“In a town built on magic, be careful what you dream…”
I was sent the novel Incubus by Carol Goodman to review a while back now, but since I have been completely useless (and out of the country half the time!) I have only just got round to reviewing it!! I actually read it straight away, within about 3 days of receiving it I had already finished, which probably tells you what favour my review will be in!!
As you already know from my Author Spotlight post, I absolutely love Carol Goodman’s books which mix reality and the surreal perfectly (while often including a bit of mythology or classical references!!). Incubus also manages to do this, very cleverly blending the supernatural into a story that seems to begin in the real world that you and I know.
The story follows Callie McFay as she takes up a place teaching at a second-rate college in the small town of Fairwick. She is besotted by the old Victorian house of the writer Dahlia LaMotte which bears a face in the pediment that begins to show in her dreams. Probably not suitable for readers under the age of 16, her dreams begin to take on a more and more erotic theme until they begin to plague her thoughts in her everyday life. Alongside the main storyline, we are given snippets of Dahlia LaMotte’s unpublished work that Callie finds in the house, snippets that give Callie the idea that she is being visited nightly by an Incubus. Slowly, then more rapidly she begins to realise that what she is reading and learning may not be just the stuff of dreams and fairytales but a reality. We then descend into a literal fairytale romance with Callie and her incubus which keeps you gripped until the very end.
What I find most exciting about this is that it is the first of a series, The Fairwick Chronicles. The only problem is I wanted to read the next one immediately and, of course, it’s not out (or even written?!) yet!! It is definitely a book I would recommend to others, particularly those interested in light sci-fi or supernatural fiction – it has been quoted as being along the lines of Stephenie Meyer and Charlaine Harris.
Love,
