Thorn Abbey

Book:  Thorn Abbey

Author:  Nancy Ohlin

Publisher:  Simon Pulse

Date:  Now available

Source:  Publisher via Edelweiss

My grade:  B-

Nothing is as it seems in this darkly romantic tale of infatuation and possession, inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

Becca was the perfect girlfriend: smart, gorgeous, and loved by everyone at New England’s premier boarding school, Thorn Abbey. But Becca’s dead. And her boyfriend, Max, can’t get over his loss.

Then Tess transfers to Thorn Abbey. She’s shy, insecure, and ordinary—everything that Becca wasn’t. And despite her roommate’s warnings, she falls for brooding Max.

Now Max finally has a reason to move on. Except it won’t be easy. Because Becca may be gone, but she’s not quite ready to let him go…

Initial reaction

Dude!  That ending!!

Cover story

Two thumbs up!  This cover captures the mystery of the novel and it gives a nod to the time period of the original Rebecca.  I like it!  And as a bonus, there are no people kissing!!!!!

What’s the Story?

This book is apparently a re-telling of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca.  I have not read the original and maybe that is why I enjoyed this novel when others did not.  Not sure.  But I thought it was pretty good.  It was creepy and had me turning pages to figure out the mystery.

Now, the beginning is slow.  It took a while for me to get into it, but when the story really got started, it took off!  I couldn’t wait to try and figure out exactly what was going on.  And there were some twists and turns that totally bowled me over!  And the ending!  Gah!  The ending!  What a surprise and a cliffhanger!  I’m hoping that there’s a sequel because I was just shocked in the creepiest way ever!

I do have to say that Tess got on my nerves a good bit.  She was fairly whiny.  I mean, I get it that she’s the scholarship student at a rich kid boarding school, but come on!  That means that life is looking up, right?  Max was broody and on again/off again, but that was his role to play, I suppose.  Honestly, I never really saw what Tess saw in him, but whatever.  I really felt sort of lukewarm about these characters.

I just keep coming back to the fact that this story could hit me with awesome plot twists and completely surprise me.  I’m really glad that I stuck with this book even though the beginning was a little slow.  As the action picked up, this book blew me away!  This is a book that you read for the mystery and build of the story, not for the characters.  Most of the people were sort of “meh”, but I couldn’t wait to figure out what the heck was going on.

The Soundtrack

The Ghost in You by Counting Crows

Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush

Haunted by Evanescence

I Can’t Make You Love Me by Bon Iver

Sleep to Dream by Fiona Apple

Came Back Haunted by Nine Inch Nails

The Final Grade

My final grade for this one is a B-.  The main character got on my nerves somewhat and it was slow to start, but by the end, I couldn’t wait to see how it was going to end. If the author had been able to find a way to make me care about these characters, this book would have been phenomenal. 

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.  I received no compensation, financial or otherwise, for this review.  Not even a scholarship to a mysterious boarding school.