What do you think?
Rate this book
Dragonmede
A brilliant and terrifying Gothic, DRAGONMEDE begins in London in the late 1800's, a time when nobility was the golden key that opened all doors. To Eustacia Rochdale, life was exciting, if uncertain. Her mother, beautiful and talented, courted the rich and titled who came to her Bloomsbury home to gamble and relax.
Luella always managed to win enough from her guests to support herself comfortably, but she was determined that her daughter achieve the respectable upper-class marriage that she herself could never attain.
When Eustacia meets Julian Kershaw--heir to Dragonmede, a title, and a family fortune--Luella is delighted. Desperately gambling on the young man's unskilled passion for cards and his obvious attraction toward Eustacia, she succeeds in arranging their engagement
Eustacia arrives at Dragonmede as Julian's new bride, unaware of her mother's manipulations. She is met with hostility and suspicion, and when Julian himself becomes cold and withdrawn, she begins to wonder if the various accidents occurring since her arrival are not indeed attempts on her life.
Luella always managed to win enough from her guests to support herself comfortably, but she was determined that her daughter achieve the respectable upper-class marriage that she herself could never attain.
When Eustacia meets Julian Kershaw--heir to Dragonmede, a title, and a family fortune--Luella is delighted. Desperately gambling on the young man's unskilled passion for cards and his obvious attraction toward Eustacia, she succeeds in arranging their engagement
Eustacia arrives at Dragonmede as Julian's new bride, unaware of her mother's manipulations. She is met with hostility and suspicion, and when Julian himself becomes cold and withdrawn, she begins to wonder if the various accidents occurring since her arrival are not indeed attempts on her life.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1974
3 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Rona Randall
80 books10 followersRona Green Shambrook
aka Rona Randall, Rona Shambrook, Virginia Standage
Rona Green was born on 16 June 1911 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, UK. Her education includes: Pitmans College in London, a Diploma in English Literature at Royal Society of Art, Birkenhead School of Art Literary. She married Frederick Walter Shambrook, and had a son.
A former actress, before writing, she worked also as journalist and sub-director of publishing company Amalgamated Press, and as assistant editor of George Newnes Ltd. Published since 1942, she started publishing mainly contemporary doctor nurse romances, before writing also gothic romances, and when the market for gothic novels softened, she wrote historical mystery romances. In 1970, Broken Tapestry, her contemporary novel about a broken family, won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. In 1989, she wrote her The Model Wife: Nineteenth Century Style, a book about social constumbres, including clothing. In 1992, she wrote Writing Popular Fiction, a complete guide for writers.
aka Rona Randall, Rona Shambrook, Virginia Standage
Rona Green was born on 16 June 1911 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, UK. Her education includes: Pitmans College in London, a Diploma in English Literature at Royal Society of Art, Birkenhead School of Art Literary. She married Frederick Walter Shambrook, and had a son.
A former actress, before writing, she worked also as journalist and sub-director of publishing company Amalgamated Press, and as assistant editor of George Newnes Ltd. Published since 1942, she started publishing mainly contemporary doctor nurse romances, before writing also gothic romances, and when the market for gothic novels softened, she wrote historical mystery romances. In 1970, Broken Tapestry, her contemporary novel about a broken family, won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. In 1989, she wrote her The Model Wife: Nineteenth Century Style, a book about social constumbres, including clothing. In 1992, she wrote Writing Popular Fiction, a complete guide for writers.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 11, 2020
I picked this up at a book fair, where I was specifically hunting for books where women ran away from houses. Preferably in night gowns during a storm, but since I couldn’t find that level of trashiness I settled for this.
And liked it a lot. It’s Holtesque, but less gloomy.
This isn’t a review as much as it is a collection of observations that will be unhelpful to anyone, whether they’ve read the book or not:
I think Stacy was at least 27 when she married. It took me ages to work that out and I spent most of the book thinking she was much younger.
I thoroughly approve of how much she enjoyed sex, until she worked out that her husband was a villain.
I kept drawing parallels to Dragonwyck and wondering which book came first. Too lazy to check. Also, that heroine sort of enjoyed sex with the villain too, after she got used to the fact it was pretty rough.
While the other woman in this book was mean and got a creepy violent observing a small animal killing another small animal scene, i liked that she wasn’t an idiot.
In fact, the amount of sympathy to the female characters (shady and otherwise) in this book was refreshing.
I didn’t like the very narrow view of masculinity, or the approach to mental health, but the book is a product of its time.
And, there was a lot in this book that I liked and wish would come back ... e.g. getting a villain reveal and then not rehabilitating him into a hero, and not angsting too much over what getting orgasms from a bad guy says about the heroine. And true creepiness, but in a context where it’s believable that only the protagonist and the reader will see it as horror, and working out sensible escape plans that demonstrate the heroine’s confidence that she can survive on her own.
