#moderndaygothic — Public Fediverse posts

The Story Keeper by Kelly Rimmer

After her uncle’s death, Fiona Winslow returns to the home she grew up in. Wuirimbira is an estate in Australia that has sat vacant for decades. The estate has a reputation for being haunted. Fiona loves the house and after her husband leaves her for another woman, she makes the trip home and purchases it.

The story has a gothic feel. It is told in a dual timeline. We experience Fiona’s move into the house and how she tries to make it livable after sitting neglected for so long. Everyone thinks she is crazy, but she is stubborn and has made up her mind. She has a background in architecture so knows what needs to be done.

This dual timeline story is about the main character, Fiona finding a book left by her dead uncle Tad.  Conveniently, she is given the opportunity to read from the book daily while living in a house that has sat neglected for years. The fact that she tried to clean that huge estate by herself and still found time to read the book was hard for me to believe. She described the inches of dust and rodent droppings. It might have been more believable if a cleaning crew had been coaxed to help her clean. Coaxed because there were rumors that the house is haunted. So many rumors but even though Fiona heard and saw things she still felt compelled to stay there alone.

It felt like the author spent more time developing the story within the story more than the actual present-day story that involved Fiona.

By the time we got to the end, I felt the story within the story had come to a predictable conclusion. I felt that Fiona’s story had gone flat along the way. It started out with that gothic feel, but it didn’t ramp up. There were a couple of incidents but nothing that really seemed to frighten her. And the hints of a romance could have gone a little further. The present-day story went flat for me. After we found out what the secrets were, the book was done. It felt like too much time was spent on the inner story and not enough on Fiona’s story. The characters often felt two dimensional.

I liked the author’s writing style. but I didn’t like the way the story was structured. Once we learned the secrets we were given an abrupt ending that felt like we missed something. Because it started out like a gothic novel, the house could have had a larger part. The scary parts were explained away too easily and the hint of a romance was forgotten. I wanted to know what was next for Fiona. Did she and Jack have a chance for a relationship and were there things about the house that couldn’t be explained?

This edition was published July 21, 2025.

Thank you NetGalley and MIRA for sending this advance reader copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I include links to purchase. As an associate, I earn from qualified purchases. Thanks to my readers who have supported me in the past.

Books by Kelly Rimmer:

The Story Keeper

Me Without You

The German Wife

The Paris Agent

What I am currently reading:

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Getting Away with Murder by Shari Lapena

After the storms came through recently, we’ve had a couple days that have been cooler. That changes tomorrow. We are back into the furnace of the 90’s. In Iowa we get the humidity from all the corn fields. Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t but that is what the weather people keep saying. People in Iowa say it’s worse than the heat out in the southwest because their heat is dry. I don’t know. I was in Las Vegas once when it was 115 degrees. That wasn’t very comfortable. Thankfully we have air conditioning and I can comfortably read books.

Happy Reading!

If you like a bargain, I sell my books in my Pango shop. Check it out at:

https://pangobooks.com/bookstore/virginia468417

Rate this:

The Story Keeper by Kelly Rimmer

After her uncle’s death, Fiona Winslow returns to the home she grew up in. Wuirimbira is an estate in Australia that has sat vacant for decades. The estate has a reputation for being haunted. Fiona loves the house and after her husband leaves her for another woman, she makes the trip home and purchases it.

The story has a gothic feel. It is told in a dual timeline. We experience Fiona’s move into the house and how she tries to make it livable after sitting neglected for so long. Everyone thinks she is crazy, but she is stubborn and has made up her mind. She has a background in architecture so knows what needs to be done.

This dual timeline story is about the main character, Fiona finding a book left by her dead uncle Tad.  Conveniently, she is given the opportunity to read from the book daily while living in a house that has sat neglected for years. The fact that she tried to clean that huge estate by herself and still found time to read the book was hard for me to believe. She described the inches of dust and rodent droppings. It might have been more believable if a cleaning crew had been coaxed to help her clean. Coaxed because there were rumors that the house is haunted. So many rumors but even though Fiona heard and saw things she still felt compelled to stay there alone.

It felt like the author spent more time developing the story within the story more than the actual present-day story that involved Fiona.

By the time we got to the end, I felt the story within the story had come to a predictable conclusion. I felt that Fiona’s story had gone flat along the way. It started out with that gothic feel, but it didn’t ramp up. There were a couple of incidents but nothing that really seemed to frighten her. And the hints of a romance could have gone a little further. The present-day story went flat for me. After we found out what the secrets were, the book was done. It felt like too much time was spent on the inner story and not enough on Fiona’s story. The characters often felt two dimensional.

I liked the author’s writing style. but I didn’t like the way the story was structured. Once we learned the secrets we were given an abrupt ending that felt like we missed something. Because it started out like a gothic novel, the house could have had a larger part. The scary parts were explained away too easily and the hint of a romance was forgotten. I wanted to know what was next for Fiona. Did she and Jack have a chance for a relationship and were there things about the house that couldn’t be explained?

This edition was published July 21, 2025.

Thank you NetGalley and MIRA for sending this advance reader copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I include links to purchase. As an associate, I earn from qualified purchases. Thanks to my readers who have supported me in the past.

Books by Kelly Rimmer:

The Story Keeper

Me Without You

The German Wife

The Paris Agent

What I am currently reading:

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Getting Away with Murder by Shari Lapena

After the storms came through recently, we’ve had a couple days that have been cooler. That changes tomorrow. We are back into the furnace of the 90’s. In Iowa we get the humidity from all the corn fields. Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t but that is what the weather people keep saying. People in Iowa say it’s worse than the heat out in the southwest because their heat is dry. I don’t know. I was in Las Vegas once when it was 115 degrees. That wasn’t very comfortable. Thankfully we have air conditioning and I can comfortably read books.

Happy Reading!

If you like a bargain, I sell my books in my Pango shop. Check it out at:

https://pangobooks.com/bookstore/virginia468417

Rate this: