Princess Fuzzypants here:

It must be difficult to be the second wife after a loving marriage, especially if death has cut the first one short. It is no picnic when you share little in common with the new family into which you are entering. And it is not easy when there is a huge age difference between you and your new spouse. When you are faced with all of these factors plus a boatload of secrets and lies, it is cause for alarm.

Victoria spied Gerry at a film event and decided he was Mr. Right. She is very young but has a lot of mileage in those few years. When she spies him again in Oxford where he is a don, he denies having been at the event yet is more than willing to be seduced by her. They enter into a hot and torrid affair and when Gerry proposes, she is quick to accept.

When she goes to his home where she will meet the rest of his family, she has good reason to question her decision. There are forces including paranormal that seem to tell her to run. She is besotted by Gerry but as she unravels the truth she realizes she can only be second best, that Ruth, the first wife, is unforgotten and a more powerful force dead than she ever was alive.

As she struggles to free herself, she learns that Gerry was not that Mr, Right of the theatre. It seems to free her from the spell. She is even able to come to terms with her atrocious mother whose actions she has misunderstood all her life.

The reader is left to ponder how her life will evolve from here on. What we do know is she is going to be stronger and more able.

This is an excellent book, well written with finely drawn characters. While there are times when the reader wants to shake the characters, it is their flaws and wounds which make them more intriguing. It is always a good sign when you truly care how things work out for the characters. As you turn each page, the story weaves its web and captures the reader in its haunting atmosphere.

I give this five purrs and two paws up.