***This book was reviewed via XPresso Blog Tours

For as long as Lucinda Hightower can remember, she has been privy to odd occurrences, seeing death omens with increasing frequency. But these omens usually signify, well, death, and everyone Lucinda knows is fine. Things really intensify once she moves to Ireland and meets Damien Reed, though she had moved in the hopes of escaping the paranormal drama. Fail. The death omens are his. Damien’s family is under a curse, one that claims the life of the eldest Reed son each generation. To save Damien, Lucinda must discover the truth of her own ancestry, the cause of the curse, and help lay a spirit to rest.

Ok, this cover is just awesome, and fits the neo-gothic tone of the story perfectly. This is the first book in the Unliving series, and a pretty cool start it is. I felt almost immediately drawn into this story. There’s good use of both dialogue and description, and things felt nicely balanced for the most part. There were times where it felt more background information would have been better, though. Times when it did feel something was missing.

I particularly enjoyed the anthropomorphic nature of Fate. I also enjoyed the hints of shamanistic birth regarding Lucinda, though those connotations might not have been the author’s intent, and is just my anthropologist’s nature matrixing. The ghost that seems to cut Lucinda open, to effect a transitory death, as it were, is reminiscent of how a shaman who can travel the Shadow Roads and commune with the deceased is created.  

???? Perfect for fans of gothic/neo-gothic fiction, and paranormal drama shows like Supernatural, and Sleepy Hollow