A Hold On Me (The Dark Heart #01) - Pat Esden

Title: A Hold On Me (The Dark Heart #01)
Author: Pat Esden
Rating: 3/5

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for letting me receive a digital copy of this book before its official release.

She never wanted to return.
He wants nothing more than for her to leave.
But the fire between them is as strong as the past that haunts them.

Annie Freemont grew up on the road, immersed in the romance of rare things, cultivating an eye for artifacts and a spirit for bargaining. It's a freewheeling life she loves and plans to continue--until her dad is diagnosed with dementia. His illness forces them to return to Moonhill, their ancestral home on the coast of Maine--and to the family they left behind fifteen years ago, after Annie's mother died in a suspicious accident.

Once at Moonhill, Annie is shocked when her aunt separates her from her father. The next time Annie sees him, he's a bizarre, violent shadow of his former self. Confused, she turns to an unlikely ally for support--Chase, the dangerously seductive young groundskeeper. With his dark good looks and powerful presence, Chase has an air of mystery that Annie is irresistibly drawn to. But she also senses that behind his penetrating eyes are secrets she can't even begin to imagine. Secrets that hold the key to the past, to Annie's own longings--and to all of their futures. Now, to unlock them, she'll have to face her greatest fears and embrace her legacy...

Let me start by saying this book was unlike anything I expected it to be. Honestly, I didn't put that much thought into requesting it. The cover was beautiful and the summary seemed fine. Sometimes, I'm just desperate for new reading material (doesn't mean that I request just any book or that I use my blogger status on NetGalley). Anyway, I'm really glad I requested this book, because it surprised me.

In the beginning, I felt like I was reading a book about gypsies (is that the word for it?). Annie and her father live all over the states. They works as antiquaries, which means they pick up stuff at churches and other institutes and sell them later on. They're not exactly rich, but they make the best of it. That is until Annie's father shows signs of dementia and she's forced to move back to his hometown - Moonhill - with him.

Moonhill is one scary place. Right after Annie and her father arrived there, I wondered whether I had requested a horror book. It was so damn scary. Usually, I don't read horror books, but wow, this one was really good. At least in the beginning I felt that way. Unfortunately, as the story went on, the book lost its appeal to me. That doesn't mean I gave up on it or didn't fully enjoy it. It was still good, but the events seemed to go on and on without anything really happening. And then of course there was Chase, who's a real cutie and I loved reading about his past, but the thing with him and Annie didn't make much sense to me. Naturally, I wanted them to end up together, but that's just my romantic heart and not because I felt chemistry between them. I did, at some point, when they were at the library. The two of them share nice, sweet scenes, but for my taste, there were too less of them.

Whenever I mention a thing I didn't like so much in a book, I feel like disappointing the author. That's not my attention at all. The book was still good. I never read a book about djinns before and I enjoyed that very much. It was scary and thrilling. And it was totally surprising, because when you think of the word 'supernatural', you don't think about djinns at first. It was different and I liked that, also the part about her father and how the family tried to heal him, hiring a priest and so on. It was really creative of the author.

However, I think I won't read the second book in this series. Not because I didn't like this book (I did, I did, I did! There will always be things that I don't enjoy. Doesn't mean the book is crap), but because I'm not sure whether I'll like to read about Annie and Chase. That's weird, isn't it?! So, I'll probably end up reading the sequel anyway, because we'll finally find out more about Annie's mom and that story will be fascinating, I can tell.