Come to Castlemoor

by Jennifer Wilde

A woman is caught up in a world of ancient rituals and human sacrifice in this enthralling, suspenseful Gothic romance by New York Times–bestselling author Jennifer Wilde When Katherine Hunt receives word that her archaeologist brother has died, his battered body found on the moors, she leaves London immediately for the remote village of Darkmead. There she vows to carry on his life’s a comprehensive history of the primitive rites of the ancient Celts. But soon she discovers that her brother’s half-completed manuscript is gone. Rumors swirl around the village and among the inhabitants of the magnificent ancestral estate called seductive Burton Rodd, who runs the local pottery factory and warns Katherine to leave; beautiful, unbalanced Nicola; and Edward Clark, Rodd’s charismatic cousin. The discovery of a strange amulet sweeps Katherine into a secret circle where chilling blood rituals are carried out under cover of night. Amid whispers of a secret Druid cult, violence claims more and more innocent lives. As Katherine begins to uncover the unspeakable truth, she grows desperate to find someone she can trust . . . before she becomes the next sacrifice.

Genres: Gothic, Horror, Historical Fiction, Gothic Romance, Historical Romance, Romance

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Jennifer Wilde is a pseudonym of T. E. Huff (Thomas Elmer Huff). He also wrote under the names Edwina Marlow and Beatrice Parker.

Reviews

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

“If you carry on this way, no man will have you!” she exclaimed. “I’ll take that risk,” I replied calmly. “Impudent! Always were! You go running off to those moors like this, and you’ll regret it, mark my word! It isn’t decent. Reading about those filthy pagans with their stone circles! I couldn’t hold my head up in public when my own nephew published a book about them—” “I see you read it,” I said.

Even though this was very well written as are all of T.E. Huff's Gothics, I had to skip through the last half of the book. I just could not stand the character meant to be Kathy's "surprise" love interest. What a pig! He was over the top controlling and chauvinistic, but worse, Kathy, who was intelligent, strong, and ahead of her time in other ways, was a limp dishrag around him. Totally under his power. This is another book that I strongly suspect was written tongue in cheek. No gothic cliche is left by the wayside. Choosing to read it that way, and also due to a happy twist at the end, I am rounding up to 3 stars. Not sure I'd really recommend it though. I much prefer his contemporary Romantic suspense.

https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....

[Mermarie]

This one is next in line to be read for me. I've been dying to delve into Tom Huff's(AKA Jennifer Wilde) gothic novels. I'm curious to see if it has bodice rippery, as the novels he wrote under Jennifer Wilde are.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Castlemoor was settled in a small village of Darkmead where Katherine's brother Donald mysteriously died, while pursuing his studies of the ancient Druids. Katherine Hunt decided to travel to Castlemoor to dwell, and continue writing his brother's book about pagans and rites when Burton Rodd told her to leave the place and never come back.

A stubborn Katherine remained, and pursued the research until she encountered a phantom at night, and a dead body by the river. Is Burton still want her to leave the mansion? Or going to help her, now that she became the target as a sacrifice by the sadistic cult.

[Grace Peck · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I HATE these new edition covers of older books from the 70s, 80s,90s, etc, BRING BACK OIL PAINTINGS YOU COWARDS. I’m obsessed with the cover of this as well as other Gothics I see constantly.

I was curious to try “Jennifer Wild as Beatrice Parker” gothics novels, and I was curious if they were bodice rippers like the Marietta trilogy. I actually really liked this, it was a sort of classic gothic with a spooky setting, the English moors. I’ve been romanticizing English moors every since I read withering heights in high school so I’m always down for a spooky story taking place there.

There are of course things that haven’t “aged well” and some problematic (I hate that word but I think it fits here) ideologies that always appear in Wilde’s books, particularly with how the men treat women and other things- for example in this book, I feel like it’s not great how the Celtic history is explained? I don’t think the intention was to say all Celtic tribes participated in violent ritualistic sacrifices, but that’s how it came off. I don’t know anything about the Celts, so I’ll just leave it there, but still.

Also idk what information was available in 1970 when this was written, but it always bugs me when Wilde describes the clothes and hair in his books, as they are in general not accurate- women did not wear their hair down back in the day, etc. there’s other inaccuracies as well that my annoying history buff brain also picks at (like there’s supposed to be an Ouiji board in the castle, and those aren’t invented until the end of the Victorian era, and not popular until like WW1?)

There’s a few plot things as well- I thought the ending wrapped up WAY too quickly, and we don’t see a lot of development between the hero and Kathy. I didn’t really care about the romance. Although we do get a great “girl with a lantern walking through a spooky castle” moment at the end, but still.

SPOILERS
How did burton NOT realize there was a man being held captive in his basement??? Also would have liked to see more development between burton and Kathy.

[Montana Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!

It's been a while since reading a real mystery. This one took my breath away sometimes. I was not able to figure out the antagonist for the longest time. I sirt of figured out , after a while Rodds part but Edward truly surprised me. WOW!

[Kaytrina Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Read

I have always adored Jennifer Wilde novels. This one is a bit different from the Marrietta trilogies, but worth the read.

[Ericka · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you have ever read before one of tom huff/beatrice parker books, you kinda know how its going to end and even so it was so good, nice plot, i really enjoy gothic-suspence, my kind of book!