Earlier this afternoon I read Lucy Felthouse's Timeless Desire, a novelette that mashed up romance and a haunted house. I liked it, so I had high hopes for a second novelette from her that did the same thing. Unfortunately it doesn't quite match up for me.

There's nothing wrong with the writing or anything. It's quite competent. I think, though, that if I'd gone into it expecting a plain romance I might have rated this a little higher. However, the reason I came across Felthouse in the first place is that I'm reading my way through a Goodreads list of haunted house fiction. (What can I say: I love my haunted houses.) And Weekend at Wilderhope Manor was on that list, and the book's blurb indicates that this is a haunted house story... but it's not, really. I mean, there are a few ghostly details in the background, creaking floorboards and the like, and one very brief interlude where one of the protagonists trips in the house's haunted maze, but honestly, it's marginal. Mostly this is an excuse for Stephanie and Jenny to fuck as often as possible. Which, good for them, they're fun characters, but I feel like I was promised a haunted house story and didn't get it. What's the point of setting your story in a haunted house if you don't exploit that setting to the fullest? The balance isn't quite right, is what I'm saying - Timeless Desire integrated the ghost and the romance much more effectively.