Dear Readers,
With the upcoming release of The Governess of Greyveil Manor on July 31 (which is officially available for pre-order right now!), my mind has been wandering back to the dark corridors, brooding heroes, and atmospheric mysteries that first made me fall in love with the Gothic genre.
The truth is, I have been living in these shadowy worlds since I was a teenager. In fact, when I was seventeen, I was so deeply engrossed in Victoria Holt’s classic Mistress of Mellyn that I completely missed my bus stop! I was so utterly enchanted by that book that my very first attempt at a novel—written that same year—was essentially a piece of enthusiastic fan-fiction.
Unfortunately, I was also at that intensely dramatic age where I mistakenly believed a true romance required a devastating tragedy. On a sudden whim, I decided to drown my poor heroine on the final page before shipping the manuscript off to romance publishers back in 1982. For months, I couldn’t understand why the rejection slips kept piling up. Finally, one incredibly kind editor wrote back to throw me a lifeline. She gently explained that romance readers expect a Happy Ever After—and that a drowned heroine on the last page simply wasn't going to cut it! I promise you, I learned my lesson well; the ladies in my London Ladies of Peril series are guaranteed a much better fate.
As the years went on, my obsession only grew. I discovered Ann Radcliffe and found myself completely unable to put down The Mysteries of Udolpho. For an author writing all the way back in the late eighteenth century, her narrative technique was absolutely groundbreaking. I still find myself weaving subtle references to her incredible storylines into my own books today.
Of course, you cannot appreciate the dark thrills of the Gothic without enjoying a brilliant laugh at its expense. Jane Austen’s magnificent parody, Northanger Abbey, is utterly riveting and hilarious. I absolutely adore the 2007 movie adaptation starring Felicity Jones and JJ Feild—they captured the wit, the charm, and the gothic daydreams so perfectly!
During my university days, Jane Eyre became a seminal text for me, and by my early twenties, Anya Seton’s Dragonwyck blew my mind. For a long time, everything Anya Seton wrote was an absolute "auto-buy" for me, and echoes of her rich, vivid style still linger in my own prose. Then came Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White—a book so seminal to my imagination that I actually went out and hand-made myself a gown just to look like the mysterious woman in white!
But if I had to pinpoint one book that heavily influenced the winding, scandalous storylines of my current Gothic romantic mysteries, it would be Mary Elizabeth Braddon's sensational Victorian classic, Lady Audley’s Secret. The tension, the secrets, the subversion of the innocent woman—it is pure narrative perfection.
All of these masterpieces have left their thumbprints on my soul, and they are the reason The Governess of Greyveil Manor exists today. If you love locked wings, strict curfews, clever courtesans playing high-stakes games of chess, and a dark romance with a proper happy ending (no drowning, I promise!), you can secure your copy today.
Pre-Order The Governess of Greyveil Manor Here!
What about you, dear readers? What was the first Gothic romance that kept you turning pages long into the night?