I was really in the mood for a gothic story with ghosts in it and my mind immediately went to Simone St. James as an author. I have read her most recent book “The Broken Girls” and I really enjoyed the mystery and the gothic feeling of this book. And there was a ghost in it.
Unfortunately, “The Other Side of Midnight” hasn´t exactly met my expectations. Actually, there are ghosts within the story, but this is due to the profession of the female main character, who is a psychic and who sees dead people. But this book doesn´t feel particularly gothic and the ghost aspect is a very surface-level one.
A big part of my disappointment is due to the fact that I expected this book being in a certain genre, gothic historical fiction, while it in reality is a romantic suspense novel. And it suffers from a few things that I don´t particularly like in this specific genre.
The biggest gripe I have with this book is the romance. Once again, the weak female, Ellie, has to be protected by the strong, manly man, James, a man, whose personality is solely defined by his muscles and who was dull as ditchwater.
The author really felt the need to tell my over and over again, how incredibly muscled and packed the male main character is. She even takes it to the next level and the physique of every other man within the story is compared to James´ muscles.
I really didn´t like James, I found him incredibly dull and I didn´t buy into the love story, which, to top it off, started off with the most ridiculous case of instalove (James gives Elli a smoldering look across the room and she is up and about to throw her knickers at him in a heartbeat).
The mystery aspect of this novel didn´t blow my socks of, either. With this book it felt like the author focused more on the romance than the actual mystery. Which isn´t my favorite thing to read about, especially if the romance between two characters makes me feel nothing.
This book was fast read and it was entertaining, but it wasn´t what I wanted it to be.
10
4
