The Chateau – by Karen Aldous

My own copy

Original Cover

The blurb:

Can young hearts ease a restless spirit?

On the shores of stunning Lake Geneva, Gina Remy is celebrating her brother’s wedding – when the figure of a woman appears hovering above the water, beckoning to her. Ghostly visitations do not happen to Gina - a self-confessed control freak with her own successful property business, she prides herself on being level-headed. But as she is tormented by dreams and visions, her perfect life begins to unravel, and she knows she needs to help this ghost find peace if she’s to get any of her own!

Enter Ollie Martin, an Anglo-Swiss property developer who’s sexy as hell and knows it. His arrogance annoys Gina, but he’s the only one who will take her seriously… and the closer they come to understanding the quest the ghost has set for them, the closer they get to one another…

My Opinion:

*Book provided by the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Another beauty by Karen Aldous!!! I loved Karen’s debut novel The Vineyard and couldn’t wait to start this!

The story follows Gina. We meet her on the way to her brother’s wedding at Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It’s a beautiful place and I felt strongly connected to it, not only because it’s Switzerland, but I really love it there and it’s great to read a book and know where they are. Gina’s relationship with her boyfriend Max is nor really progressing. She wants a family, but he ignores her and he seems to hide something. I loved it though, how Gina git on with his daughters.

Well, at the wedding she meets Ollie and there is a connection between them immediately. I loved how their friendship developed though first. It was not attraction and just passion, no they built up a real friendship first.

Both coming from the same section of profession they start working together and when Gina has to go down to Lake Geneva more often, because of her mum, they see each other regularly.

Ollie was special to me from the start and I cannot really explain why. Yes, he was a bit arrogant and full of himself at times, but then again he was so sweet, caring and always there for Gina. He had a lot of charm.

This is not only a story of friendship and love, not it also includes mystery, a mystery that brought Ollie and Gina closer together.

When Gina starts to see a ghost around The Château, she is confused at first, but then she confides in Ollie and to my surprise he didn’t laugh, he took her seriously and it turned out that there was a huge story behind it all, discovering things from the past. That added an extra spark and drama to this already wonderful story.

Gina still had to figure out what Max was hiding and finding out the truth made her break up with him – finally!!! I was waiting for that a long time.

I really loved how slowly their relationship developed, but the chemistry was always there.

Gina is a really inspiring character, fighting and not giving up and the scenes between her and her mother were great. A real mother-daugther insight.

I adored Karen’s descriptive and rich writing, it was full of details and the descriptions of Lake Geneva, The Chateau and all these beautiful places was stunning. This is perfection on so many levels, well done Karen!!!

Rating:

My possible cast:

Gina: Lucy Hale

Ollie: Chris Elson

Karen on Twitter: @KarenAldous_

Website: http://www.karenaldous.co.uk