House of Rayne

Bestseller Laroux (Her Soul for Revenge) is out for blood in this visceral and deliciously dark gothic romance set against the moody backdrop of the Pacific Northwest. Salem spends what was supposed to have been her wedding night in a dive bar hooking up with Rayne, a gorgeous, secretive stranger who ends the encounter by announcing that Salem will never see her again. Except the next day, when Salem arrives for a two-week retreat at Balfour Manor on Blackridge Island, there Rayne is behind the check-in desk. When Salem starts seeing terrible apparitions in the converted manor house, Rayne comes to her rescue and tells her the truth about Blackridge’s haunting history. The rugged island hides terrible secrets, including murders, ghosts, and a monster that roams its shores as soon as the sun goes down—and Rayne is somehow tied up in all of it. Salem is impossibly drawn to the lonely hotelier, but as Rayne’s family secrets come to light and bodies pile up, the women will have to fight the evils of the past if they ever hope to have a future. Laroux doesn’t hold back on either the splatter or the spice, balancing truly embodied horror with genuinely sexy erotica. The decadent result thrills from start to finish. (Oct.)