Kate Lemont’s life begins with memories of her father’s drinking, wasting money, and hitting her mother. But her mother works hard to get her into a good school and then on to college hoping she would one day meet a wealthy man to marry.

Kate’s mother’s wish has come true. Kate meets Matthew Lemont in 1928 while sailing on the RMS Franconia across the Atlantic returning from England. Kate is working as the companion to two young girls. They know who Matthew is and that the Lemont family is quite wealthy. The girls’ aunt Constance tells Kate that while the Lemont family is very wealthy, they are not well received in society because years ago a young woman disappeared from their estate. But Kate is not to be deterred from Matthew and when he invites her to travel in his private railway to her destination point, she accepts. They have a nice dinner on the train but having had too much to drink she thinks she had a nightmare later that night with Matthew standing over her. But could it have been real?

As they spend more time together, Kate sees that Matthew has strange moods. Yet he soon asks her to marry him even though she is not the person she has led him to believe he is. She agrees and they marry immediately. Matthew takes his new wife, Kate, to the family estate, Lakecrest. It is a monstrosity of a mixture of different architectures much of which was bought at different places in Europe and brought to Lakecrest to add onto the existing structure.

Matthew’s mother, Hannah, is a haughty woman who does not approve of Kate, but she soon appears to relent. Matthew’s twin sister, Marjorie, lives there too. She is somewhat wild and likes to be with the fast crowd. Kate soon learns that Matthew’s Aunt Cecily, whom he loved dearly, simply disappeared some years ago and no one knows what happened to her.

When Matthew starts having violent nightmares, Kate is frightened but determined to do what she can to help him. Life at Lakecrest is strictly run by Hannah and Kate soon finds herself to be a near prisoner. An unplanned pregnancy brings her freedom to a halt.

This was an interesting story that has some well-written characters. I enjoyed the plot but became a bit aggravated at Kate for not standing up for herself. But then again, it would not have been a story if she had.

Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was basically Rebecca meets VC Andrews, which sounds a lot better than this book actually was. It kept me reading, and did a decent job of evoking emotion (mostly anger at Hannah), but it all felt too derivative of other works for me to really enjoy it. I also felt like the ending was very, very rushed and didn't wrap things up well. This wasn't a bad book and it was a quick read, but there are definitely better domestic suspense novels out there.

It’s the 1920’s Kate Moore, in a hurry to escape an ugly, poverty filled life, marries in haste to wealthy heir Matthew. The two move to his isolated family estate, Lakecrest. Kate knows very little about her new husband, but his peculiar night terrors, his overpowering mother and his sister, who seems disturbingly close to her brother, makes her believe she may have made a very rash and potentially dangerous decision in marrying Matthew. An enjoyable Gothic sure to warm up a cold night