The Silent Touch Of Shadows by Christina Courtnay

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Choc Lit (7 July 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1906931763
• ISBN-13: 978-1906931766

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Professional genealogist Melissa Grantham receives an invitation to visit her family’s ancestral home, Ashleigh Manor. From the moment she arrives, life-like dreams and visions haunt her. The spiritual connection to a medieval young woman and her forbidden lover have her questioning her sanity, but Melissa is determined to solve the mystery.

Jake Precy, owner of a nearby cottage, has disturbing dreams too, but it’s not until he meets Melissa that they begin to make sense. He hires her to research his family’s history, unaware their lives are already entwined. Is the mutual attraction real or the result of ghostly interference?

A haunting love story set partly in the present and partly in fifteenth century Kent.


Cover:  Perfect cover for this book.  Beautiful colour blue which gives it a creepy feel which suits this ghost story.


The premise of this book was totally different to anything I had read before.  I really liked the idea of two stories revealed simultaneously, one from the past and the other contemporary, brought together by a ghost.  Definitely different from what I've read before.
It took me a while to get into this book, but when I did I really enjoyed it.
The setting was great, an old manor in Kent which definitely gave the book atmosphere. 
I found myself enjoying the historical parts of the book more than the contemporary plotline.  Roger and Sibell's forbidden love, as well as their characters, was just more interesting.  I also found the historical parts better paced, whereas the contemporary parts felt a little stiff and dragged in places.    
I really appreciated having all four main character's perspectives-Melissa and Jake for the modern day story, and Sibell and Roger for the 15th Century story.  I didn't warm to Melissa as a protagonist very much, I connected better with Sibell.  Roger's perspective was really fun but I felt that we didn't get to see enough of Jake to really get a feel for his character so the subsequent romance between him and Melissa seemed to come out of nowhere- one minute they like each other but think it's best to not see each other and then bam, they're together.
The mystery and suspense was amazing.  Roger is haunting Melissa, asking for her help.  He's basically driving her insane, so seeing that unfold as well as seeing his and Sibell's past in the form of dreams Melissa and Jake have is really fascinating.  We knew of course that it couldn't end well for the doomed  lovers and yet I grew to love those characters so much that I still wished for it to be otherwise.
One romance was amazing, the other just lacked a little something, but the mystery and suspense as well as the beautiful setting made up for that.  The history combined with the supernatural made this a really different and gratifying read.  I definitely recommend this book for fans of romance, the supernatural or a little of both.  Definitely a distinctive book. 4/5 stars.