Meagan McKinney's Gentle from the Night is the story of two lovers brought together against the odds, both hiding from their pasts, and both needing to face their demons before they can continue with their lives.

When Alexandra Benjamin is left penniless after her father's death the light at the end of the tunnel is in the shape of Brian, the man she hopes to marry.  But her hopes are shattered when he reveals he could not marry her because she is a Jew.

Alone in the world and desperate for a position she decides to continue her father's work by accepting a post helping a deaf young man to speak.  Having studied with her father and sharing his work Alex knew that in the male dominated world she would be scorned if she tried to do her father's work.  So when a letter arrives requesting his help Alex writes to accept the post while letting the sender believe she is male.

Alex arrives at Cairncross with her maid and is taken to the castle by a servant who seems determined to scare her away.  Filled with stories of ghosts and hidden horrors Alex's maid is terrified for her mistress and believes that there is a spirit that means her harm.

Alex scorns the stories of ghosts and focuses on other problems, such as how to keep her position once the owner of the castle, John Damien Newell, discovers her deception.

This however, turns out to be less of a problem that the job itself.  For when she meets her pupil she discovers not a deaf child as she expected, but Samuel, a fully grown man with perfect hearing, but who was frightened out of his speech by an unknown occurrence while John was away.

Samuel appears terrified by Alex and John decides to keep her on at the castle so that she can help him overcome his fear and begin to talk again.

Alex accepts the job and starts her work with Samuel.  A task which seems impossible.  John remains at the castle keeping watch and carrying out his own games as he tests Alex's abilities and nerves.

Slowly Alex begins to make progress with Samuel, but her inner soul insists that he is not the brother who needs the most help.  For John's past is as tortured as Sams and to gain both their trusts she must dig into the past of the castle and find out the secrets that haunt the two men.

This story is a lot darker than most of the other novels featured on this site.  I found this novel a little difficult to get into at first but once I did I found it very good.  There is a good deal of mystery in the story and the ghostly plot makes for very interesting reading.

The only real fault that I can find with this book is that the hero is, for the most part, a thoroughly unlikeable character.  I admit that towards the end he does change a great deal and a lot of his characteristics are from his tortured childhood.  But I still found it difficult to believe that even at his worst Alex found herself falling in love with him.  Still, they do say love is blind!

If you are looking for humour in your books I would not recommend this one, but if you like the darker novels then this is a book worth looking for.

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Also by Meagan McKinney :  My Wicked Enchantress