Book Review: Immortal Eclipse by Sherry Soule

Title: Immortal Eclipse
Author: Sherry Soule
Publisher: Disenchanted Publishing
Publishing Date: April 2013
Genre: young adult / new adult, horror, paranormal, romance, chick lit
Editions: ebook (kindle, nook), print
Length: 356 pages

Mystery, Murder, and Manolo Blahnik....A devoted fashionata and practical New Yorker, Skylar Blackwell doesn't believe in the supernatural--until she inherits Summerwind Mansion. . . . When her uncle is brutally murdered, and the cops seem uninterested in following up the case, Skylar journeys to California to seek answers. Her search for clues is soon overshadowed by haunting nightmares of a young woman also murdered in the house. Now the inhabitants of Summerwind are mysteriously dying, leaving no evidence as to how or why, and Skylar finds herself in a deadly race against time to expose the killer--before they strike again. The problem is . . . whoever it is may not be human. Armed with only wit and Pradas, Skylar begins questioning the servants, but the growing list of suspects includes the sexy and brooding caretaker, Dorian, a man desperately trying to forget his tragic past. And a major distraction for Skylar. Determined to play detective--instead of the fashion police--and unravel the dark history of the mansion, Skylar is plunged into an otherworldly mystery that not even she can explain away. As the boundaries between reality and dreams blur, Skylar's greatest challenge is to stay alive long enough to learn the truth.

  

A_TIFFYFIT'S REVIEW First, I should mention that I was gifted an electronic copy by the author in exchange for my honest review.

From the cover and title, I thought that this was going to be another vampire romance: immortal, eclipse (thought of a solar one at first). Then I thought, well maybe it's a werewolf story (immortal, eclipse this time lunar). But NO TO BOTH.

This is a haunted mansion story with ghosts and mystery and romance and violent deaths galore! Skylar is a feisty, fashion-obsessed NYC high-fashion photographer. Her uncle, her last living blood relative, has died and left her a few hundred thousand dollars and a mansion in Carmel, CA. After being fired from her job and realizing she really has nothing in NYC to hold her down, she decides settling her uncle's estate is exactly the change she needs. She packs up her suitcases, gets ready to sublet her apartment, and hops on a plane west. Upon arriving, she crashes her deceased uncle's BMW but escapes with minor injuries. Making her way the last mile to the mansion, she's greeted by hostile staff and a hunky caretaker, Delorian Delacroix, whose family used to own Summerwind, the estate she just inherited.

Creeptacular ghosties and hauntings, cryptic comments, and flashbacks to the past all frustrate Skylar as she lives at Summerwind, deterimined to discover why her uncle died. She knows it sure as hell was not a suicide as Detective Chen believes, especially not as the body count starts to pile up upon her arrival.

Plagued by these memory-like dreams, Skylar starts to doubt her skepticism about the paranormal and the occult and becomes even more determined to solve the mystery of these deaths and get closer to the caretaker, Delorian, all while looking uber-cute in her high fashion clothes.

I liked Skylar from the beginning. She is snarky and just the right level of sarcastic. She's giddy about her namebrand clothing and super cute heels. She's just the right mix of everything: cheery, ditzy at times, fashion-obsessed, determined, loyal, and sweet. I liked the thorough descriptions of her outfits and the joy she has dressing. I suppose some would see her as shallow because of this, but my grandmother and mother always stressed that "clothes are your wings." Come on, ladies, tell the truth: you feel sexy in your "period" underwear or your kickass lingerie? Exactly. And that self-empowerment travels outwards. She isn't wearing anything outlandish or dumb (okay, maybe traversing the woods in heels IS dumb, but they looked cute with those jeans!), she wears practical, comfy, yet stylish clothes. They help her face the day and I loved that about Skylar. Sounds like she's gonna need that inheritance check ASAP to help with her credit card bills now that she's unemployed!

There are some really great moments of creepiness - the description of how the being moves, the moths that haunt Skylar, the things that go bump in the night.

This was such an enjoyable, read-it-all-at-once read. Once I started, I didn't put it down and didn't want to put it down. I wanted to be left alone to find out the secret, find out the mystery, and exclaim to myself phrases like: "Oh, I knew it!" "Ugh, creepy s.o.b." "JUST KISS HER ALREADY, DAMMIT"