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Island of Lost Rubies
Eileen had not been back to her island home since childhood, when her baby sister vanished in a storm, her grief-battered mother died, her father took to drink. Now, heartbroken over her father's death and the loss of her great love, she returns to Calayeshi island to claim her inheritance.
Odd things begin to happen the moment she steps off the boat. A strange young visitor asks too many questions about the long-lost family jewels. A familiar old white cat claws her; a hawk shrieks at her; a skeleton is reflected in a mirror. And her handsome step-cousin, Richard, draws her ever more deeply into the life of the island - and into his arms.
Is the planned scavenger hunt more than just a party? And who is the mysterious Anna, whose resemblance to Eileen is so eerie?
Gripped at once by passion and by mystery, Eileen realizes that there is no escape from the Island of the Lost Rubies.
Odd things begin to happen the moment she steps off the boat. A strange young visitor asks too many questions about the long-lost family jewels. A familiar old white cat claws her; a hawk shrieks at her; a skeleton is reflected in a mirror. And her handsome step-cousin, Richard, draws her ever more deeply into the life of the island - and into his arms.
Is the planned scavenger hunt more than just a party? And who is the mysterious Anna, whose resemblance to Eileen is so eerie?
Gripped at once by passion and by mystery, Eileen realizes that there is no escape from the Island of the Lost Rubies.
- GenresGothic
350 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 12, 2013
This book took me forever to read. You know why? It was boring. Really, truly dull.
It finally began to get a little more interesting in the last fifty pages, but by then I didn't care.
Gothics aren't known for lightning speeds of action-paced adventure or anything, but this slowly unwinding thing never had much depth to begin with. There wasn't a huge mystery and most of it was spent on her wanting to redecorate the house and fawning over the local island stud. Every small thing was too dramatic. The writing felt a bit stilted and overdone, not adding to the excitement of the story. Characters were decent enough, I suppose, but I never felt that attraction to her main guy. To me there wasn't anything sweet, exciting, or stimulating about him. If anything, he seemed to lack personality.
The back cover of the book states:
"Now, heartbroken by her father's death and the loss of her great love..."
Stop right here. This isn't accurate. The protagonist makes it clear from the start she's not grief-stricken over her father. She hates he's dead of course but keeps bringing up the fact that they weren't close and that she hadn't seen him in years.
In addition, there was no great love lost. She started getting over him minutes within reaching the island.
The end villain(s) turned out a little obvious. There was a very small cast of suspects to wonder about anyway, and while the reasoning behind it wasn't clear from the start, it was easy to see where the villain would pop up from and why.
Not the best start to my challenge of reading 30 Gothics this year, hopefully the next one is much better.
It finally began to get a little more interesting in the last fifty pages, but by then I didn't care.
Gothics aren't known for lightning speeds of action-paced adventure or anything, but this slowly unwinding thing never had much depth to begin with. There wasn't a huge mystery and most of it was spent on her wanting to redecorate the house and fawning over the local island stud. Every small thing was too dramatic. The writing felt a bit stilted and overdone, not adding to the excitement of the story. Characters were decent enough, I suppose, but I never felt that attraction to her main guy. To me there wasn't anything sweet, exciting, or stimulating about him. If anything, he seemed to lack personality.
The back cover of the book states:
"Now, heartbroken by her father's death and the loss of her great love..."
Stop right here. This isn't accurate. The protagonist makes it clear from the start she's not grief-stricken over her father. She hates he's dead of course but keeps bringing up the fact that they weren't close and that she hadn't seen him in years.
In addition, there was no great love lost. She started getting over him minutes within reaching the island.
The end villain(s) turned out a little obvious. There was a very small cast of suspects to wonder about anyway, and while the reasoning behind it wasn't clear from the start, it was easy to see where the villain would pop up from and why.
Not the best start to my challenge of reading 30 Gothics this year, hopefully the next one is much better.
March 24, 2020
Another middle of the road Zebra Gothic, I think I liked the ideas and setting better than the actual execution of this. There was a dreamy sort of quality to this one, probably due to the massive amounts of self reflection (and well just general reflection) our heroine does throughout the majority of the book...this slowed down the pace and plot considerably which hampered its overall suspense/mystery. I’ve read another of hers and it didn’t have this same sort of reflective/slow quality so I can only assume this was the tone she was trying to set for this one.
There was a good cast of potential friends and foes and a good family mystery, but like I said the tone/pace of the book overall just kind of dampened the effectiveness of it.
That being said the H&h did actually get to have sex in this one...so bonus for that lol
There was a good cast of potential friends and foes and a good family mystery, but like I said the tone/pace of the book overall just kind of dampened the effectiveness of it.
That being said the H&h did actually get to have sex in this one...so bonus for that lol
February 5, 2017
This gothic mystery kept me up late wanting to find out what happened! Also, the villain was not as easy to guess, and I frequently switched between characters who I thought the villain was, which was an aspect I enjoyed about this novel--the fact that the villain was not totally obvious. However, the ending explanation was also wrought with several surprises and definitely worth reading for fans of gothic romance!
November 16, 2008
I didn't care for this one much...I can't exactly remember why now...
October 18, 2015
I absolutely love gothic romances with all of the mystery and the strong female characters. Patricia Werner is an amazing author incorporating an unforgettable story with amazing characters.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews