Title: A Haunting in Trillium Falls
Author: Mary Vine
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Romance
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 3 stars
Review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley.
Taylor Glenn makes a deal on a haunted mansion in the town where she accepts her first teaching job. Her naïve optimism assures her that her depressed grandfather will come to life and help her rebuild it with the passion he once possessed for restoring old homes. Three deaths are connected to the tower room and no local workman will set foot inside except for the former owner, successful real estate developer, Dillon Nash. She wonders if this captivating man is the salvation she needs or an even greater threat to her survival when mysterious events happen in the house.
The plot of A Haunting in Trillium Falls wasn’t all that original, and the characters and writing fell a little flat. The title is a bit misleading, so if you’re going on expecting a ghost story or a horror novel, then you’ll be dissapointed. Instead, the reader is offered a mystery of sorts that borders on a little scary sometimes, but mostly sticks firm within the mystery genre. While I do think this could’ve been better emphasized in the synopsis, I didn’t mind that much.
Taylor, our main character, has just bought a supposed haunted mansion in town. She lives there with her grandfather, whose health is declining and occassionally goes through periods of depression. Her grandfather used to renovate houses, so she hopes he’ll rejoice in having to renovate this place, but nothing like that happens. Luckily she gets help of dashing Dillon Nash, a successful real estate developer who poses as a handyman to get closer to Taylor. Because of his success, women have been falling head over heels for him, and this time around he doesn’t want a woman who’s in it for the money. Hiding his true identity, he tries to help Taylor and her grandpa however he can.
After a while, eerie things start to happen in the house, and somehow these events seem connected to the locked-off tower room. Taylor begins to suspect the house is haunted, and someone wants them out of there. However, the answer may not be as simple as a random haunting.
Taylor was an okay character. I liked how she didn’t just fall for Dillon, even though he was charminbg and good-looking. What she did for her grandpa was very admirable, and the relationship between the two of them was what really made this book intriguing for me. It doesn’t happen often that we get to see these kind of family relationships in books, and it’s really well done here. Grandpa is grumpy sometimes, and he sure can nag, but in the end he wants what is best for his granddaughter, even if that means hiding how sick he feels, or telling her to move on with her life.
Dillon was all right. I didn’t like him posing as someone he wasn’t, or his obsession with people wanting him for his money, but apart from that he was an okay guy. A little too alpha for my tastes, especially when he told Taylor not to climb the ladder and then got mad. Not a smooth move, that one.
Either way, I liked the book, even though it was a clear-cut mystery to solve, and the romance was a little tame. That was actually a bonus, because the main characters definitely took the time to get to know each other before they dived into a relationship. It was an okay read, but nothing spectacular.
[…] A Haunting in Trillium Falls by Mary Vine […]