Review: Sommersgate House by Kristen Ashley

Posted October 26, 2019 by Kate

Let me preface this by saying that Sommersgate House is a book that I’ve read several times, as it’s a Kristen Ashley book. As Ms. Ashley is one of my all-time favorite authors, everything of hers is something I reread quite frequently. But…. this may be my least favorite book of hers that I’ve read.

The book starts out with Julia, our main character, selling everything she owns in her hometown Indiana and moving to England to live at Sommersgate House, a kind of ancestral house of her sister-in-law. She does this because her brother and sister-in-law had been tragically killed, and their Will stated that they wanted Julia and Douglas, Sommergate House’s owner and the sister-in-law’s brother, to raise their three kids at Sommersgate, the same house the sister-in-law grew up in and adored.

This was a somewhat puzzling and troublesome demand on all sides. For Julia, she had to give up her high-paying job, her home and all of her friends, moving into a house that included Douglas’s venomous mother. For Douglas, his house was now filled his sister’s grief-stricken children he had no idea what to do with. But, loving their deceased members as they had, they all did it.

“Then you stay down here and I’ll sleep in your bed.”
His eyes went from half-shut to fully-open, regarding her sharply.
“Julia, you don’t sleep in that bed until I’m in it with you.”

If you’re going in expecting a wild, paranormal time, you will be disappointed by this book. Ms. Ashley’s Ghost and Reincarnation series is really a contemporary romance disguised as a supernatural romance. Meaning, it’s all contemporary with a little bit of haunting, ghosts, seances, and the afterlife thrown in.

But the characters in this one were super fun. Julia, herself, was a great character. Full of poise, but also completely adorable and family-oriented, she was completely thrown off when Douglas started his pursuit of her. “Pursuit” meaning he asked her to marry him, and then spent most of the book convincing her it was a good idea ?? Douglas, too, was a good character. Great back story, shiver-and-swooning interactions. But I also didn’t feel that I got enough depth with him, which is unusual for a Kristen Ashley book. The rest of the cast, the three kids, the housekeepers, the staff, the friends… it was a fun, and very entertaining ride that had me smiling and giggling the whole way.

The kiddos were adorable, and the romance was sweet. Was it the best romance I’ve read? No. Is it the best Kristen Ashley’s book? Not even close. But it was enjoyable and immersive and fully pulled me into the story. This was Ms. Ashley when she was still finding her writing feet, and though her amazingly well-done formula is still very present, her recent works are much better, unfortunately for this book.