Blackthorn

She should never have come back here...granny would've understood right?!?He's here...I know he's here..I can feel him..there he is...standing at the gates smoking a cigarette..how can you ever forget your one true love???She thinks I hate her...that's soooo far from the truth but I'll never admit it to her until she tells me what I need to know...She's still as beautiful today as the first day I met her..she's MINE!!! They both are and what's mine is not for anyone else!!!Their lives will always be entwined until the day they die!!!

Holy smoke! Blackthorn was incredible!! J.T. Geissinger wrote another amazing story! Maven and Ronan…awesome couple! I don’t know how to describe this except to say I was entailed the whole time!The narration by Tara Langella, Connor Crais, and Veronica Pace was outstanding! I would suggest listening to this one.

I am left without words! I ordered this book as pre-order and got it the day it was released. I began reading that same day and I can honestly say I'm blown away. The entire time I was reading I had absolutely no idea of what was truly happening to the MFC, and let me tell you, my guesses were all wrong! I don't want to spoil anything so all I'll say is this, if you enjoy m dark gothic romances then this book is a must. It's superbly written. The banter and interactions between the main characters draws you in. You feel the connection between them. You'll begin reading thinking you know what's going to happen and then you'll be left bewildered because all your thoughts were wrong. The ending, however, felt a bit rushed to me and left me thoroughly confused, so now I'm double guessing if what I thought happened, actually happened. Not sure if there will be a sequel as the ending didn't exactly stop at a cliffhanger, but if the author decided to make a second follow up I wouldn't be at all disappointed. So, regardless of how the book ended, the overall book is phenomenal.Grab this book because you're in for a ride. I literally couldn't put it down.

If there's one thing I've come to expect from J.T. Geissinger, it's that she will give us an FMC that is feisty, sarcastic, witty and intelligent and throws barbs around like no one's business. