Buddy Read: The Drake House
The Drake House by Kelly Moran
Genre: Romantic suspense
Published 2015, 352 pages
Donna's Thoughts
This Buddy Read was only read by me. After I finished it I told Terrie not to bother because I didn't think she'd like it. The reviews on Goodreads for The Drake House were terrific and are what led me to wanting to read it but I was quite disappointed. First, it's much more of a romance than I was expecting and I rarely read romances as I don't care for them. Second, it wasn't as suspenseful as I was expecting.
Trisha owns and runs an apple orchard in a small town in Wisconsin. She has suffered from nightmares since she was a child, not your average nightmares but ones that have her sleepwalking and screaming into the night. The suspense was supposedly about what caused the nightmares but ultimately the 'big reveal' about them and the old, abandoned Drake House are not scary nor very satisfying.
One part of the book that I did enjoy was her close friendship with her employees who are more like family. The guys that help her run the orchard are very protective of Trisha. Nick is the new policeman added to the town's small police force and, of course, there's an instant attraction between the two. However, Nick is suffering from the trauma of having killed a man. So both Trisha and Nick are broken and feel that they can never have a real relationship with anyone. This is mentioned so often it drove me crazy!
By the end I was glad to be finished with the book.
Terrie's Comments
This book wasn't available at our library, so Donna purchased a copy rather than select a different book for our Buddy Read. She was that sure that it would be a good read. However, she was pretty definite in her disappointment in this book and also knows my reading tastes very well, so when she said it wasn't worth sharing with me, I believe her. It's always a little disappointing when a book doesn't live up to our expectations, but that doesn't mean that the next one might be the best one we read all year! So, onward.
photo by Kari Shea via unsplash.com
