A Shade Darker by Laura K Curtis ( Contemporary Gothic, rom elements m/f) A live-in tutor, a haunted child in an isolated house in Maine. (CW: bigotry/use of slurs against Romani MC & Native Am. character, past trauma: loss of parents (cancer, suicide, accident), violence).

4.5 stars...

I'm not a fan of this cover at all but I've gotten better at not judging a book too harshly by its cover before I even pick it up. I still have my moments though and will pass some books by especially if the story doesn't sound good 'AND' the cover doesn't appeal to me. Luckily, the summary of this contemporary gothic haunting was enticing enough for me to overlook the cover art or I would have missed out on a great story. This one has all the right tropes: a live-in governess; a secluded house in Maine; below freezing temperatures with lots of snow; an evil ghost; a widowed, money hungry friend/aunt and two grieving children - one mute and one rebellious.

If any of those elements call to you, then you'll definitely want to check this one out. I thought the haunting was done really well and there's enough suspense to keep you glued to the pages from start to finish.

The only reason I deducted a half of star is because the governess's crush could have been developed a little more. It came about way too fast. There wasn't really any insinuation of feelings until the last few pages which gave me that feeling that it was used as more of a quick plot device then an actual true crush that came to fruition naturally.

Other then that, this contemporary gothic haunting hit all of the right notes and I enjoyed it as much, if not more, then some of the old classic gothic stories.

A Darker Shade is a well written book on so many levels. The characters are well developed, even if one or two of them are a bit of a pain in the arse. The plot and storyline has enough suspense to make it engaging and it has an eerie atmosphere from time to time. It was also really neat that the book also added context for some of the history, such as the poor treatment of Native Americans, especially the children, in the early 1900's. The book also has some gothic horror elements, such as a somewhat isolated house.

The only bad thing is that I felt the ending was perhaps a bit rushed, but that's a small detail.

Molly Allworth is looking for work and hoping he agency gets her one. Molly is offered a job in Maine where she will be an au pair and tutor to two girls. One is fourteen year old Hailey and the other is 12 year old Liza. Molly will be living with the family which is something she hasn’t done. However the pay is so good that she takes it as she can help her younger sister go to med school and become a doctor. There is a bonus for her if she can get Molly to talk again. Liz’s mom has been dead for two years. Hailey and her mother Jennifer are living there to help Liza. Jennifer’s husband has died who was Liza’s father’s brother. As Molly settles, she has some unusual experiences. She is pushed into a pond by who? No one was near her. As time passes, she believes that there may be a ghost haunting the house. Nathaniel, Liza’s dad doesn’t believe in ghosts. However, when he sees Molly floating an inch above the ground, he reconsiders. Liza thought the ghost was her mother but realizes it isn’t her. What will Nathaniel do? Will Molly be able to discover who the ghost is or Nathaniel?

The novel is a suspenseful mystery that has a ghost in it. It gives a bit of horror due to what the ghost does. It was interesting for me to see how Molly dwelt with Liza and her family besides the ghost. In someways, it became an unnerving ghost story for me.

4.5 stars

What a great story! A gothic romance with a bit more of the creepiness than some of the ones I grew up with. This story had great main characters, annoying supporting characters (lol!) and plenty of atmosphere and freakiness. I loved it! This was an ARC so there are still some minor editing issues, but nothing that took away from my enjoyment of the book. I also liked the inclusion of the local history, especially about the poor treatment of the Native Americans (particularly the children) in the early 20th century. The only minor complaint was that the story seemed to end abruptly, although it was definitely a good ending! But another paragraph or two would have been nice.

Special thanks to #LauraKCurtis, #NetGalley, and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An amazing gothic tale that will give you the perfect spooky vibes for this Halloween and winter season. A must for everyone that enjoys a good ghost story.

A tale of ghosts, families and love. When a young tutor agrees to take care of two little girls in an isolated mansion for winter she hopes to be able to work there for a year to save up for her and her sister's studies.

However when she arrives, she finds Liza, a little girl that shortly after her mother's death, stopped talking. We will uncover the familiy secrets and get a history lesson in this really interesting, fast paced beautiful ghost story.

