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I guess I read this one wrong because I did NOT like it! It just seemed contrived and melodramatic. Part of the plot I guessed (her mother's situation) and part I didn't. Most of the book, while repetitive, read like a typically gothic mystery, a la Victoria Holt. The ending, though, just got sillier and sillier.

*** SPOILERS ***

First, the MC's father turns out to be the mystery lover? And he goes from allowing himself to be goaded into stabbing an already dying woman 50 years earlier to cold-bloodedly murdering a young woman--after fifty years of living a normal life? Then, as the mansion is crumbling into the sea, the older sister, Lenora, advises the MC to take care of the old paralyzed woman because "it's her turn to have a life outside of the mansion." Then she sits on the stairs and waits to die. So . . . they can't both live at the same time? What the hell? Then the MC's dad goes and sits on the stairs, too, because his secret came out? The real kicker is when we're asked to believe that the old paralyzed woman was FAKING IT!!! For FIFTY YEARS!! She lay in the bed, unable to speak or move anything but her one arm, letting people feed her, bathe her, and change her diapers, by CHOICE! And in that time, no doctors caught on that she was actually fine. Sure, that's believable! *eyeroll*

Even more believably, after the truth is revealed when Virginia skips out without a word to MC, she comes back and they travel the world together as BFFs. My emotion at this point is just incredulity. But everyone else seems to love it, so maybe it's just me.