Friday Book Share was created by Shelley Wilson.   Anyone can have a go – all you need to do is answer the following questions based on a book you are currently reading/finished reading this week and use the hashtag #FridayBookShare.  The rules are as follow:

First line of the book.

Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.

Introduce the main character using only three words.

Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).

Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)

Your favorite line/scene.

I’m currently reading The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman – will probably finish it today or tomorrow.

First line:  When I picture the house I see it in the late afternoon, the golden river light filling the windows and gilding the two hundred year old brick.

Recruit fans by adding book blurb:  When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation—of their marriage, their savings, and Jess’s writing career.

They take a caretaker’s job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. While Clare once had dreams of being a writer, those plans fell by the wayside when Jess made a big, splashy literary debut in their twenties. It’s been years, now, since his first novel. The advance has long been spent. Clare’s hope is that the pastoral beauty and nostalgia of the Hudson Valley will offer some inspiration.

But their new life isn’t all quaint town libraries and fragrant apple orchards. There is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Something is just not right. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night, see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is—this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate—it seems to be after Clare next…

Introduce the main character:  Clare is far from my favorite character – I actually don’t care for any of the characters in this book, but am enjoying the mystery.  Clare is kind, weak, and subservient.

Delightful design:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audience appeal:  Fans of psychological suspense with a gothic feel.

Your favorite line/scene:  I pulled the sleeping bag over his chest, stood up, and startled at the sight of my reflection in the glass doors.  Only it wasn’t my reflection.  The figure on the terrace was splattered with blood too, but she was wearing a long dress and a shawl covering her head and shoulders and she clutched a bundle to her chest.  I stood frozen, waiting for the image to dissipate into something else – as it always had before – into a scrap of fog, a trick of moonlight, a shift of shadow.  But it didn’t.  Instead it – she – turned and vanished into the darkness of the lawn.