It will give you Crimson Peak and Mama vibes.

So this book reminds me of Turn of the key. I enjoyed that book so of course I enjoyed this one too! It's creepy, fast paced, and leaves you wanting more.

Laura K. Curtis knows how to deliver a story with nearly everything I want. Okay, A Darker Shade didn't have any cats, but it did have a dog named Rocky! There's family dysfunction like you would see on a soap opera; there's a troubled young girl who has to live with people not believing her turmoil; there are ghosts; and yes, some racism thrown into the blender of what Curtis has created as a perfect spooky cocktail of reading.

A Darker Shade centers around this young girl, Liza Prescott who hasn't spoken in years. Her new live-in nanny/tutor Molly is not only in charge of the girl's education and that of her older teen cousin, but she's also expected to convince Liza that what she sees and hears (the ghosts) are not real. Gaslighting much? Indeed. The adults in Liza's life want her to be normal or to fake being normal. They don't seem to care until Molly gets to know Liza's father Nathaniel a bit better.

It's important for readers to understand that Liza doesn't verbally communicate by her own choice. She's not on the autism spectrum -- at least it's not mentioned that she is. She simply reached the end of her patience trying to talk to anyone of any age because no one wanted to hear what she had to say about seeing her mother's ghost. Molly gets along so well with Liza and believes the girl right away. Spirits are part of the world whether others acknowledge this or not.

Liza is at the age of pubescence where young women in particular, are seeing doctors for issues and not believed in our real world. If medical professionals aren't going to believe someone young could be in pain or depressed, why on earth would they even consider that the patient is being truthful when she says she's been talking to ghosts since her mother died? Again, Liza's mute condition is a reflection of today's women being told that they have nothing to add to conversations or debates and are better off being silent and looking pretty.

The protagonist, Molly Allworth, makes her Romani heritage known to readers fairly early on in the book. Curtis handled this with precision and care as far as I could tell. Molly's first person point of view gives readers the opportunities to know her memories and her emotions on the subject of her ethnicity. She comes from a line of people who believe in the supernatural. Her own mother who plays a strong role in the story even though she's been dead from the beginning, raised her daughters in the Catholic Church until she found it lacking in her spiritual needs. Molly faces typical verbal attacks by her new employers regarding her lineage as if they want the myths to be true. Molly fiercely defends herself with all the professionalism she can muster. Her confidence and self control at not lashing out at people who insult her are quite honestly admirable.

Liza's cousin Hailey and Aunt Jenn are constant obstacles. There could be room to explore who Hailey's father really is, but Curtis leaves that out allowing readers to wonder. Was there a past affair fourteen years earlier between Jenn and Nathaniel? Is that why Jenn is so adamant about Nathaniel's personal life? It's hard to say and merely speculative. Without spoiling the story, who Nathaniel attracts intimately comes up more and more in the second half of the book.

There's one more character at play. Matt, Jenn's brother, comes to stay at this giant creepy house in the remote landscape of Maine with the family. Matt is a city attorney, but he seems to take the solitude of the house with ease since all of them had grown up together and spent a lot of time there. As young boys, they even had campouts inside the small family cemetery locating on the outskirts of the property. Matt and Molly have palpable chemistry that exudes from the pages.

Pacing of the overall story and each character arc felt natural and fluid. Right around the midpoint, a huge achievement is unlocked for Molly and Liza. By three-quarters of the way through, Nathaniel has a reversal of his mindset and opinions. The final act gives both Molly and Liza the opportunity to harness their courageous willpower and take aggressive action to make the solution happen rather than the solution falling into their laps. There's a final twist that seals up the ending with great satisfaction.

What can also be truly loved about A Darker Shade is how poetic and graceful words were pieced together describing things that are traumatic and scary. Not only does the title, A Darker Shade, refer to the apparitions appearing to Molly and Liza which have moments of getting darker with thick black tendrils capable of reaching out, but the name also refers to the racism at play in the background. Molly likely has darker skin compared to her employers (Liza is described as pale and withering away); there's also some genealogy research which uncovers some darker skinned relatives connected to the house known as Rook's Rest.
For example:
Denuded trees clustered thickly enough to block the weak light. In full leaf, they would create a green darkness; now they whispered hoarsely among themselves of the coming winter.

