Warning. It is a ghost story.

I didn’t expect that. I read all of this author’s work automatically and expected a typical mystery. I don’t like ghost stories (well, with the exception of some of Stephen King’s).

The plot was good, or at least good enough that I found myself pulling my phone out to read a little while waiting for appointments, but I don’t believe in ghosts and find books written about them to be stupid.

I kept reading with the hope that the ending would show an alternative to ghosts causing the excitement. I won’t spoil it by saying whether that happened or not. Either way 95% of the book has a ghost in it.

I wish I had stopped the minute the ghost showed up.

In a departure from her usual books, Tess Gerritsen has written a gothic paranormal stand-alone mystery. Having loved gothic books, I was eager to read this one, and it did not disappoint!

Ava is a food writer in Boston who is writing a cookbook on traditional New England cooking. She rents a house in a small town on the coast of Maine, where she can write her book and escape a tragedy in her life and find healing from her feelings of shame and guilt.

She finds the house dark, creepy, and foreboding, but soon she feels accepted and relishes being alone to write. Or is she alone? Almost immediately she feels a presence in the house. The ghost of the original owner, a sea captain from 100 years ago, shows up in her room at night, touching her, and she is certain he is real. She begins to welcome the presence.

This was a fun, quick read and held my interest throughout. I would recommend this to fans of mystery and paranormal gothic suspense novels.

I've enjoyed Tess Gerritsen's previous books, those in the Rizzoli and Isles series. I requested this advanced reader copy hoping to enjoy it just as much. Unfortunately, this feels like a book searching for a genre. Part ghost story, part mystery, part family drama, part "Fifty Shades of Grey" and other parts as well - none of them felt well enough developed to carry the plot. I'm not sure what reader would enjoy it - but I hope someone does.

Definitely Not Along the Lines of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The novel opens with the Ava Collette, the heroine, driving to Brodie’s Watch, a hundred plus year old house isolated and overlooking the Atlantic in a small town in Maine. Ava is a cookbook writer and is almost a year behind in delivering her next book. She is coming here to escape and heal from the complications back in Boston and to finish her next book based on a Maine and Seafaring theme. When she arrives, the house is huge and foreboding. The rental agent drives up behind here. Ava starts to express concern but doesn’t have the courage to back out. Once in the house, the feeling changes and she starts to feel at home. She learns from the rental agent that two carpenters will be completing their renovations and will be working in the turret and widow’s walk for a few weeks. She also learns that the previous renter just up and left with additional month’s rent paid. The novel takes off from this point.

The main storyline proceeded with Ava using the carpenters as food critics, interacts with the rental agent and local doctor, but most of the action is in and around Brodie’s Watch. On her first exploration of the beach below the house, she notices what appears to be someone up on the widow walk as she walks up the path to the house. She found no one in the house, and the carpenters do not work on weekends. As more incidents occur and Ava leans about the house’s history, she is convinced her that the house is haunted and may be dangerous.

Unfortunately, the B-storyline for me was a little light. Only a few facts are revealed about her before her arrival except something serious between her and her older sister back in Boston. The main storyline just proceeded with Ava becoming more and more focusing on her ghost who she believed was Captain Brodie who built the home and subsequently died at sea.

The novel was very light in terms of vulgar language, but there are very graphic sex scenes. While there are only a few, they include bondage, and sadomasochistic elements. I rate this novel with very strong sexual content so let the reader be forewarned. This novel definitely is not the Ghost and Mrs. Muir that I first thought when I just started to read the novel.

By the end of the novel, all the story threads were completed satisfactorily with only the appropriate level of paranormal reasons. My attention was finally captured but not compellingly around the 50% point with the novel started to transition from a romance to a thriller. Until this point, I was dreading reading more of this novel. I was thinking of a rating of three stars at best. When I finished the novel, I was pleased with the read and rate this novel with four stars. If you like romance novels, I suspect that you may like this novel more than I did. To be honest, this is the first romance novel, or what I believe is a romance novel, that I have read. So if I am wrong in this aspect, please forgive.

I have received a free kindle version of this novel through NetGalley from Ballantine Books with an expectation for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read this novel early.

Ava has run away from her life to Brodie’s Watch, a brooding house in Maine overlooking the sea. Ava is a food writer and plans to use her time testing recipes for her next book. Strange things begin to happen in the house.

This book had 2 things I don’t like, a gothic feel and ghosts. I automatically requested it based on the author. If I had read the synopsis I probably wouldn’t have requested it. There is a mystery but overall it was far from my favorite book by Gerritsen. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Whoa! A real ghost story? Or was it? You decide! Anyway, this was not my favorite Tess Gerritsen; I really had mixed feelings. Sometimes I wanted to keep reading; sometimes I didn't. Ava, the main character and the one who lived in the "haunted house" was not a very likable person.. One character in the tale called her a "whore", and, indeed, she did feel like one to me, also. She seemed to want sex with any male, real, imagined or somewhere in between.

The Shape of Night reveals why so many people love Tess Gerritsen. Her characters are richly developed as seen by her main character, Ava Collette, who is running from her past and her sister. Ava rents a large old home in Maine that is supposedly haunted by a ships' captain Jeremiah Brodie. Ava soon discovers that there is something wrong in the Brodie home. She has encounters with Brodie that make her feel as if she never wants to leave the house. But she soon learns that the house she loves comes with a terrible secret. Every woman who has ever lived in Brodie’s Watch has also died there. Is the ghost of Captain Brodie responsible for this, or is a real killer at work? The Shape of Night is just another in a long line of great books by Tess Gerritsen.

