Title: In the Dark Heart of Winter
Author: Mere Rain
Publisher: JMS Books
Length: 104 Pages
Category: Gothic Fantasy, Paranormal
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: This is one of those books I enjoyed for what it is and yet wished there’d been more to it. I didn’t get the background that would have made this a richer and deeper read, it doesn’t reinvent the Gothic Fantasy/Horror genre, but Mere Rain tells an effective story that deftly manages to be both cozy and creepy at the same time.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Isabeau is having history’s worst honeymoon. Heartbroken when her lover and best friend Margaret married and moved away, she accepted the proposal of a distant cousin, but she regrets this decision even before he insists on taking her to his cold and ruinous ancestral home. Horace does not seem to care about her, either, and soon she begins to wonder about his motives.
Her fears are compounded when strangers arrive seeking refuge from the snow, and her husband’s behavior becomes strangely hostile. Vairya and Ranat seem friendly, but why are they in this isolated region at all? It can’t be coincidence that they come from Persia, where her husband was until recently stationed as a diplomat.
Eventually one visitor confides in Isabeau, but her claims are so wild they cannot be true. Can they? Should she trust her heart, and perhaps her survival, to this stranger who seems to share her forbidden desires?
Review: In the Dark Heart of Winter is a novella that is both sweet and sinister. The beauty of its menace is that while the gothic setting and the supernatural horrors present some fun chills, it’s a loveless marriage that provides for the story’s ominous undercurrent. That women in the era had few choices and fewer liberties is presented when Isabeau lost the woman she’s in love with to her own marriage, while Isabeau herself settles for less-than simply because she had no other options. Horace is as monstrous a villain as those who protect him, and Isabeau is a victim of the setting rather than the director of own life.
When a trio of strangers are introduced by way of needing shelter is when Isabeau begins to interrogate her position in ways other than what she has been taught to believe by society and the religious dogma made sacrosanct as a means of keeping her, and society as a whole, fearful and obedient. She finds unexpected allies as well as a woman in Ranat who is attractive in more than just her outward appearance. Ranat is fierce and independent, and it’s not long before Isabeau discovers a deeper well of her own courage and strength that presented itself as the preternatural horror rises.
This is one of those books I enjoyed for what it is and yet wished there’d been more to it. I didn’t get the background that would have made this a richer and deeper read, it doesn’t reinvent the Gothic Fantasy/Horror genre, but Mere Rain tells an effective story that deftly manages to be both cozy and creepy at the same time.
You can buy In the Dark Heart of Winter here:
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