Beautiful. Unique. And utterly romantic.Clementine has been taken by a creature of darkness. Dorin is a fiend in love who must find Clementine before losing her forever. While on his desperate search, Dorin pens eight dark and romantic monstrous tales, written only for Clementine. Each story serves a purpose, and that is, do monsters have the ability to love, too?Perfect for fans of The Language … too?
Perfect for fans of The Language of Thorns and Holly Black. Dearest Clementine is filled with swoony tales that will leave you captivated, breathless, and rooting for Dorin and Clementine to find one another again.
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Candace Robinson is quite the versatile and varied authoress. I’ve read many of her short stories before, and I’ve always adored her fantasy books and young adult novels. This time, she’s begun a new series entitled Letters, and it’s meant to be a conversation between two lovers, Clementine and Dorin. In the first book, Dearest Clementine; Dark and Romantic Monstruous Tales, Dorin is searching for his beloved, as she’s gone missing. He writes her a letter and shares a tale with each correspondence during his quest to locate her. I am very curious if these will be the only two main characters in the series, or will others be introduced…
There are about ten letters and stories in this collection. Each one builds deeper and darker. Most resemble a bit of a fairy tale or well-known story we’ve heard a bunch about before. But they’re modern, twisted in a gruesome way, and meant to tickle your imagination. Take, for instance, my favorite, which also happens to be the first one. It easily captured my attention, as it focuses on a wooden marionette. Although his name isn’t Pinocchio, the concept of lying is definitely important to the plot. I won’t give away any spoilers, but imagine getting someone to do your evil bidding? Only to learn your mother or creator has an even darker web to discover. Luckily, someone’s looking out for our little favorite toy… who just happens to hold a penchant for murder with an axe, weekly, even if he wishes he didn’t have to do it!
These letters are romantic and heartwarming, despite the fury of the overall horror in the tales. Clementine and Dorin love one another. What’s keeping them apart? When will we find out? How does the story relate to the tragedy that’s befallen them? There’s so much going on here, pay close attention, or you won’t discover everything you’re meant to learn. In the end, we certainly reach a milestone, but it’s not what we expected, and I suspect, it’s far from over… but maybe that’s just hope. Definitely a fun way to experience an author’s writing style and tone. Though a very different genre from her YA fiction, a similar finesse with imagery, setting, and word choice is stand-out. Great job!
This collection of stories is dark, romantic and a little creepy, then wrapped up or connected by letters to Clementine. It was such a creative and unique way of writing a book of short stories!! Each story grabbed and pulled you in right away, then kept your interest throughout. I loved and enjoyed them all, but I definitely had my favorites. Probably my two favorites are, LAUGHTER IS ALWAYS BETTER and WRONG IS POSSIBLY RIGHT. I also really enjoyed the Dear Clementine letters!!! I relished this collection of stories and want it for my library. This is absolutely a book I’d pick up and read again and again!!
“Dearest Clementine: Dark and Romantic Monstrous Tales” is one of the most unique dark gothic tales in the modern market. The book is a collection of dark tales, eight in number, with the common denominator to have been written by Dorin to Clementine. Dorin and Clementine are lovers, but… Clementine is missing, as Dorin search for her, he writes her letters and includes a dark tale to each one. As the book progresses the tales evolve, everyone building upon the last, creating an increasingly sharper image of the events. The contrast between the sweet and romantic love letters and the dark, bordering on horror, tales attached to them is mesmerizing and leave an everlasting impression. While the letters are lovely, almost innocent, there is the tales what captivates the reader to no end, all of them reminiscent of some renowned fairy tale of old with increasingly darker nuances that foreshadow the final events, but even so, when the final page come, the development is surprising nevertheless.
Candace Robinson story is unique, a mix of fairy tale dark retelling, metaphoric storytelling, telling between the lines and that (almost forgotten) custom of old to write letters for the departed during the mourning time, and together with memento mori collected collect them in diaries during Victorian times.
This is an amazing read! a collection of 10 short dark romance stories that written as love letters by Monster Dorin to his lost love Clementine. the tales bring a variety to a book as stories within a story. The short stories are well written and in depth filled with emotion, horrors, twisting nightmares, with elements of myths and fantasy entwined together to create something truly unique! A must read for lovers of horror, romance, love, dark themes, and mystic.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Fun spooky short stories! 8 short stories and then some writing by Dorin in his journal to his love, who has been kidnapped. Definitely wish some were longer! My favorites were Sail into the Unknown; a cool, dark riff on the Pinocchio story, A Piece for Him; a sweet, macabre riff on Frankenstein, Darkness Can Be Good; a gory, lusty ghost story, and Wrong is Possibly Right; looking at the motives of murderous predators. All the stories were great! Cool and unique stories with a dash of love!
I want to start off by saying I was given the opportunity to read early ebook copy of this book. In return for my honest thought and reviews. Thats what you will get. I have to say that this book is my favorite of 2020. I loved how the author did the letters with a short story in this book. I felt like I was reading someone old journal. I have a journal that I write. So I love this idea. I have a couple of favorite stories from this book. Here are just a few. Don’t wait to spoil this book to much Lured in for Death, Laughter is always better. Highly recommend this book.
About Book:
Dorin is writing letters to his love Clementine because his love has been taken by a creepy and scary creature. And with his letter to Clementine Dorin tells of her a different story. Its a short book book but doesn’t feel like one. Again highly recommend this book.
Dearest Clementine is a collection of deliciously macabre short stories that combine horror and romance in a new and unique way. If you’ve ever wondered if monsters can love and what lengths someone will go to for the ones they love, you’ll love Dearest Clementine. A book for all of us that understood Frankenstein’s monster.
I was blown away by this book. It’s unique, and an awsome-a new favorite for sure. .)
Clementine was taken from Dorin, and while he searches for her, he writes her letters and companies them with stories for her to read. There are a total of 8 stories in the book, each very, very different, but have one thing in common: love. And one message. No matter what kind of monster you are, no matter what you have done so far, everyone deserves to love.
It’s just so romantic… 🙂
What surprised me the most, was that even though the stories were short, they didn’t feel … short. Like a complete story on its own.
I like them all so much. It seems possible to pick a favorite. The two that kept playing in my mind were Our Hearth Whiter To and Darkness Can Be Good.
Our Hearths Whiter To
She has to eat a new heart every month if she wants to survive. But with this month’s target, she feels in love instead.
Darkness Can Be Good
Frankie watched all of her sisters die. And when she starts to see her sister’s imaginary friends, she knows that her time has come too. The more they talk, the closer they become.
I adore the format, I haven’t read anything like it. It’s unique and very intriguing. I like the way it gives a backdrop to the stories and pulls them together-through the common theme.
So so good!
Highly recommend it!!!
received from the Author
This was so much fun. I’ve never read a collection of short stories quite like this. Dorian is on a quest to find his missing love, Clementine. We get snippets of his journey to find her, along with eight short stories he writes for her during his search. Each has a paranormal/dark fairy tale/horror element, but is centered on the dark and twisty characters finding love as well. I love it when monsters find their happy.
***I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary ARC of this book.***
This collection of suspenseful stories was brilliantly tied together. It was also full of imagination. I love the cover and each story in this book.