Monday, October 22, 2012

Sommersgate House by Kristen Ashley


At times I thought this could have been my favorite of the National Trust property books, and at times I wanted to know where the plot was. 

The bare bones plot: Julia Fairfax is moving to England, moving to Sommersgate House actually to take care of her nephew and nieces.  Julia’s brother, Gavin, died in a car accident with his wife, Tamsin.  In their will they requested that their children be raised by Gavin’s sister, Julia and Tamsin’s brother, Doughlas in Tamsin’s ancestral home, Sommersgate House. 

So Julia moves to Sommersgate.  She moves into a situation that is wrong, wrong, wrong.  The children are silent, all their time is structured.  They hardly see their uncle or their grandmother who both live with them.  When Julia gets there she immediately makes changes to begin to raise the children how she thinks that Gavin would want them raised and Monique (Douglas’s mother) immediately attempts to undermine her changes.  Douglas, however, makes it abundantly clear that he supports Julia. 

Douglas decides very early on that he wants to make Julia his wife and spends a goodly amount of time trying to convince her of this.  Both Douglas and Julia have hurt in their pasts that need healing.  96% of the story revolves around this situation: raising the children and Douglas trying to convince Julia to marry him and Julia going hot and cold.  3% of the story revolves around the ghostly lovers separated for the past 100 years after their brutal murder.  The last 1% is the action that comes at the very end.  We in fact do not even realize that danger is possible except for Nick the bodyguard.  There are no threats, no bombs, no kidnappings, no nasty phone calls…nothing, just poof danger-in-your-face. 

I like a little more action throughout and because of this I can’t love this book as some of KA’s other books.  I want my hero to save the heroine from multiple dangerous situations.

Favorite Quote:

“And, if the last thing you did was give someone you loved a hug or kiss, it would make dealing with whatever happened just that tiny bit better.”

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