The Lost Duchess of Greyden Castle

by Nina Coombs Pykare

A year after his wife's violent, mystery-shrouded death, Richard, Duke of Greyden, proposes to her sister, Vanessa, who had dreamed for years of being his wife, but Vanessa's dreams soon turn into nightmares

Genres: Gothic, Romance, Historical Romance

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

About the author

Nina Pykare
aka
Ann Coombs, Nina Coombs, Nan Pemberton, Nina Porter, Nora Powers, Regina Towers

Nina Coombs Pykare has published 54 novels in the romance, Regency, inspiration, historical, contemporary, gothic, and mystery fields under a variety of pseudonyms.
Nina has sold hundreds of short stories and articles, as well as puzzles and poems for children of all ages. Some of the latter were written for her four sons and daughter, and now for four grandsons, five granddaughters, and one great-granddaughter. Nina taught a novel writing class for Writer's Digest from 1988 to 2006 and has also taught classes at nearby schools and the YWCA. She was married for 20 years, has been divorced longer than that, and still believes love is the most important thing in the world.

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, rounded up for Mercury the horse. (Ok, he’s not a dog, but he does sniff out the heroine on a dark beach full of quicksand. So I’m granting Mercury honorary Canine Bonus status. 😂)

Mercury aside, this was sadly lackluster after a strong beginning. Dammit. I hate when gothics fizzle, but the truth must be stated: this became a sappy, soggy cheesefest after the first quarter. The plot went nowhere, the twee “love heals all” preachiness spiked off the charts, & Vanessa de-evolved from a practical, well-educated, tall-but-attractive heroine into a clingy blow-up doll with no thoughts in her head but caring for children & sex with her husband who she loves, loves, looooooves, & loves yet more, zomg!!! Heart eyes cat emoji!!! Balloons & valentines & chocolates, oh my!!!

….Yawn. 🥱

Extra mediocrity points are awarded for Rosamund’s vague “illness” that had convenient symptoms to fit every plot hole (poor Rosamund really got the shaft) & a hero that was never around except to have fantastic off-page sex with Vanessa & mansplain why he couldn’t feel any feels for his dead wife’s bastard daughter who clearly wasn’t actually a bastard.** In plain English: it was a poorly executed gothic fail horn. The best (human) characters were gently whackadoodle Rosamund in her hideous orange gown & Penrose the Byron devotee who skulked around drafting awful poetry in honor of his hero. Penrose was the equivalent of that goth kid in every high school English class, a Marilyn Manson superfan with dyed hair, black nails, & spiked collar. 🤭

As for the remainder…humbug.


**Caroline lied to everyone 24/7, yet inexplicably told her much-hated husband the truth during a fight by suddenly revealing the kid wasn’t his…? And he believed her because…? What a moron.

[Abby Pechin · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT! Any fan of Gothic Romance Suspense drama will LOVE this novel! I kept reading and did not put it down even once! However, as a fan of the genre, the villain was obvious, as usual, to me. This book really kept me reading it to find out the results at the end! I would highly recommend it.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would really rate this a 3.5, I did like it but it was probably my least favourite I have read so far of the 80s/90s Zebra gothics. There was just too many things that annoyed me, I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing, some things about her writing style I liked, others not such much. Such as the constant repeating of inner thoughts, I don't mind when something is repeated once or even twice, but when it gets to the forth or fifth time it gets tedious. Like how many times must we hear that she wants to fix things between Richard and Sarah? how many times must we hear how deeply she loves her husband? which normally I wouldn't mind hearing how much the heroine loves the hero but considering the fact she also kept thinking of another man's kiss throughout the whole book really just put a damper on that, which brings to that, how many times do I need to hear about her remembering the kiss with Roland??? literally probably about 7 or 8 times this was mentioned, which is funny given how deeply she is meant to love her husband as we are reminded so often. Also we know in these books obviously the heroine is going to believe some misleading lies that implicates the hero, but in this it was so stupid because the one responsible was so obvious from the very start, there was never even a question in my mind who else was behind it, and yet she keeps believing what this person says about her husband, very annoying. There also wasn't much passion in the romance, all there was was "I love you" and that's it, no poetic descriptions of how much they love each other which is what I like in these books, despite this it was still the love between her and Richard that made me like it, it was a quiet love but it was there, ever since they first met when she was 13 and vowed never to marry anyone else.

All in all this is still decent and I still liked it but so far my least favourite in the series. I'm currently reading them all, so far The Seven Sapphires of Mardi Gras and The Dark Opals of Harrow Island have been my favourites.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I think there should be accolades for the portrayal of gloom and gothic ambience within the novel, there were some things I couldn't understand. Human relations were too complicated on the personal and social level in my opinion. For example, there were atleast 3 female characters who as mothers hated the children born to them while it was only the heroine who had motherly feelings??? Why was this aristocratic royal family talking and behaving with no manners/etiquette? When one sister proved to be such an abominable slut, why did the Hero come back to marry her sister???somehow the characters their feelings/behavior and the story itself wasn't matching up very well to me. However, it was still an enjoyable read.

[s · Rating 3 out of 5]

i gave this book three stars because it was the first gothic romance novel i read when i was fourteen. i remember my mom gave it to me as a christmas gift. i loved the book and i started reading more of them, so i was charmed at the idea of re-reading it.

the real rating i would give this book would probably be two stars. the main character is kind of annoying, and if i have to read that she loves her husband one more time...i mean, i'm not sure WHY, he was kind of an ass but okay!

the resolution of this story happens way too fast ("I love my daughter now suddenly!") and it's amazing to me that Vanessa buys all the times Roland "just happens" to mention "oh my brother is evil >>" and doesn't notice how coincidental it is when he does it or how IT'S OBVIOUSLY HIM TRYING TO MAKE YOU THINK YOUR HUSBAND IS EVIL. which she does and then feels bad about. approximately sixteen times :|

what i did like about this book was how the protagonist showed a lot of intelligence and agency in confronting a supernatural horror -- she wanted to find out what was *really* going on. and despite the picture of the woman running away on the cover, Vanessa doesn't really do that. I liked how she logically figured out the quicksand and, coincidentally, I like how she had a temper.

most of the other characters were very one-dimensional and there were some things that didn't make sense (why exactly did Rosamund need someone around during the full moon? sadly she was not a werewolf), and the ending was very rushed and i wanted to know what happened with the dowager and Miss Varish.

it was an enjoyable re-read for a snow day, but i think a pretty tame tale overall. Still, the nostalgia factor made it enjoyable.

[Steen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was alright. A easy read. Some of the characters were interesting and dark. I wish I could have cared about some of them more then I did. The ending was semi dissappointing since it was over so quickly and I basically figured it out before hand.