Her brother was born disfigured. His presence causes fear and judgement by others, so he's lived in isolation. The promise of healing through a new experimental surgical procedure entices them both and they begin treatments. An evil doctor, a man with a disability and a young physician trying to do what's best. A Frankenstein-esque story that asks powerful questions about life, hope and faith.

Lost In Darkness
By Michelle Griep
4 stars

A touching yet thrilling new Gothic romance with Inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Amelia is an independent woman with a deal of a lifetime. To go to Cario to write. But when an opportunity for her brother Colin comes to have a revolutionary surgery comes, she grapples with the decision of when she should leave. I was touched at the closeness and tenderness between Amelia and Colin.
Colin faces the humiliation everyday of people's reactions to his horrible disfigured face. But inside he's kind and generous. It begs the question: If we change the outside to appease the world but our inner selves change for the worse, what have we accomplished? If only we could convince those around us, don't judge me by my appearance, but by my soul and my actions.
The romance between Amelia and Dr. Graham Lambert was very well done. Their relationship evolves very well over time as he treats Collin along the way.
With historicals it's always interesting to see how doctors of that time thought was proper treatment. Things we may laugh at today. It makes you appreciate modern medicine!
To the final climax this was an emotional read with plenty of action, faith, and heart.

I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own. I was not required to give a positive review.

Michelle Griep’s newest release is a gothic tale of a sister’s love and the lengths she will go to help her brother.
Amelia is a travel writer and has worked hard to gain her reputation. When she’s presented with an opportunity of a lifetime, news reaches her of a revolutionary surgery available for her greatly disfigured brother. She must choose between her career, or caring for her brother.
Surgeon Graham Lambert questions his medical partner’s secretive ways and wonders if he’s made a mistake in joining the practice. When Amelia and her brother become patients of the practice, Graham unavoidably becomes protector, while losing his heart in the process.
The pages are filled with the dark, melancholy feeling of gothic stories and it provides a fictional backdrop for the inspiration behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Readers will fall in love with Amelia’s brother as he struggles to choose surgery or remain a recluse. And one can’t help but to cheer for a romance between Amelia and Graham. A broad cast of characters add to the depth of the storytelling, creating a delightful underlying tension to the despairing, but hope-filled tale.
Faith is woven throughout, a beautiful contrast between good and evil.
This is a gripping story, exploring the age old ponderings of the evil nature of mankind. How evil can one truly become?
Fans of Frankenstein and gothic romance will enjoy this new release, as well as fans of Jaime Jo Wright books.
I received an ecopy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep is set in England in the early 1800's. This story will draw you in from page and hold on to you till the end. Colin Balfour is a gentle giant who has been hidden away from society due to his scarring and other anomalies. His sister, Amelia, has been absent from his life due to differences with their father. After father's death she comes home to help Colin through the surgery their father planned that is supposed to change his life for better. There are life changing changes but not necessarily what everyone expects.
This book has it all. A bit of mystery, drama, intrigue, romance and hints of Frankenstein. It can be difficult reading at times as many suffer, those in mental I situations and the poor in particular, but well worth the journey to the end. I enjoyed reading the historical notes at the end. I give this book a solid 5 of 5 stars. It is so well written with wonderful characters.
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

1815 Amelia Balfour (27), traveller writer has been given her tickets for her next assignment, to travel to Cairo. Then she is informed of her father’s death. Returning to her family home she awaits the return of her younger brother, Colin, who suffers from gigantism. Their father’s last request is that Colin undergoes surgery by Dr Uriah Pickwood to cure him and return him to normal. Amelia wants Colin to have the treatment so she can forget him again, and live her life travelling. But is that what Colin wants. And why would they follow their dead father’s orders.
The only person I felt any sympathy for was Colin in this Regency Gothic romance.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Be prepared for a dark but well researched and written tale.
Come to the streets of England and follow a well traveled woman back to her childhood home and greatly deformed but loving brother.
Enter the medical practices of long ago, some barbaric ideas and the weight of doing what was ethical verses the abuses of power.
The storyline weaves a sobering tale of the darker side of a bygone era.
The characters are well developed and have you cheering for healing and justice.
The only mystery left to me is who was Nemo’s evil master?

Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep is an historical gothic tale with a bit of romance. The author did her research and included a real historical character in the book. Ms. Griep is one of my favorite authors and is a wonderful writer. While this genre isn't really my go to (because I like happy romances) this one was well written and lovers of gothic romances will enjoy it. I was satisfied because it ended on a happy note.
3.75 stars
*I was given given copy of this book by Barbour Publishing and this is my honest opinion.

This is a very different weird kind of feel from Michelle Griep which had me intrigued from page one!
While not exactly a fan of Frankenstein I loved the Gothic part of it. I know I know it doesn't make sense.
Griep has done an incredible job of including a little bit of everything in it which I liked.
One thing that I love about Ms. Griep is that you never know what she might write about next! I'm looking forward to it!
I will say that I finished this book in one day. I wanted to see if Colin would follow through on what was planned for him. It saddened me on that part.
I loved the lessons that were scattered throughout the book. Some were hard and some were just common sense.
The bad doctor got just what he deserved. As they say, You reap what you sow." Or the other famous Karma comes around? Yep it sure does.
Amelia and Graham were my two favorite characters because they are kind, compassionate and they cared about others. They are a perfect example of what and how we should act.
I highly recommend. 5 stars
My thanks for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. I was NOT required to write a positive review.

I am not entirely familiar with the story of Frankenstein. However I do know that " "Frankenstein" actually named Victor was created by Dr. Frankenstein. So I was very curious how that would happen in this book. Griep was a genius using gigantism probably combined with acromegaly to create Colin. It made sense in that time period for people to be scared of him and for his family to be desperate to believe some quack doctor could help him. I was almost devastated when Colin went through with the surgery. Knowing his point of view and how he would have just been happy to live alone and not go through with the surgery broke my heart. Changed my perspective on how we view people with physical deformities. Do we try and change them at the expense of causing more problems? Or should we just accept then as they are? This novel was not for the faint of heart. It was however well done.

Gothic romance novels have certain aspects that I have come to expect- a sense of foreboding, omens, mystery and danger, a tyrannical male, and romance. Ms. Griep wrote a brilliant story with all of these elements included to make it a hard to put down book.

Amelia Balfour is an independent young lady who has broken societal expectations by being a travel writer and escaping her overreaching, domineering father. Her only regret is that she left behind her grotesquely disfigured brother, Colin. She decides to honor her father’s last wish and help Colin through a dangerous and controversial surgery that promises to repair his face and correct his abnormal growth.

Dr. Peckwood was the perfect mad doctor with his ideas about medicine and his questionable practices. I believe he at first wanted to find a way to help his patients, but lost sight of his patients, wanting to prove that he was a brilliant doctor at the expense of those under his care. I found myself fearing for Colin and wanting Amelia and Colin run away from him and his “treatments”. I was hoping that Graham Lambert, Dr. Peckwood's associate, would find the courage to step in and help both Colin and Amelia escape. While he cared for them, he felt powerless to do anything and thus creating a perfect situation for Dr. Peckwood to perform his surgery.

While I was sad for how things ended for Colin, I was glad to see that Dr. Peckwood got everything he deserved. It was exactly what I was hoping for since his total lack of compassion for his patients (both willing and unwilling) made you wish someone would stop him.

The characters of this story were so well done that I found myself thinking about them well after I finished this book. Lessons from this book were powerful as I was reminded that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. Colin was such a sweet spirited young man who saw beyond himself and his terrible condition in order to help others. He was a truly great hero in this story.

I highly recommend this book if you like Gothic novels. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

I’m a big fan of Michelle Griep, but not a fan of Frankenstein-esque stories, so this book was difficult for me. Frankenstein inspired tales are always so sad, and Lost in Darkness is no different. The saddest part was how Griep wrote this beautiful character of Colin, made the readers care for him so much, and then, well… Like I said, it’s a sad story, and it kind of broke my heart. I wanted to throw the book across the room while I had tears in my eyes, which I guess is really a compliment to the author.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

