“If you’ve read previous books by London Clarke, then you will love this one. If you haven’t, she’s about to become your new favorite author.”—Readers’ Favorite
Ex-priest turned demonologist Hunter Massabrook had given up on ever finding his wife, Laura. After over a year of searching, he’s shocked to learn she’s in a New Orleans hospital, using a different name. But the woman in the hospital … hospital bed barely looks like his wife. Worse, she’s obsessed with another man and memories of her life in a place called Nocturne House.
As Laura relays the story of her disappearance and the people responsible, she also reveals her connection to a dangerous cult known as The Colony—a group that forges their grip on Laura and others through psychological strongholds, supernatural entities, and all-too-human wicked intentions.
To make matters worse, Laura can’t break away from the man who initiated her into the cult, and she longs to return to Nocturne House. Hunter soon realizes that Laura’s ties to the house form simultaneous bonds with her heart, mind, and blood.
In the final suspenseful installment of the Legacy of Darkness series, supernatural and human evil collide in a tale about the power and danger of living outside society’s expectations and the relationships that can ruin or redeem us.
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I’ve been a huge fan of London Clarke’s since I read her first book Wildfell over two years ago. I loved the other two books in the Legacy of Darkness series (The Meadows and Whickering Place). However, the last and final installment of the series, Nocturne House, absolutely blew me away. It has become my favorite book that Clarke has written so far!
(While Nocturne House is the final installment in the Legacy of Darkness series, it can be read as a standalone. However, you do get a little more backstory on the majority of the characters if you’ve read the previous two books. Also, if you start at Nocturne House, you’ll end up with spoilers for the first two books.)
Laura has been missing for awhile. When she turns up in the hospital after a car accident, her husband, Hunter, is over the moon. However, Laura is devastated. She wants to return to her life she had while she was missing where she lived in a house called Nocturne House, where she was free of all her medications, and she belonged to another man. She was a sanguinarian in that life, and she seemed to enjoy it. However, Hunter knows that the cult Laura was in was involved in some highly shady and illegal dealings. Will Hunter be able to win back Laura’s heart and convince her that her time in Nocturne House wasn’t all it was cracked up to be?
I don’t know how London Clarke does it. Perhaps she has magical author superpowers, but she makes each book in the Legacy of Darkness series even better than its predecessor. I didn’t think that was possible since I always feel like each book was amazing! Nocturne House had such an intriguing plot. I found myself fully immersed in the story from the very first page. The story is extremely addictive, and I found that every time I had to put the book down for whatever reason, I was constantly craving more of the story. I had to find out what would happen next! Although there are chapters from Laura’s point of view as well as Hunter’s and Pearse’s, Clarke does an amazing job at connecting all the narratives together. The story runs together so smoothly, and each chapter seems to just flow into the next. I liked how we got to know more about The Colony (the major vampire cult) and its offshoot named SOAL (Success of a Lifetime) which prides itself on being better than The Colony and not as dark. SOAL reminded me a lot of Scientology and The Manson Family in which the way things were ran. It was obvious that London Clarke had done her homework on cults and how they operate. There were quite a few plot twists peppered throughout Nocturne House. While I was able to foresee some of the twists, many of them I never saw coming. Major points for that because unpredictable plot twists are the best! I also loved how Clarke made the ending for Nocturne House come together nicely. It never felt rushed or too perfect. It just felt natural. While there are no cliffhangers, there is some room for speculation or perhaps another book in the series (wishful thinking on my part!). The only minor thing that confused me was when Laura’s story would switch from past to present and back again. Laura’s chapters started off with if they were in the past or present, but there were a few chapters that weren’t labeled as such. Luckily, it was fairly easy to figure out which timeline I was in.
Every character in Nocturne House felt like a real life person. Each character felt very fleshed out instead of a make believe person. I was happy to revisit the lives of characters from the second book in the series and even more elated to see mentions of characters from the very first book! While this book has chapters from three different character’s points of view, Laura stood out as the main character. I found her chapters to be the most exciting (though each chapter brought excitement of its own). I kept wanting Laura to come to her senses, but I could see the appeal of SOAL as well as Alex, the man Laura claimed to be her husband at Nocturne House. I enjoyed reading about Laura’s thought process throughout the book especially when it came to SOAL’s activities. I also enjoyed Hunter’s perspective on everything, and his loyalty to Laura was very admirable. I think a lot of people would have just walked away after being treated the way Laura treated him. Alex was also a brilliant character, and even I was sucked in by his charismatic personality. I was elated to see that Pearse and Avery were back in Nocturne House. I loved them both in Whickering Place. I won’t go into much detail about them in case you want to read the previous book in the series, but let’s just say that Pearse was the same old Pearse with how he felt about everything.
Trigger warnings for Nocturne House include profanity, violence (though not gory), mental health issues, sexual situations (not graphic), rape (mentioned in name only), brainwashing, kidnapping, murder, demons, the occult, and alcohol use.
Overall, Nocturne House is a fantastic novel with a solid story and fantastic characters. London Clarke managed to make a spooky story really come to life in each and every page. I would definitely recommend Nocturne House by London Clarke to those aged 16+. I believe fans of most genres will enjoy this one!
Wasn’t what I expected. More vampier than paranormal in a ghost way. Wasn’t the scary I was looking for, but was still okay/good. And it was Book 3 and I didn’t realize when I picked it up to read. All in all it was interesting and good. Many will like it, just not the paranormal I was looking for.
Nocturne house brings the Legacy of Darkness series to its end in a suspenseful and thrilling modern day vampire novel.
Vampires..Demons..Haunted houses? Sign me up! This was the first London Clarke book that I have read but I was impressed. Even having not read the other books in this series I was still able to enjoy the book. I do think reading them in order would still be beneficial and personally plan to go back and read the others.
If your a fan of supernatural beings you will greatly enjoy this book. I found myself invested in Laura and Pearses stories. While this book is focused mainly around Lauras interactions with SOAL ( formally known as the colony) it is heavily entwined with the lives of Pearse and Avery ( the protagonists from the previous book). All the characters seemed to be well developed. As I was reading I felt like I was reading about real people because their personalities were so well written. London Clarke is quite simply a phenomenal writer!
Overall, Nocturne house is a truly thrilling read. It will grab you from the start and wont let go. The plot and characters are fantastic. You will love some and hate others. I can presume that the previous books were just as amazing and that this is the finale of the perfect modern day vampire novel.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.