Brooding, sophisticated, and rich with emotion.
Stone crafts a haunting, intricately layered tale of legacy, desire, and the inescapable pull of the past in the second installment of The Haunted Women series. The book follows Fran Tarantino, a young woman who moves to New York City after the mysterious death of her great-aunt, Aurora Ciccone. Her new beginning soon collapses into a haunting inheritance. A promise of renewal, however, becomes a descent into the past’s long shadow. As Fran pores over family’s secret letters and journals, she uncovers generations of women forever bound to a spirit who calls himself their protector as well as their curse.
Alternating between Fran’s present and the family’s spectral past, Stone’s narrative captures both the immediacy of emotion and the breadth of history. His prose is lush yet controlled and the plotting tight. As much a tale of dark magic as an exploration of inheritance, the book examines the way pain, secrecy, and longing are carried through generations. Stone’s portrayal of the Tarantino women, caught between agency and curse, feels hauntingly timeless and fiercely modern. Fans of finely crafted Gothic fiction will want to take a look.
Coming soon