When I was in graduate school, I did a research paper on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, so I have spent tons of time researching her life and her writings. Especially in her influence on crafting the novel, Frankenstein. When I read the synopsis on Lost in Darkness and saw that it covered Frankenstein, I was definitely interested in this novel. Michelle Griep did a fabulous job at crafting a unique story that features a loveable “monster”. I really enjoyed how she showed Colin’s personality and allowed readers to understand who he was before the surgery. A very kind hearted soul who loved God and wanted a family just like everyone else. Also, the plot featured the turn of the century medicine and all the experiments that went on. Asylums were a cesspool of experiments, so it was kind of the creep factor that I actually enjoyed diving into. There was a touch of romance and a hero of a doctor who wanted to help the poor and downtrodden. It was remarkable in turning the plot on its head. Lost in Darkness was a delightful novel that I will definitely be putting on my forever shelf. If you enjoy Victorian Gothic novels, this would be right up your alley.

I received a complimentary copy of Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep from Barbour Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

This is a hard one for me to review because I usually quite enjoy a tale crafted by Michelle Griep, and I was a bit leary about reading this one as I am not a Frankenstein, or dark monster type story reader at all. However, since I have had such a good track record with MIchelle's writing I decided to give it a shot. I was enjoying the story until the surgery happened....then it went off the rails in a direction I found unenjoyable. I think I was hoping for a kumbaya sort of ending, or a story where the "monster" portion only included the character's disfigurement and overlarge stature. It didn't make sense to me, that these children who were not overly attached to their father and who didn't share a loving relationship with him, would devotedly and almost blindly follow along with his last wishes. I made we want to smack some sense into them. I often enjoy the dark/gothic nature that Michelle weaves into her novels, but this one was just not for me. I can't see myself reading this one again.

"Even if there be monsters, there is none so fierce as that which resides in man’s own heart.

Enchanting Regency-Era Gothic Romance Intertwined with Inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Travel writer Amelia Balfour’s dream of touring Egypt is halted when she receives news of a revolutionary new surgery for her grotesquely disfigured brother. This could change everything, and it does...in the worst possible way.

Surgeon Graham Lambert has suspicions about the doctor he’s gone into practice with, but he can’t stop him from operating on Amelia’s brother. Will he be too late to prevent the man’s death? Or to reveal his true feelings for Amelia before she sails to Cairo?"

Regency-Era, check. Gothic, check. Egypt, check. Must read, check.

Amelia Balfour is summoned home after her father’s passing. Not that she wants to go but she would do anything for her younger brother Colin, and their father has arranged for Colin to undergo surgery to reconstruct his disfigured (grotesque) face.

Colin has lived a life as a recluse because of his face and it scares people away. Amelia has spent most of her recent life as a travel writer traveling all over. They are both running away rather than to others.

Their father has chosen a surgeon who has objectionable designs on how exactly he will give Colin a newly constructed face. Mr. Peckford has just recently hired an associate, Mr. Graham Lambert to assist him in Mr. Balfour’s surgery.

Lost in Darkness is dark, but so is our brokenness and I like how this story played on that premise. I really liked ALL of the characters as usual. Yes, even Mr. Peckwood is a perfectly drawn villain, he played his role very well. Michelle Griep has always had wonderfully well-developed characters and Lost in Darkness does not disappoint. I am just waiting for Ms. Griep’s next great read!

My gratitude for Netgalley and Barbour books. All opinions expressed are my own.

Regency Gothic in this Frankenstein reminiscent novel.

Synopsis:
Amelia Balfour has managed to gain successful sovereignty as a travel writer after running from her high handed father seven years prior, but in this flight she was forced to leave her younger brother, Colin, to his own devices.

Colin is not your 'run of the mill' chap, he has been consigned to live in the shadows of society due to a condition, Acromegaly, which renders him with an increase of growth hormone, prompting those unaware of the condition to run in horror of his frightening person.

We open on Amelia receiving a much welcomed career advancing opportunity from her editor to travel to Cairo, and she is on cloud nine, the culmination of years of hard work finally paying off!
Only 5 minutes later…
That venture is thwarted with the news her estranged father has passed, and that she is charged the guardianship for her brother-Colin- who requires experimental brain surgery to correct his condition.

Despite the dangerous unprecedented nature of the surgery, Colin is set on it. He dearly longs to one day lead a normal life.