Ghosty psychological suspense with romance thrown in. Character development was good..enjoyed the story

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Ava rents this old house so she can hopefully get inspiration for her latest cookbook that she desperately needs to write. She learns deL quick the house is haunted. We also learn she has some buried secrets that are causing her to drink a lot. Now this book started out pretty good. Then it got too far fetched for my taste. Also I get really annoyed with the whole woman needs to be submissive crap. This book will have a major audience, but it just wasn't for me.

I finished this book but I have to admit I would not put it on my list of favorites. It was well-written, but an erotic thriller makes me uncomfortable so I didn't enjoy reading this book. However, I did want to know how it would be resolved so I stuck it out until the end.

I literally read this book in one sitting. I could not put it down. It had me questioning what was driving the main character, Ava, until almost the very end. The plot was do different from other psychological or supernatural books I've read because I couldn't quite guess where it was going. What happened in Boston? Why was she running away to Maine to finish her cookbook? Why wasn't she freaked out about the creepy things going on in her rental house? I just had to read it all the way through because I could not wait to find out the answers, and neither will you!

I received a copy of The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen from NetGalley. Can I tell you that I could not put this book down? OMG it had so many good things going for it. I have to tell you this is not the normal book you would expect from Tess. I have read her other books and when I saw the title and who it was by, I said "This book is for me". I didn't know what it was about. I am kind of glad that I didn't. I might not have jumped.

The main character is a cookbook writer and moves into a house that is inhabited by the sea Captain who died at. sea and used to own the house. That is all I am going to tell you about the plot. This book has so many other things going on. It truly was a joy to read and only took me a day. I was alone that evening as my husband went out fishing and the first time in many years that I actually got freaked out!

When this book is released, you need to get yourself a copy. Great departure Tess Gerritsen!!

I am also posting this on Facebook under Phyllis Jones Pisanelli.

I received this book as an ARC from netgalley. I love tess gerritsen but this is def not her typical writing style. With that being said I did enjoy the book. I was completely shocked by the ending. I could not put this book down because I had to know what happened.

This is a great book. Such interesting characters, both living and dead. I have enjoyed every book that I have read by this author and this was no exception. Love it!

Unusual Tess Gerritsen book. I have enjoyed her mysteries and thrillers and was taken by surprise at this 'gothic' departure from her usual. I found it hard to get into and right up to the end wasn't sure if I was reading a bodice ripper, a ghost story or a mystery. Ava, the heroine, was a bit stupid for my taste but I read to the end and the book turned out to be all three: a gothic bodice ripper mystery.

I wouldn't read another of Ms Gerritson's book like this one. I hope she goes back to her tried and true.

Hard to get into and not what I was expecting. I like Tess Gerritsen’s books, but this one was too different from her others. I couldn’t get with “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” vibe. I’m hoping she will get back to the medical fiction genre or another Rizzoli and Isles book.

Overall Rating = 4.5

Storyline & Concept = 4.5
Writing & Delivery = 4
Cover Marketability = 4.5
Editorial = 5

A tragic incident causes Ava Collette to leave Boston for calmer waters. Believing she is finally at peace is a mistake. When she chose an old rent house in Maine, little did she know it was haunted. Ava develops a surprising and odd relationship with the haunter, a former ship captain, and begins to assist the undead with searching for the killer of past residents. The Shape of Night features a splendid mix of seduction and mystique while keeping the reader on their toes.

Sublime Line: “If you are looking for some suspense, and then some more suspense, and then just a bit more suspense, you’ve come to the perfect haunted house story.”

I love Gerritsen's previous books and her writing style. However this one just didn't work for me. The premise and paranormal story line were just too odd, and the mix of supernatural realism didn't gel.

I was barely able to finish the book, after having skipped around to chapters just to figure out how it ends.

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

Review of Uncorrected eBook file

Planning to finish her long-overdue book, food writer Ava Collette rents an old mansion in the small Maine seaside town of Tucker Cove. Here she will write, test her recipes, and try to forget a singular event that she cannot change and cannot find a way to accept. It is this secret that keeps Ava trapped in a purgatory of her own making and haunts her every waking moment.

But that may not be the only haunting that occurs in the little town: the ship’s captain who built the house more than one hundred fifty years earlier and who died at sea may still haunt the place himself. Is the haunting of Brodie’s Watch common knowledge among the Tucker Cove residents? Can Ava unravel the enigmatic mystery of Brodie’s Watch? And what will happen if she meets the ghost of Jeremiah Brodie one dark night?

The atmospheric setting draws readers into the telling of the tale; evocative writing brings the Maine seacoast to life but the story itself is a mish-mash: part mystery, part “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” and part “50 Shades of Grey.”

Ava spends almost every waking moment gulping huge amounts of alcohol, an activity that does not engender any great degree of sympathy for her. And her predilection for sexual encounters with the “ghost” is both creepy and off-putting.

Astute readers will easily identify the cause of Ava’s misery and guilt. And while the “mystery” of the otherworldly goings-on at Brodie’s Watch creates an unnerving atmosphere, Ava’s tiresome fascination with ghostly sex results in the story being more annoying than intriguing.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Random House Publishing Group --- Ballantine and NetGalley
#TheShapeOfNight #NetGalley

I've never read any of Gerritsen's work, although I gather this is a departure from her usual genre. I thought it was well-written overall, but it had me rolling my eyes a bit, too, mostly because in spite of being a paranormal investigator myself, I'm a skeptic at heart. And I'm completely a skeptic when it comes to the notion of "paranormal romance". I also think that the bit with the town doctor felt a bit disjointed and rushed. I think I'm probably going to read some of the author's other works, so I can't say I was horribly disappointed in this one and it would probably make a blockbuster movie (or Lifetime movie?) but I think her medical mysteries might be a better fit.