I was a big fan of Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles series, but I haven't read anything by her in ages. This book sounded really interesting, so I just had to request it. If you're expecting a book comparable to those storylines, you will be disappointed. However, if you like gothic suspense tales, I think you will be very pleased.

Ava Collette is a food writer working on a book about New England cuisine who rents a house named Brodie's Watch in Maine. She's having trouble writing in Boston and is also running from a terrible past, so she and huge Hannibal the Cat think this seaside town is the perfect writing retreat. She quickly realizes there are some strange goings-on in this historic home. She hears strange noises in the night; is there an intruder in the home, or could it be handsome Captain Brodie, who actually died well over a century ago? Research shows that a number of women died in this house; was it Captain Brodie, or could there be a human culprit?

I'm very surprised how much I liked the book! I didn't like Ava, with her secrets and drinking, yet she was such an interesting character. Captain Brodie was rather interesting himself, considering he was a dead man with a penchant for domineering and punishing sex! The other characters, from Ben the handsome doctor to Maeve the paranormal investigator to Ned the carpenter, were all solid additions to the story. I must admit, however, that my favorite cast member was Hannibal. That big butterball of a cat had an even bigger personality. I loved when Ava contemplated Hannibal feasting on her dead body. I normally don't like books told in first person present tense, but I soon overlooked that as I got wrapped up in the story. Definitely a book worth getting lost in.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. I received no compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Wow! What creepy psychological thriller! I actually really liked it. The book kept me wanting to turn the pages fast to find out what happens next.

I regretfully give this book a much lower rating than I would have liked. I absolutely loved the setting, and the way the author describes it is excellent. You really can envision the house, the turret, the sea, the cliffs. I almost felt as if I could smell the sea, the way it was described. Unfortunately, that was the best part of the story. The main character alludes to a secret throughout almost the entire book (I think the full story, like all 5 pages of it, comes out at around 85%). By the time we get the whole story, there has been such a buildup that it seems like such a letdown. Most readers will likely already know what happened by the time they get to that part anyway, as it's not a huge leap from the clues dropped throughout the story.

Again, another thing that kept me turning pages was the history about the house (and ghost) as Ava started digging into it. At this point, I expected them to uncover murders spanning centuries. Multiple reports of paranormal activity at the house. I don't want to spoil any of the bigger details here, but lets just say I was underwhelmed. The whole ending just felt very anti climactic to me. A sad departure from the high hopes I had at the beginning,

I didn’t realize beforehand that this is a paranormal. I hate them. I do not read them. However, as I received an advance copy of this book and promised to leave a review , I did read it. As I have to rate it on storyline and character development, I have to say it is very good. It is a fast paced psychological romance with lots of mystery. Well done

I discovered repeats of Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series on TV, and from there, becamse a fan of her books. When I saw this, I couldn’t wait to see what she would do with a different kind of story.

From the very beginning, the Prologue drew me in with a very atmospheric, almost haunting start. There are little clues that the main character, Ava, made some mistakes in the past and is running away from them with distance and alcohol. The author does an excellent job of showing through actions and Ava’s thoughts how difficult of a time she is having getting past this; Ava is pretty much ripe for the sequence of events she finds herself in.

The story was so incredibly well written that it could only come from the mind of a very talented writer. If you are looking for something a bit different from her usual style, this book is worth checking out.

While Tess Gerritsen is famous for her Rizzoli and Isle books, this book is something of a new and trying book for me. I am not a huge fan of paranormal but once you are in it, you wont want to put it down! I would recommend Tess's fans from her typical mysteries to try this one out!

Tess Gerritsen writes scintillating murder mysteries and this is no different. Ava is hiding from her sins when she comes face to face with her demon in the form of a ghost. She is mystified by the number of women who have died in the house she is renting. She starts an investigation to find out what is truly happening. There are secrets been kept by the people of the town and when she stumbles upon a suspect her life is in danger. The story will keep you turning the pages until the last shocking end. You will never guess who the killer is until it is revealed.

I prefer the author's standalone titles over her Rizzoli and Isles series, and this book is no exception. It is an intriguing haunted house mystery that takes place in the charming village of Tucker Cove on the coast of Maine. Brodie's Watch is the very old house that Ava has leased for a few months so she can finish writing her cooking book. Ava feels uncomfortable and fearful when she first enters the house, but soon she feels relaxed and hopeful that she can overcome her recent unhappy past. Then odd things begin to happen in the house, and Ava becomes concerned.

This book is a fun and very fast read. It is well-written, with strongly drawn characters and vivid descriptions. I felt like I was in the house, experiencing everything with Ava. Well done!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a preprint copy.