And liked it a lot. It’s Holtesque, but less gloomy.
This isn’t a review as much as it is a collection of observations that will be unhelpful to anyone, whether they’ve read the book or not:
I think Stacy was at least 27 when she married. It took me ages to work that out and I spent most of the book thinking she was much younger.
I thoroughly approve of how much she enjoyed sex, until she worked out that her husband was a villain.
I kept drawing parallels to Dragonwyck and wondering which book came first. Too lazy to check. Also, that heroine sort of enjoyed sex with the villain too, after she got used to the fact it was pretty rough.
While the other woman in this book was mean and got a creepy violent observing a small animal killing another small animal scene, i liked that she wasn’t an idiot.
In fact, the amount of sympathy to the female characters (shady and otherwise) in this book was refreshing.
I didn’t like the very narrow view of masculinity, or the approach to mental health, but the book is a product of its time.
And, there was a lot in this book that I liked and wish would come back ... e.g. getting a villain reveal and then not rehabilitating him into a hero, and not angsting too much over what getting orgasms from a bad guy says about the heroine. And true creepiness, but in a context where it’s believable that only the protagonist and the reader will see it as horror, and working out sensible escape plans that demonstrate the heroine’s confidence that she can survive on her own.
March 8, 2016
In all honesty, I don't remember why I initially rated this 3.5...but in the 10+ intervening years it still stands out as a good read. It also stuck around in my permanent collection despite several purges of lesser specimens, so I'm (belatedly) rounding up. Congrats, Dragonmede. ;P
It's a nicely paced gothic rom/rom suspense hybrid set in Victorian England -- a bit grittier than average, on par with Holt's rapey gothics or un-PC HQN historicals.
It's a nicely paced gothic rom/rom suspense hybrid set in Victorian England -- a bit grittier than average, on par with Holt's rapey gothics or un-PC HQN historicals.
May 21, 2022
This was a really enjoyable spicy & scandalous gothic-mystery-romance. There wasn’t really a supernatural element to the story but there was plenty of creepiness. The story kept my interest until the end & the writing did not seem dated.
September 4, 2011
a good, solid, well written gothic suspense novel...Although it contains the elements that we have come to expect as typical of the genre, (old castle manor complete with gargoyles, an ancient gypsy curse, mysterious murders, crazy lady in the house, etc), if I started out having any allusions to being able to "figure the whole thing out" in the beginning of the book, then I was sorely mistaken. Buy the end, it becomes a virtual "cast of killers" with anyone of them (with the exception of the heroine) a possible suspect. Enjoyable and fast read. I thought of Victoria Holt as I read this one, as it is written in first person, of the mid-Victorian period...but this one had a bit more edginess to it.
August 23, 2017
I had read this book years and years ago and remembered it with fondness. Upon re-reading it, I see all the elements that I enjoy in a Gothic novel. Dragonmede fits the bill for everything that you should find in a novel of this genre. There is the sprawling, overbearing, oppressive mansion and estate chock full of mystique. An inscrutable husband, who, runs hot and cold where his wife is concerned. His relatives who all carry their own secrets, and somehow seem to know something about our heroine that even she doesn't know about herself. An encroaching past that won't let any of the characters progress into their future, but holds them frozen in a horror that the heroine can only guess at. And the only person brave enough to delve into the past and root up the things which everyone wishes to forget but are unable to because some things must simply be dealt with is our heroine.
At the start, I had a bit of difficulty getting into this novel again. I actually found myself wondering precisely what it was that had attracted me to it in the first place all those years ago. However, about a third of the way through, I was hooked fully. The heroine, Eustacia, is endearing, noble, and naive. She possesses a good heart. I found that I understood the impetus of her actions, even when I, a woman many years older than her character, found her decisions childish. If they were, it was simply because she is young.
Eustacia has a whirlwind romance with Julian Kershaw of Dragonmede in the south of England, Sussex to be exact. They marry after one month of courtship and Julian whisks her away to his country seat where she meets his frigid lush of a step-mother, his effeminate step-brother, Christopher, his invalid father who is incapable of speech, his widowed Aunt Dorcas now full-time nurse to her enfeebled brother, and her son, Dr. Nicholas Bligh. Aside from Aunt Dorcas, the reception Eustacia receives at her husband's home can only be described as glacial. Even the servants give her cool glances compounding the lack of unwelcome she senses the moment she steps through the imposing doors of the mansion. Then everything begins to change. The first day of her arrival, she discovers that Julian has a jilted fiancée, Victoria, daughter of the wealthy neighboring landowner, who is rather raw about the whole affair. Then Julian begins to show signs of cruelty and a touch of savagery, as Victoria calls it. Pretty soon, Eustacia is questioning the motives of everyone around her, including those of people she thought she would never question in the whole of her life, such as her mother. Who can she trust? Certainly not her husband? And not her mother? Aunt Dorcas seems friendly, but what secret proclivities is she hiding? Would she like something to happen to Eustacia and Julian, so that her son could have a better chance of inheriting Dragonmede? What about step-mother Miriam? Is she so enamored of her son, Christopher, that she would try to bring an untimely end to the woman who could produce the next heir of Dragonmede? As these questions begin to take shape in Eustacia's mind, a string of events unfolds that casts deeper shadows of suspicions on all those whom she would normally turn to in need and leave her thrust into a darkness that can only be eradicated by shedding the light of truth on it. But is the truth too terrible to face?
