ABOUT THE BOOK
A lush historical adventure that’s equal parts Gothic horror as it is tale of lost love, this first book in THE GIFT trilogy follows an optimistic yet cautious American ethnologist on her journey from St Dunstan’s Prep in Michigan, to the warm tropical shallows off the coast of Honduras, and the tors of Germany’s Externsteine, uncovering clues to the identity of the man who saved her from the Crimen one fateful night. All clues lead to Folkestone, England where she is reunited with the man she has sought for nearly three decades. But, is their reunion the end, or merely the end of the beginning?
The North Atlantic, 14 April 1912.
Amid the chaos of the sinking Titanic, a young Eleanor Annenberg meets the eyes of a stranger and is immediately captivated. As the ship buckles around them, she follows him down into the hold and finds him leaning over an open sarcophagus, surrounded by mutilated bodies. She catches but a glimpse of what lies within before she’s sucked into a maelstrom of freezing brine and half-devoured corpses.
Elle is pulled out of the water, but the stranger – and the secrets she stumbled upon – are lost. Unintentionally, however, he leaves her a gift; one so compelling that Elle embarks on a journey that pulls her into a world of ancient evils, vicious hunters and human prey to find the man who saved her that fateful night.
From trench warfare at Cape Helles in 1915 to a shipwreck in the tropical shallows off the Honduran coast, from a lost mine beneath the towering Externsteine in a Germany on the verge of war to the gothic crypts of Highgate Cemetery in London, Elle gets closer to a truth she has sought for most of her life. But at what cost? Gifts, after all, are seldom free.
PUBLISHED BY WHITEFOX PUBLISHING
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MY REVIEW
I love reading books that are a little bit different, and that’s definitely what you get with this one! It’s part historical, part gothic horror and full on adventure!! Ooh and it has maps!! Always a big plus with a big sprawling kind of story!
The story starts aboard the Titanic, where Eleanor is captivated by a stranger. What she finds beneath the decks when she follows him down there is the stuff of horror – and the fun and games begin with the author taking the reader on an epic journey across the globe, over many years and you’re always guessing as to what role Eleanor has to play and what she saw that night has in store for her as she moves forward with her life.
She is one of those characters that definitely grows on you as you get to know more about her. She isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers and there’s always that sense that some want her stopped as she may be interfering in things! And this is what sets up the story nicely for the rest of the trilogy to come and I look forward to seeing what adventures the author takes us on next in this raw, mysterious and dark journey!
★★★★
Books and Me! 
Fab review sounds very different! xx
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thanks! xx
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