As far as content notes: A Darker Shade does include a storyline of suicide. Curtis uses Molly's voice to make sense of the issue.

"That's... not how suicide works. When people get to the point where they are so sad they can't see any way to make things better except by dying, the people they leave behind have faded from their minds. The only thing in a suicidal person's life is intolerable pain; they can't feel the love others have for them any longer."

Whether or not that sentiment reflects the readers' personal experiences with the subject matter or not, it's handled rather well and better than most.

Curtis also brilliantly handles a secondary story about the indigenous people of North America. There was -- and sadly this still does happen -- a belief that white people can steal Native American child through the guise of adoption and boarding schools because "they'd be better off." If this subject matter interests you to read a personal memoir, get a copy of Colleen Cardinal's book, Raised Somewhere Else, which I reviewed. Stealing indigenous children in Canada was as its peak in the 1960s. In the United States, there's a law called the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 which is supposed to provide oversight so that indigenous children can be adopted by other people of their culture before being adopted to anyone outside their culture.

This adoption process, also called an extraction, plays a role in the haunting of the creepy giant house, Rook's Rest and of the individual, Liza Prescott. Curtis clearly made herself familiar with the topic and handled it with care just as she did with the Romani cultural attributions.

Summary:
The characters of A Darker Shade have tremendous amounts of trauma in their lives -- that goes for the dead characters too. Laura K. Curtis clearly worked hard to handle sensitive issues with care and a full heart. Romance, something Curtis is known for in the writing world, is a background element and included just enough to see how people are capable of manipulating each other or shutting others out. It's scary without being grotesque. It's filled with feminism, both successful forms and off-the-mark flawed ones, making the characters truly lifelike and believable.

Rating: 5 stars

Molly Allworth, who has been working and struggling since her mother died to support her sister and herself, gets an offer from a care agency that she can’t refuse. She is to tutor a young girl in an isolated house in Maine who has suddenly stopped speaking after insisting that she was in contact with her mother, who is also dead..

Strange and unsettling things begin happening in the house, but there’s a huge incentive for Molly to last there in her position for a year, and to get the girl talking again.

My first impression actually wasn’t great in this one, but I soon got into it and was hooked.

I loved the isolated Maine atmosphere. The brutal approaching winter also added a good sense of suspense and foreboding.

The protagonist, Molly, was really likable and I was invested and rooting for her pretty quickly.

The other characters were well done too. In short reads like this I appreciate an author’s ability to introduce characters, quickly establish an impression and leave enough room for you to use your own imagination a little. That also goes for description in general.

The creepy parts landed pretty well for me. I definitely felt like I was getting my creepy story fix.

Overall, this was a fun, quick, and creepy read that I would definitely recommend.

I started this book and was hooked from the first chapter. Usually, new to me writers take a chapter or two for me to get into the story but I was happy that this was not the case.

Molly is working so that her sister, and herself, can have a better life after the death of her mother. When she is given an assignment to tutor and take care of a non-speaking child with a good paycheck, she leaps at the chance. The only thing is that she has to stay for the entire time and there is a bonus check involved if the student starts to talk.

I liked Molly, she was really fleshed out. I did have issues with the rest of the cast of people, especially Thane, the father of the child she was hired to take care of.

This book is not scary at all, but the paranormal aspects were written well and I enjoyed the actual haunting part of the story very much.

I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars...

I actually really liked this book. I was engrossed from the beginning, and I really wanted to know what happened next. It was a mystery, a ghost story, a gothic romance.

However, the ending felt really rushed. The story built and built and then all off a sudden everything was resolved and it was over. The other thing I didn't like was that the dialogue of the daughter. She's 11 and uses words like conduit? Really? She was too mature for her age and it didn't ring true to me at times.

However, again, I really was drawn in to the story and needed to keep reading.

Thank you to the publisher and #netgalley for an advance copy.