The Swirling Mists of Cornwall

by Patricia Werner

'Whatever you do, my girl, don't go to Rhyweth,' he begged.

Just before his untimely and mysterious death, Rhionna Fowley's father warned her never to return to his ancestral home in Cornwall. Yet she was drawn to the rocky, mist-enshrouded land of her forebears, and so eager to leave New York that she put his strange words aside. But as her ship foundered off the rugged Cornish coast, she wondered if her journey would indeed be cursed. Shipwrecked and delirious, Rhionna found herself in a castle high above the roiling sea, and in thrall to the handsome, beguiling Lord Geoffrey Rhyweth. But as her strength returned, her suspicions grew. Why did Lord Rhyweth prowl the castle each evening - what haunted him so that he found no solace in the peace of night? Why did the villagers speak of him in fearful whispers? And why were young women disappearing from the village? Would she be next? As Rhionna's terror mounted, she knew she had to flee. For soon it would be too late to escape.

Genres: Gothic, Gothic Romance

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

Reviews

[Mermarie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yes, my friends.

I consider this little dung-heap excavated treasure as the Unwiped Ass of Gothic litter-ature. I know, I know, I rarely have anything nice to say, even when there's nicety to be said, but this one really, really deserves my unrelenting pissyassness; I PRUMIS this time!

JK, stay suspended on the redeeming hopeful review qualities, forever, bandersnatches.



I have never had the privilege of undertaking an author before, with such an ineptitude to create suspense = deliver in climax. On every single buildup. I kept waiting and waiting, on every turn; the heroine's moorland escapades; villains making easy pluckings out of village lasses; but the Tiny fuckin' Tim of can't-helps-it busted in to whittle the promising eyes of mine, with his knobby little cane poker, and left me skimming off to other chapters, only to secure my place under the ole weight of lolterature disappointments. Who in the Sam hell could’ve made a Cornwall themed GOTHIC uneventful? You’ve already set the atmosphere and mystery! Wtf.. (whispers to self 105 times)

The Scooby Doo franchise has law-abiding royalties to the culmination of this outhouse wallpaper. And sadly, the Sears catalog may have proven more entertaining, as well. Damn you, Cornwall coast + Moors + Vampire suspicions for placing so much faith in your Gothic tropes.

I was originally expecting something more like this:



But, oh, how utterly naive my dreams manifest themselves to, when uninhibited by a few caustic bitches in my life, to shake me outta those tinsel-twat days. Instead, what I got was this:

Type 2 Diabetes from this saccharine-saturated vampire cliche of shitshowing. Everyone was like Count Chocula of overloaded corn syrup proportions. One bite and you're instantly cursed with diabetes.

The most climactic moment, or one that held promise, was the heroine spying the secondary hero's boner, over a serving girl's innocent ways. I immediately thought: YES, FINALLY!!!!!!!!! EUREKA!!!! IT'S HAPPENING NOW, YA'LL!!! She's gonna be the hero's boner donor! HAHAH.



But it simply fish-tailed off into a dead-end(no pun), without remarks on the incident, further insight, or glorification of some dark deed unnoticed or not held to account for. Wtf? You gonna show me the promise and not deliver???



Allright, the fun-time is fucking over. No more second chances, or third or dumploads. Here's to this crew of impotent boner donors!


Villain 101 Citation: And I would have been well-off with everything, if SHE hadn't came here!

Potential new title: Swirling Flatulence of Cornhole

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this but was also quite disappointed with it, I feel like too much time was spent on the mystery and less on the romance which was annoying especially given that I ended up really liking Geoffrey, and I liked their build up even though it took a while. I was even satisfied with the romance enough through the book but the ending of it was disappointing, there wasn't even a confession of any sorts between the two, and I was obviously waiting for that, like we didn't even get to know what Geoffrey actually feels for the heroine, we can only assume. I also think the author gave many mysteries to Geoffrey in order to cast suspicion on him and then never explained any of the bizarre behaviour to us, I was waiting for a tell all confession scene between the two of them where they confess their love and we find out more about his secrecy but that did not come. The heroine says she sees such a dark and tormented soul in him but why we never find out, we even find out he had a first wife that died and Geoffrey makes a remark that implies he did not like his wife and yet we never heard anything more of this, why didn't he like his wife? it just sets up all these suspicious for him and never explains anything. Even after they make love and spend the night together, the next scene just cuts to her back home, we don't get any aftermath to the scene, it leaves us hanging. I don't know if the author assumed that none of these mattered because he wasn't guilty but I actually think it's the opposite, it mattered more, since he was in fact not a vampire lol then what was with all his strange behaviour? what happened with his first wife? how does he truly feel about the heroine? we are left in the dark by all this, there was far too much time spent on her descriptions of activities and then a lot spent on the mystery aspect so it took away from the coming together of the hero and heroine. I just wanted more, more of an ending, and more conversions between them about their feelings. I'm actually getting even more disappointed as I'm writing this maybe I should change it to a 3 lol.

[Ali K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? We’ve got some work to do now.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have absolutely no idea what goodreads has this book only as "1 page". It actually has 304 pages. I'm stopping at page 48 because I'm bored with the narrative, and despite the lure of the mystery and the Gothic novel nature, I'm not compelled to read further.