Amazon review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1Q35P0SR364CM?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

Ava decides that she is going to, on impulse, rent the inn that her Grandparents lived in for decades, until they chose to sell it. She has nothing but good memories of this place and, even though it needs a lot of work, she feels at home as soon as she sets foot inside. Rumor has it that Jeramiah Brodie, the Seafarer who built the house, haunts it to this day. Never one to believe in ghosts, Ava doesn't care. She just needs to get out of Boston and, the horrible things that happened on the previous New Year. She also needs to be far away from her sister because, Ava can't being herself to tell her sister the truth.
Since Ava is dealing with massive amounts of guilt and pain, she doesn't realize that she is leaving herself open to the machinations of a ghost who may not be as nice as she originally believes. There is a history of women dying under mysterious circumstances and, the ghost hunter Ava hired believes that Ava may just be next.

In this book a woman named Ava tries to escape a secret in her past by heading to Maine. The experiences she encounters are hard to describe without giving away some of the stories mysteries.

I really enjoyed this book. I went into it cold not knowing what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. I did not see the ending coming. It might be because the story was so entertaining that I didn't focus on the underlying mystery. I would definitely recommend this book. It was haunting, intriguing and an all around fun read.

When I saw Tess Gerritsen had a new book out, I didn't have a to read the blurb to know I was going to read the book. The Rizzoli & Isles series is one of my favorites. Who would have thought I would be reading a paranormal 50 Shades of Grey with a mix of Amityville Horror and Poltergeist. Throw in a 30 year ago death, a missing person, a dead body, an alcoholic, an adulterer, and everything becomes convoluted. Luckily it was a short book and I was able to finish it quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for a copy of Tess Gerritsen's "The Shape of Night" in exchange of an honest review.

I didn’t read the blurb about this book, I just saw it was a new Tess Gerritsen book. I love the Rizzoli and Isles series and I thought this was a new one in the series, imagine my surprise finding out this was a paranormal book. Like her R & I series this deals with death, but this also has to do with guilt and grief. What made this a 3 star book for me was the BDSM ghost. That just didn’t work for me.

This was a slight departure from the author's usual books in that it was more of a paranormal read. I actually liked to while I would not normally care for such plots. I actually cared about the characters and what happened to them, event the cat. I love Tess Gerritsen and this book was right up my alley as it is getting to be fall, and will come out to the masses in time for Halloween and the other fall holidays. Just right for snuggling up with a great book, I would recommend this to anyone, paranormal fan or not.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book for an honest review.

Having read every book in the Rizzoli and Isles series, and many of Tess Gerritsen's standalones, I thought I knew what to expect from this story (and was very excited about it). But this... was a startling departure that definitely took me by surprise. In the interest of keeping the review spoiler-free, I won't go into more detail but I found this departure a little too unnerving. I'll be back to Tess Gerritsen's books, but certain elements of this one were just so distracting that I couldn't get into the story as much as I would have liked to.

I have been reading many praises for The Shape of Night. It did not disappoint. I love books that blend romance and suspense. The Shape of Night has a Maine setting. Tess Gerritsen captures Maine’s beauty and mystique.

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen is a recommended Gothic tale of a haunted house that may be lethal for women.

Ava Collette, a cook book writer, flees Boston to a remote village in Maine where she has rented an isolated, old restored house named Brodie’s Watch. Ava feels she can finish writing her cookbook here. Soon, though, she sees the spectral vision of Captain Brody, the sea captain who built the original house. The ghost appears to Ava on some night and she begins to look forward to his visits. This haunting prompts Ava to look into the history of the house. She is also looking for the woman who rented the house before her in order to return some of the possessions she left behind. Ava soon discovers that the house seems to be lethal to women.

This is a well written novel, but it does require the reader to be into Gothic/paranormal/BDSM/murder novels. I'm not a fan of the combination. I am choosing to overlook parts of the novel that I skimmed while reading in order to get to the ending of the novel. You can easily do this and not lose the narrative thread. Gerritsen is an excellent writer, which I'm taking into consideration in my rating.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.

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I'm a big fan of Tess Gerritson's Rizzoli and Isles series but I haven't read many of her other books. This book was a wonderful surprise for me!! Moody and gothic with a sexy ghost...what more could you ask for? How about an exciting romantic suspense story? Tess Gerritson continues to be a go to author for me!
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While I am very supportive of authors who stretch themselves, especially after a successful series, I wasn't sure what to do with this one. I am not sure Ms. Gerritsen knew where she wanted to go with the story as there is a ghost, there is a romantic relationship with the ghost, there is a a murder, and there is a woman dealing with her own guilty past. The story almost felt distracted by itself and wasn't sure where it was going. I was also a bit startled by the bodice-ripping almost BDSM aspect to the story. Maybe it was like a kid who was only allowed to do one sport and is finally freed to do whatever they want and bounces around trying to do all the things? That is somewhat how this book felt.