Mr Peckwood is the cutting edge surgeon who will attempt to correct Colin's condition. While he may be on the forefront of medicine, he is dead last in his outdated views of woman. A finer example of a Troglodyte you would be hard pressed to encounter!

Mr Graham Lambert, a dismissed naval surgeon, is considered a liability and has been hard pressed to find work. Which is why when he manages to get a foot in the door via a tentative partnership with Peckwood he is eager not to rock the boat, even as Peckwoods methods increasingly unnerve him.

Amelia may still have a chance to salvage her career if Colin's surgery is accomplished and his recovery goes well in three weeks time, she may still make a ship to Cairo.

Some other intrigue comes into play with an old neighbor Amelia presumed dead, Mr Peckwoods nighttime extracurricular research, and mysterious toys that keep appearing around the grounds, yet no children living there.

Going in, knowing from what source material this story draws inspiration, you know it's not going to end with sunshine, roses, and kumbaya, but you do expect to be drawn into an atmospheric gothic yarn.

What Worked:

♡My favorite aspects were those concerning the premiss of the Balfour family dynamics, such as Colin feeling abandoned; whenever he wrestled with himself it was interesting to read. Amelia’s desire to overcorrect and her quest for perfectionism- very accurate for any CPTSD- have created a monster in her heart. The dichotomy of Amelia & Colin, one being physically sound but internally muddled, and the other being a monstrosity on the outside yet remains absolutely lovely on the inside was an interesting concept.
With trying to distance herself from her father she sacrificed years with her brother, an important message that you can't remove the bad without also 'throwing the baby out with the bath water,' that those things often come hand in hand.

♡I found the value Amelia put on superstitions, instead of on herself or G-d, and how that evolved towards the end of story a good message.

♡Prose & dialogue was solid.

♡I enjoyed Mr Peckwood, such a wily madlad! I found his antics unintentionally comedic.

What Irked:
✗The gothic elements were slow to rear their head and color the story, thus I had a deuce of a time getting into it. The final act provided a good dose of it, but by then I was used to the patchy pace of the novel; some periods where the story twiddled its thumbs & had me bored, and others with sudden bursts of action- the pace is quite mercurial.

✗ On romance/ chemistry front I grade it an ‘okay.’ Not the most memorable couple, not entirely contrived, somewhere in that middle ground. I didn't feel the attraction between Amelia and Graham was well established or at least not well conveyed, overall I wasn't exited about it.

✗Likely a point of personal preference, but having Mary Shelley as a character in this and using Colin to inspire her masterpiece was too meta for me, tripped my immersion in the story. Her appearance just wrecked suspension of disbelief every time and as a character I found her a superfluous ornament.

The Brass Tacks:
Well written in the technical clinical aspect of writing, but my biggest qualms were how slow the start was, the gothic atmosphere was lighter than I had expected, and that spark when your emotions are engaged with the story is absent. I was really hard pressed to care about the characters, to feel alongside them through the events. I wracked my brain to no avail trying to dissect why as I found their premiss and potential of the family dynamics promising. To my cathartic relief another more perceptive reviewer, 'Historical Fiction,' spelled it out for me: the lead characters were static.

This isn't a book that had me on the edge of my seat, it took me two weeks to get through. It is well written, some good dialogue, promising character backstories, and some nice messages- I think its just a bit boring.

I'm just not that into you book- sorry.

I received an ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

'Just when her heart couldn't possibly break more, another chip fell away.'

Michelle Griep is a great favorite of mine and this book only further cemented my opinion of her work. Here she presents her readers with a great story line. As usual, her research is impeccable and I love that aspect. I thoroughly enjoy looking into the history behind a book and she provides this very well.

Griep has crated characters that totally go down deep in my heart. And one I wanted to slap. Sorry, but that's how I felt. Only further proof that she creates great characters, if she imagines up a really nasty one so hately a reader wants to pop him. Just my opinion.

The story was of such talent that I could barely tear myself away at times. Absolutely and completely fascinating and one I won't soon forget. There was great joy, great sadness and a thunderously perfect spiritual thread here, one that will ring loudly in my heart. Bravo!

