Whispers of Yesterday

Coming March 2024

​ Cornelia Amiri

5.0 out of 5 stars This one’s a keeper

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2015

He glanced down to see a red rose–the color of blood by firelight. He could have sworn it hadn’t been there before. He picked it up. It was ice cold, sending a chill through his hand. He rubbed at a petal and found it waxy almost slimy to his touch. And as he watched, one by one, each petal dropped away to wither and turn to rust upon the bare wooden floor. He realized whatever Thornwood held in store, it would not be of the ordinary.”

Indeed there is nothing ordinary about Thornwood castle and there is nothing ordinary about the romance novel set there, Whisper of Yesterday by Julie Darcy. This incredible cross-genre novel is a Paranormal/Historical/Suspense/Romance. Readers who enjoy books with spies, ghosts, England, witches, reincarnation, the moors, or haunted castles will love this enchanting novel.

The tale begins in the modern era when an American, Cole de Morgan inherits a haunted castle in Cornwall, but there are some stipulations in the will. One is he must arrive on All Hallows Eve and stay a month. As the story begins to unfold the reader is taken to the 1600s when the heroine, Aylissa Llywellen De Morgan is burned at the stake as a witch in the courtyard of Thornwood castle. She puts a curse on the man who killed her husband, her child, and herself, Gedrych de Morgan, causing his line to be cast from Thornwood Castle until Cai walks its halls once more. Cai de Morgan was Gedrych’s son and Alyssa's husband, who except for longer hair looked just like Cole.

The tale continues when it moves into the early 1800s and we meet our hero, Lord Aidan Tristan Wyndmire de Morgan, an English spy, who wins Thornwood castle in a card game. His appearance is also the exact likeness of Cai de Morgan except his hair is shorter. He soon becomes involved with the resident ghost, Aylissa Llywellen De Morgan, and seeks to discover why she holds such an attraction to him and has such a hold over him.

 As the story travels between the three time periods, the reader beholds a love between them that is so strong and magical it overcomes death.

It is always hard for an author to find a creative way to involve a ghost with the limitations of a spirit’s body in the tantalizing, heated love scenes of a romance. Julie Darcy’s method is smooth, superb, and original. I found myself so attached to the intriguing, fully fleshed-out characters of Alyssa and Aidan that I know they will haunt me for some time to come. Whispers of Yesterday is a page-turner from a familiar Gothic beginning, when an American Scientist braves a blinding thunderstorm on Halloween to reach a castle he unexpectedly inherited, to a surprising, thrilling, and joyful twist at the end. Whispers of Yesterday is an enchanting read that should not be missed.

 This one’s a keeper.