A bit of a departure from my normal contemporary romance genre, but I was excited for this read and it did not fail. It was very suspenseful and entertaining, while you could also say eerie, it was enough to keep your mind wondering if it real or attributed to others things going on in Ava's life.

Loved the words of Jeremiah Brodie- 'here in my house, what you seek is what you will find'.

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen takes a break from her popular Rizzoli and Isles mystery series with The Shape of Night, a standalone thriller about a girl, a house and a very alluring ghost.

Nearly incapacitated by guilt, stagnated cookbook author Ava Collette takes a summer rental in a remote, seaside village in Maine, hoping the fresh air and peaceful country existence will reignite her creative fires. But her first sight of her vacation cottage is an unpleasant surprise. Travelling up an isolated, fog ridden driveway she finds herself facing not a welcoming, cozy retreat but a foreboding, secluded and strangely unwelcoming mansion. Brodie’s Watch, the home of a former sea captain, seems almost menacing as she approaches it, as though the residence is rejecting her presence. She’s tempted to just walk away and find another place to stay.

That quickly changes when she opens the door and feels an unseen presence assess and then accept her. In that moment, as she takes her first tentative steps into her temporary refuge, she feels as though someone or something has decided to extend the full hospitality of the abode to her. Suddenly, she is enchanted by the thought of staying – and then she meets the ghost.

She recognizes Captain Jeremiah Brodie from the painting of him in the house but he seems more flesh and blood than spectre. She can feel his hands when they caress her, hear his voice as he speaks to her of pleasure – and pain. His sole purpose seems to be a BDSM style of seduction. Night time finds her swooning at his touch,and anxiously awaiting his every visit but the dawn brings doubts, making Ava skeptical and scared of what is happening. Reaching out to Help for the Haunted. Professional Ghost Investigations, Maine, she asks them to find information on who or what is sharing the dwelling with her. The kindly, efficient Maeve Cerridwyn responds and researches Brodie’s Watch – and makes a disturbing discovery. Since the Captain’s death, only women have lived there, each of them becoming increasingly isolated from family and friends until they die alone in the manse.

“Here in my house what you seek is what you will find,” Captain Brodie tells Ava. But there is peril behind those beguiling words – for maybe, in some dark part of herself, Ava seeks not redemption from her sins but punishment for them. Has she handed herself over to some macabre form of phantasmal justice or is a flesh and blood predator at work, hiding behind a fantasy, preparing to mete out the judgment Ava deeply believes she deserves?

Ms. Gerritsen is a consummate professional whose skillful prose quickly hooks readers into her story and doesn’t release them until the last page. She has created an intriguing heroine in Ava, a smart, talented woman who is also a touch cold and reclusive. We know she did something disturbing in her past – information about this event is slowly doled out in dollops throughout the first part of the tale – and we know she hurt someone she loved badly as a result of her actions. What we don’t know is what she did or why. We also know she has a self-confessed drinking problem and consumes copious quantities of alcohol, mainly at night, to help her sleep. That’s part of what drives her to seek Maeve’s help – could some sort of drunken stupor be causing her to imagine Captain Brodie or worse, could someone be taking advantage of her inebriated state to deceive her? I liked that Ava was practical enough not to immediately accept the idea of a haunted house but also open minded enough to accept the possibility of one.

Complicating the situation is the body that washes up on shore early during Ava’s tenancy. In addition to some of the mysterious deaths that have taken place in the village over the last several decades (which the townspeople seem more concerned with covering up than with solving) the appearance of this corpse has Ava wondering if some kind of deadly menace is actively stalking the people of this solitary community. And if so, why?

And yet, even with all of that going on, she finds herself mesmerized by the Captain, easily beguiled by his presence and eager to participate in the ‘games’ he invites her to. The part of her that sees the cold light of reason in the day is no match for the enchanting seducer she faces in the night. It was this push and pull that kept me engaged in the tale. I found myself as fascinated by Captain Brodie as Ava was, as eager to spend time with him as she was. He was tantalizing, strong and handsome and drawn with an eerie eroticism that made him irresistible.

The book has only one flaw, which was that the practical, day time mystery sometimes didn’t blend well with the chilling, atmospheric nature of the house and its environs. It disrupted the sense of eminent supernatural danger that typically accompanies the gothic tale. That doesn’t keep it from being a very readable, riveting narrative though.

Part mystery and part gothic, Shape of Night is a spooky tale, perfect for fall reading. The forlorn setting and descriptions of the fog ridden, cool climate will have you reaching for a cup of something hot and the deliciously chilling story will have you snuggling into your favorite comfy chair, secure in the knowledge that you’re safe and cozy, even if the heroine isn’t. This novel is that perfect blend of scary but not too scary and I think readers searching for a (mildly) creepy Halloween season read will find exactly what they are looking for in this book.