I could continue, enumerating how our heroine plods along and finds her way through the labyrinthine mysteries of her newfound life, but I think it would be best that you read the book for yourself. It's a rather short read, fast-paced and thoroughly engaging. I highly recommend this one.
At the start, I had a bit of difficulty getting into this novel again. I actually found myself wondering precisely what it was that had attracted me to it in the first place all those years ago. However, about a third of the way through, I was hooked fully. The heroine, Eustacia, is endearing, noble, and naive. She possesses a good heart. I found that I understood the impetus of her actions, even when I, a woman many years older than her character, found her decisions childish. If they were, it was simply because she is young.
Eustacia has a whirlwind romance with Julian Kershaw of Dragonmede in the south of England, Sussex to be exact. They marry after one month of courtship and Julian whisks her away to his country seat where she meets his frigid lush of a step-mother, his effeminate step-brother, Christopher, his invalid father who is incapable of speech, his widowed Aunt Dorcas now full-time nurse to her enfeebled brother, and her son, Dr. Nicholas Bligh. Aside from Aunt Dorcas, the reception Eustacia receives at her husband's home can only be described as glacial. Even the servants give her cool glances compounding the lack of unwelcome she senses the moment she steps through the imposing doors of the mansion. Then everything begins to change. The first day of her arrival, she discovers that Julian has a jilted fiancée, Victoria, daughter of the wealthy neighboring landowner, who is rather raw about the whole affair. Then Julian begins to show signs of cruelty and a touch of savagery, as Victoria calls it. Pretty soon, Eustacia is questioning the motives of everyone around her, including those of people she thought she would never question in the whole of her life, such as her mother. Who can she trust? Certainly not her husband? And not her mother? Aunt Dorcas seems friendly, but what secret proclivities is she hiding? Would she like something to happen to Eustacia and Julian, so that her son could have a better chance of inheriting Dragonmede? What about step-mother Miriam? Is she so enamored of her son, Christopher, that she would try to bring an untimely end to the woman who could produce the next heir of Dragonmede? As these questions begin to take shape in Eustacia's mind, a string of events unfolds that casts deeper shadows of suspicions on all those whom she would normally turn to in need and leave her thrust into a darkness that can only be eradicated by shedding the light of truth on it. But is the truth too terrible to face?
I could continue, enumerating how our heroine plods along and finds her way through the labyrinthine mysteries of her newfound life, but I think it would be best that you read the book for yourself. It's a rather short read, fast-paced and thoroughly engaging. I highly recommend this one.
February 3, 2023
I read this book after reading everyone s review and i must say that i was not disappointed at all. This book is a boon for lovers of gothic-romance ! Beautiful showcasing of women''s predicament in the Victorian times and a tale full of passion and intrigue which eventually helps to reach true love. Highly recommend this book!
May 30, 2018
3.5 Stars - Some parts are definitely dated but I appreciated the strength and honesty of the main character, Eustacia.
November 6, 2013
" Dawn sliced through the curtains as the ghostly edges of a hoar frost," says Rona Randall in her Gothic mystery ' Dragonmede'. Eustacia Rochdale, the female lead in the story also experiences similar fate. Though she married the man she loved and wanted, it sliced her life as the ghostly edges of hoar frost. When she married Julian Kershaw , little did she know that her yearning for a marital bliss would be a bane of her life.
The story was set in the London of 1800's, when every doors opened for the nobility. It was this privilege which brought Julian Kershaw to Luella's ( Eustacia's mother's )gambling house. A born nonconformist, Luella never wanted her daughter to have a bohemian life which she was indulged in. She gave anything and everything to her daughter which was required for a girl to be a lady. Luella's efforts also did not go in vain as Eustacia grew up with everything needed to be a lady though born to a bohemian mother.
Luella was overtly delighted when Julian, the heir of Dragonmede reached her threshold. Gambling on his passion for cards and his attraction for Eustacia, Luella realised that the time had come for Eustacia to tie the knot. Unaware of her mother's manipulations, Eustacia married Julian and reached Dragonmede, her husband's home which offered her nothing but a house full of mysteries.
