Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I will preface my review with the fact that I am a fan of historically derived plots, action, thrillers, history, scenery, mystery, and suspense. I needed a book and the title and the description seemed to offer an intriguing story and checked most, though not all, of these boxes. I stopped reading after about 10 chapters or so. I almost never put a book down, and I would not be surprised to find myself chewing on this piece if gristle again. I found this book, to borrow a phrase from Simon Cowell, "simply ghastly". I knew I needed to just put it aside much earlier than I did. At first I thought that it would develop a likeable plot eventually. I found the protagonist very well portrayed, her innocence and curiosity as a child I found very believable. Since I could not bring myself to finish, I did not really see her portrayal as an adult. Everyone else was shallow or unlikeable or downright evil and getting more so with every page. So for me, the promise of mystery and ghosts and castles and counts and countesses was rapidly devolving into a cesspool of dark and evil. This book took effort to like, and I despise books that I have to work at. Overall the writing seemed decent, but the storyline was rapidly devolving from mysterious and compelling to dark and disgusting. This book was not adding value to my life experience. One star was as low as they would let me go. Life is too short to read books that disturb me at a visceral level.