Blackburn Castle by R. C. Matthews

Who doesn’t love books filled with pirates, witches, and total misunderstandings that nearly ruin people’s lives?  I sure am a sucker for them.  That description doesn’t do Blackburn Castle by R. C. Matthews justice of course, but it’s a very vague start.

Victor Blackburn is cursed.  Rumor has it he has two months to live before death comes to claim him.  That is, unless he can convince Mercy, the daughter of the woman he was forced to murder at only age ten, to forgive him and perform the counter curse.  It seems simple to him, but Mercy’s need for vengeance goes deeper than he could have ever realized.  His confidence dwindles when he begins to grasp that he might never be able to convince her to forgive him and break the curse.

This book was captivating right from the start.  I simply couldn’t put it down.  I read it in one sitting.  I loved Victor and that, despite his fear of the curse, he was still able to be charming and humorous.  I loved that Mercy was such a powerful, independent character, but she was still willing to bend and compromise with others.  Both characters felt real and raw and so was their pain and anguish.

The story itself was very different from what I’ve been reading as of late.  I thought it was going to go one way and then I was pleasantly surprised when it took a completely unexpected direction.  I don’t want to give away any of the plot because it was a very exciting one, so I’ll just say that it takes a deviant twist about three quarters of the way through that had me like, “Holy bananas.”

One note: about half-way through the novel I realized, “Hey, this is not the first of this series”, but I found that it really didn’t matter.  There were a few allusions to the first of the series, but the author was kind enough to write the book in such a manner that I didn’t need to read Book One.   However, I do plan to go back and read the first book and I would encourage anyone else to start there because from what little information I did gather it sounds like quite a doozy.

All in all, you’ll be delighted by this novel.  It’s fresh and interesting and quite the journey.  Blackburn Castle will be released April 10, 2017.  Pre-order it now!

Edit: The author informed me that you can pick up the kindle edition of R.C. Matthews' Book 1: Devil's Cove & 4 other Gothic romances for only .99 cents on Amazon.