My thanks to Barbour Publishing for a copy of this book via Net Galley. I was not required to leave a review and the opinion here is my own.

Travel writer Amelia Balfour has fought to make a way for herself in a man’s world. Her dream of touring Egypt is finally within her grasp. Then she receives news of a potentially groundbreaking new surgery that could help her disfigured brother. Risking everything she has worked and hoped for, Amelia hurries to his side.

Surgeon Graham Lambert has achieved what he wanted — to go into practice with a revolutionary doctor who isn’t afraid to try unconventional treatments. However, he soon starts to wonder if his new partner is a bit too unorthodox. Graham struggles between speaking up or trusting his senior partner’s expertise as the latter prepares for an operation that could mean a new life for the patient or death.

Lost in Darkness is a compelling story of loss, love, and hope amidst it all. Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Michelle Griep pens a gripping, heart-wrenching story the reader cannot set aside.

Brimming with danger and intrigue the author masterfully created characters that elicited deep emotions in me. Some I wanted to throttle and others shelter. Some I hated and others I loved with an aching fierceness. Amelia and Mr. Lambert are fascinating characters one roots for, but it was Colin (Amelia’s brother) who stole the show. What a sweet, beautiful, and loyal soul. I wanted the novel to be about him. I experienced his struggles and victories as if he were of flesh and blood.

Real-life author Mary Shelley makes a few cameo appearances in a fun, fictionalized imagining of what could have inspired the famous classic. The story propelled me to Google in order to research more about Shelley and her life. Talk about a lot of sorrow! However, I love it when a book doesn’t only teach things within its pages but also pushes me to know more outside of them. Lost in Darkness did just that, not only in regards to Shelley, but a couple other areas as well.

The ending can only be described as bittersweet. I wanted to sob and smile, fling the book across the room and hug it close to my chest. Yes, I know the story is fiction. Believe me, I reminded myself of this fact multiple times, but it made no difference. You’ll have to read for yourself because, well, spoilers.

Fans of Regency-era gothic romances won’t want to miss Griep’s latest. However, I recommend not starting if you only have a limited time to read. Once I began, I didn’t put it down until I finished.

I was less than ten pages into Michelle Griep's LOST IN DARKNESS when I realized I had taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. I have nothing against the genre, but I'd been so distracted at the idea of what this book could be that I failed to identify it as Christian fiction. This fact naturally caused me to question whether or not I'm qualified to review anything more complex than a napkin ring, but that's a topic for another day.

I came to Griep's work hoping for something akin to Kessel's PRIDE AND PROMETHEUS. This expectation wasn't entirely unreasonable as both novels play on the themes and ideas of Shelley's masterpiece, but the comparison proved analogous to that of apples and oranges, so I took a step back and thought again. Moments in this novel, particularly those where Griep's heroine shares her stage with the famed author, brought Ambrose's CLAIRE'S LAST SECRET to mind, but in terms of content, I think this piece shelves best alongside Daines' IT STARTED IN BUDAPEST.

That said, my struggle with LOST IN DARKNESS wasn't limited to poorly placed assumptions. I appreciated the melancholic notes Griep struck with Colin, but Amalia, Graham, and Dr. Peckwood proved too static for my tastes. I also felt that despite the emotional aesthetic of the final act, the gothic elements of the story took too long to develop.

When all is said and done, I'm not sure LOST IN DARKNESS has enough meat on the bone to appeal to secular readers, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to genre enthusiasts. Though I didn't care one way or the other for the religious content of this book, I feel very strongly that I'd have enjoyed it a great deal more if I'd been emotionally invested in its themes and motifs.

Lost in Darkness is my favorite that I have read by Michelle Griep to date. It includes a lot that I love to read in a book: history, romance, mystery, danger, suspense, and adventure. It was far from predictable and I could never tell what was going to happen in the next scenes. I loved the duo of Amelia and Graham with the perfect setting. I loved every single page of this book.

Lost in Darkness is getting a very well deserved five plus stars. I highly recommend it for readers who enjoy reading a clean historical mystery. As always, I look forward to more by Michelle Griep in the future. This one should not be missed and most definitely worth a read.

I received a copy of Lost in Darkness from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.