Bayou Grise: Sins of Sanite by C.D. Hussey, Leslie Fear
My rating: 4/5 cats
last year, i read Villere House, despite it seeming to be well outside of my general reading-sphere, just because leslie is such a funny and nice lady. and even though, yeah, it was a paranormal romance type of book, it was actually more gothic romance, all full of new orleans voodoo and possession and sweaty passion, which is an easier genre for me to ease into than true paranormal romance.
this companion book doesn’t even let paranormal romance get a word in edgewise—this is pure southern gothic. sure, there are paranormal elements, but it’s not shapeshifters and vampires and whatever else might be sexxy in those books—this one is all ghosties and voodoo-zombies and alligators, oh my! and yessss, there is some intercourse, but what else are you going to do in the sultry bayou when you’re attractive and you’re already sweaty and you’re all keyed up from fear and mourning and…book research?? you’re gonna take your clothes off and get a little temporary release from your troubles.
this one involves julien, the brother of the romantic hero of Villere House, xavier. he went through some shitty experiences in that first book, and in this one, he gets a little redemption and the opportunity to get away from the glare of perfection that surrounds xavier. and for all his (completely justifiable) bad behavior in Villere House, julien’s not so bad. apart from being, you know—dreamy, he’s also a good person, handy in a crisis, and capable of coming to the aid of a damsel in distress.
which is lucky for nichole, because she is totally in distress. her father has just disappeared and is presumed dead, but she knows in her heart he is still alive. she’s come to the plantation grisé from baton rouge ostensibly to settle his affairs, but also to employ her specific abilities to get some answers and hopefully to reunite with him. julien has been led to the very same plantation after finding a photograph of two women labeled grisé attached to a shrine among his grand-mère’s belongings, which inspires him to take a fact-finding road trip do some research for the book he is writing about his family. when he arrives at the plantation, he is instantly attracted to nichole’s beauty and the troubled aura she is giving off, and manages to combine research with romance and heroic adventures, like so many great writers before him.
it’s a very enjoyable story—julien is a lot funnier and cooler than xavier, and nichole is well-suited to him—it’s one of those good partnership-romances that doesn’t feel unbalanced. it’s got all the good stuff that characterizes a southern gothic—big crumbling antebellum house with uneasy racial history, creepy inbred locals, spectral appearances, foul-smelling swamps, alligators as both predator and prey and so many descriptions about how uncomfortably hot louisiana can get. seriously—it was killing me. how anyone could feel amorous in an environment like that boggles my little new england mind.
It was hot as balls out here; shit probably started rotting before it even died.
yeah, no. i don’t let anyone stand anywhere near me when it’s like 65 degrees. the thought of getting frisky with someone in the muggy hundreds is nowhere near an option.
but apart from that—i really enjoyed this. solid romance, good resolution, well-incorporated backstory from Villere House without it screaming “remember this??” you should definitely read Villere House first, or risk being slightly confused, but it’s good stuff, so no hardship there. plus, leslie’s really cool, so you’d be doing a nice thing for a nice person, and that math makes you a nice person. so there.
read my book reviews on goodreads
