capable of murder. That left only Richard, of dark mind and brooding spirit, the man to whom Emily had given her heart. Would he take her life, as well?

(Out of Print)

Genres: Gothic, Gothic Romance

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1992

Reviews

[MV · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't have much to say about this one. It started off well, but after 30 or so pages, it fizzled out. It didn't help that the heroine was kind of annoying and repeats herself a lot. Also, I'm starting to realize that the dialogue sinks a lot of these books for me.
Not terrible, just another forgettable Zebra.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why is it that every time I love the writing to a book I find that the author has little to no books? lol I notice this is a reoccurring theme. I loved this book, I love the romanticism in the descriptions, and I loved Emily and Richard, and their romance was beautiful. I knew it would be after their first meeting, they meet secretly and by accident and he tells her not to remove the flower from her hair as it's lovely, ah so sweet and I could feel the connection through the pages.
Other things I really appreciated about this book is how authentically it was wrote, it's honestly hard to find historical romances actually true to the time, most have modern viewpoints added into which is my least favourite thing, for example take their love scene on their wedding night (which was so romantic and exactly how love scenes should be, simple, short and sweet) but the innocence of her not knowing what to expect on her wedding night is exactly how it was then, and too many historical romances have explicit scenes or the heroine being overly sexual and all knowledgeable etc. and this was just not accurate in a time where women were virgins on the wedding nights and when there was no such thing as porn or explicit scenes from movies, all they had were rumours, whispers and imagination, which I can imagine made sex much better and more meaningful than it will ever be in a today's society so I just loved how innocent and unknowing she was on her wedding night, it was so sweet. I love finding these books that actually sound like the time they're set in as that's what I want.
Also want to add another thing, this was one of the few books where I actually can understand why she thought her husband was the one trying to kill her, most of the time it usually is me thinking "ugh obviously it is not your husband, use your brain and look at the signs" but in this for once I can understand that she thought it was him so appreciated that too, obviously we still knew it wasn't but it makes sense that she believed it to be so.

Overall I just loved it, I loved the romance and I wish this author had more gothics, I read this in one sitting. I feel like I always enjoy books even more when I visualize the hero perfectly, in this book I visualized a young Laurence Olivier from Rebecca which btw in some scenes in this book I got Rebecca vibes, and the author on the back of the book did she she was a fan of daphne du maurier so I'd say she got some inspiration from it. If I had to criticize anything it would be that the epilogue wasn't longer! I also would have liked a conversation between Emily and Richard at the end of the book about all the misunderstandings but it didn't happen, it wasn't really necessary, I just would have like it.

[Michelle Stahlman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sorry, no. This book is a HARD no. This skinny little gothic “romance” made me wish for a pillow to muffle my screams with. The love triangle was terribly unromantic. Bachelor no.1 was the dark and handsome gaslighter. Bachelor no.2 was the witty and charming attempted murderer of the object of his affection AND his own brother, the other half of the love triangle. What makes me so mad though was how Emily was made out to be this completely sensible girl and she kept believing in a guy who was not worth it. She was ultimately right and he wasn’t trying to kill her or cheat on her, but I wouldn’t forget how easily he dismissed her allegations of someone being after her and being ready after only a few weeks to send her to the loony bin. For me the trust would evaporate almost as fast as me from that situation. But Emily of course just falls into her love’s arms without zero mention of his lack of trust in her judgment. Love can’t make anyone that dumb, right?

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. It had suspense and kept me interested. A little predictable. Easy read if you are looking for something quick.