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| Source: Author Website |
Twenty years ago, Evelyn Talbot was
raped and brutalized by her high school boyfriend and left for dead. After
years of therapy, she’s now a forensic psychiatrist who studies the
psychopathic mind. Her latest achievement is the opening of a new facility in
Hilltop, Alaska, where she can study the worst humanity has to offer. Not
surprisingly, there’s resistance from the locals, who protest her facility’s
arrival by defacing its buildings. When she reports the damage, it brings her
into contact with good-looking Sergeant Amarok, an Alaskan state trooper.
Although Evelyn feels that her early-life trauma ruined her for romantic
relationships, she is surprised when her interactions with Amarok awaken
long-dead feelings of physical desire. Is the time finally right for her to
move on from her tortuous past? Possibly. Except what she doesn’t know is that
her past, i.e. ex-boyfriend Jasper, is close behind.
Hanover House is a short
prequel that serves as the foundation for a new romantic suspense/thriller series. After
finishing it, however, all I can say is that I hope the rest of the series is
better, because this founding installment stinks. Okay, so I do have to
give Novak credit for her idea: Hanover House has a lot of elements to
make an interesting story. For example, Evelyn’s desire to pursue a rewarding
career conflicts with her worry-stricken mother’s desire to keep her safe.
Evelyn also desires to have healthy romantic relationships, despite the crippling
intimacy issues that stem from her early trauma. Oh, and let’s not forget the
angry Alaskan locals who fear for their families’ safety, despite the research
breakthroughs that might occur at the facility. Although that’s just three
items in a list, it’s quite a bit of ground to cover—and a novella certainly
isn’t the proper medium one should use to explore that much material. However, that’s just what we get. At 244 pages,
Hanover House covers a novel’s worth of story ideas with the brevity of
a “serial killer of the week” episode you might see in a weekly crime series.
As a result, it’s more of a shallow preview than a proper work on its own. Add
to this the story’s unremarkable cast of characters, and an anti-climactic ending,
and you have one poorly written excuse for a story.
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