Though I am a die hard of Gothic fiction, the story initially failed to lure my interest. As any other mystery fictions, I was expecting a twist at the very outset which was completely absent in the story. The only cue, the writer leaves is that there is some mystery but not easy for the reader to identify it. No murder, stealing, kidnapping, murder attempts, deaths but an all pervading sense of mystery. But when the story progressed, I could feel my pulse raising and closed the book only when I finished reading it. The reader could definitely identify the culprit but only at the very end, with just two or three pages to complete.
I felt a sense of satisfaction after reading 'Dragonmede'. The moment I finished it, I saw four stars shining. Yes, I am giving it 4/5.
The story was set in the London of 1800's, when every doors opened for the nobility. It was this privilege which brought Julian Kershaw to Luella's ( Eustacia's mother's )gambling house. A born nonconformist, Luella never wanted her daughter to have a bohemian life which she was indulged in. She gave anything and everything to her daughter which was required for a girl to be a lady. Luella's efforts also did not go in vain as Eustacia grew up with everything needed to be a lady though born to a bohemian mother.
Luella was overtly delighted when Julian, the heir of Dragonmede reached her threshold. Gambling on his passion for cards and his attraction for Eustacia, Luella realised that the time had come for Eustacia to tie the knot. Unaware of her mother's manipulations, Eustacia married Julian and reached Dragonmede, her husband's home which offered her nothing but a house full of mysteries.
Though I am a die hard of Gothic fiction, the story initially failed to lure my interest. As any other mystery fictions, I was expecting a twist at the very outset which was completely absent in the story. The only cue, the writer leaves is that there is some mystery but not easy for the reader to identify it. No murder, stealing, kidnapping, murder attempts, deaths but an all pervading sense of mystery. But when the story progressed, I could feel my pulse raising and closed the book only when I finished reading it. The reader could definitely identify the culprit but only at the very end, with just two or three pages to complete.
I felt a sense of satisfaction after reading 'Dragonmede'. The moment I finished it, I saw four stars shining. Yes, I am giving it 4/5.
August 5, 2015
Well thought out characters in a house full of monsters. Deceit is everywhere, fear becomes a way of life. Well, maybe for any character not like Eustacia.
Eustacia is brought up by a single mother who earns her living by running a gambling ring in her parlor. With this money she earns with her exceptional "skills" at cards, she gives Eustacia a good education in a finishing school, hopefully giving her a chance to land a good marriage with a respectable lord.
Eustacia falls in love quickly to Julian Kershaw, the heir to Sir Vivian of Dragonmede. She arrows him quickly, not really learning much about her husband. Little does she know what she is getting herself into! Her in-laws are egotistical, and the faces soon show their true colors as time progresses.
I wouldn't call this a romance. It is more like a thriller. I admit, it is not really my cup of tea, so I skimmed around rather quickly. I felt the story was too dry. I doubt I missed much, but the ending was still gruesomely shocking! I'm happy with the end. It made it all worth the time I put into it.
Eustacia is brought up by a single mother who earns her living by running a gambling ring in her parlor. With this money she earns with her exceptional "skills" at cards, she gives Eustacia a good education in a finishing school, hopefully giving her a chance to land a good marriage with a respectable lord.
Eustacia falls in love quickly to Julian Kershaw, the heir to Sir Vivian of Dragonmede. She arrows him quickly, not really learning much about her husband. Little does she know what she is getting herself into! Her in-laws are egotistical, and the faces soon show their true colors as time progresses.
I wouldn't call this a romance. It is more like a thriller. I admit, it is not really my cup of tea, so I skimmed around rather quickly. I felt the story was too dry. I doubt I missed much, but the ending was still gruesomely shocking! I'm happy with the end. It made it all worth the time I put into it.
June 19, 2014
Best of gothic romance! The villain(s) were devious, cruel...and the end villain blew me away! Slow few chapters but once the heroine married the plot thickened, the characters changed faces, not too many mishaps but I loved the novel, eat it in one day! Fans of Victoria Holt would appreciate.
May 29, 2021
I honestly enjoyed this book. The plot kept me coming back and surprised me at how well it kept my attention.
September 10, 2021
a lovely historical gothic that doesn’t overstay its welcome. However please stop saying bucaneer and just call him nick
January 28, 2023
C-. fiction, gothic suspense; garbled story of girl marrying into wealthy family; from stash; discard
June 22, 2024
It was okay, but way too convoluted! The author had quite a gift for storytelling, but she overplayed her hand with this one!
December 22, 2024
I’m giving this one three stars because it’s entertaining, and for nostalgia’s sake - I first read it as a preteen. Not my usual preferred genre but it’s a page turner for sure.
September 4, 2010
When I was a teen, I quite liked this type of gothic romance/mystery.
May 27, 2014
A good gothic novel. Wasn't long enough could have written more about the lead character being in jeopardy.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews