Dark Embrace by Eve Silver (Website, Twitter, Goodreads)on August 29, 2017
Pages: 369
Left penniless and alone by the untimely death of her father, Sarah Lowell works as a day nurse at King’s College Hospital. Her daily walk to and from work crosses the Rookery of St. Giles, a dangerous place made all the more frightening by the fact that someone lurks in the shadows, watching Sarah, stalking her like a beast of prey.
Enigmatic surgeon Killian Thayne offers Sarah his protection, but his sensual, commanding presence presents another kind of danger. Killian wears his professionalism like a mask, concealing the darkness buried in his soul. He is drawn to Sarah, lured by her intellect, her dry wit, and yes, her loneliness, for it calls to his own.
Then a patient is found dead, drained of blood. Another soon follows, and another, and rumors paint Killian as the monster who killed them. As evidence mounts and the threatening presence that stalks her draws ever nearer, Sarah must decide if Killian is a man deserving of her love or a sinister creature determined to make her his next victim.
Dark Embrace by Eve Silver is book six in her Dark Gothic series and if you haven’t checked this series out yet, you definitely should remedy that. They are historical, gothic, romance and I love everything about them. No spoilers here so hopefully you don’t think I’m being too vague…
This book is centered on Sarah Lowell who has been left on her own when her father dies unexpectedly. She is just getting by as a day nurse at King’s College Hospital but her love of medicine and caring for people is what keeps her going. In her role, most of the staff don’t respect Sarah’s opinion but there is one person, a surgeon, who does. I will talk about him in a moment but I have to say, I love Sarah’s drive and motivation. She is willing to take risks to care for those who need it and she is smart too. As a young woman on her own in the 1800’s, she has very few options to support herself so she relies on what she knows, everything her father taught her about medicine.
That surgeon I mentioned is Killian Thayne and he has definitely seen a lot in his time but Sarah catches his attention at the hospital. As I mentioned, he is a surgeon there and one night, he sees her caring for a man under the radar of the other surgeons on staff at the hospital. Killian was an interesting character. He has been through a lot and, against the odds, has survived. Up until now, he has cut himself off from developing relationships because he knows they won’t last. Despite that, he can’t help being drawn to Sarah.
I loved how the relationship between these two was developed. It is definitely a slow burn but when they finally figured things out, it was great. The fact that Sarah was so accepting of who Killian truly is was what eventually had Killian open himself up to her. That and the fact that she was willing to stand up for him no matter what happened to her.
There are a few mysteries in this story on top of the romance. The first one is who is following Sarah home from work every night. She can sense someone following her and one evening she is so frightened that when she finds Killian outside her home, she couldn’t be more relieved. Silver does a fantastic job of building the tension and Sarah’s fear around who was stalking her.
The other mystery focuses on what is happening to patients at the hospital. A number of them have been found dead with their blood completely drained. As this continues to happen, the finger is pointed at Killian and Sarah, sure he had nothing to do with the deaths, stands up for him. As a result, puts herself in a bad position and things change drastically for her due to her decision. As the story continues, we find out that these mysteries are actually linked and I loved how Silver tied it all together.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. If you like historical romance that has a darker feel to it, definitely check not only this book out, but the entire series. Silver does a great job of developing these characters and building in enough background to understand where they are coming from and how that impacts how they move forward. In addition to that, there are swoony bits that will make you love Killian, regardless of his background. I am definitely looking forward to more from Silver and will be checking out more of her books in the future.
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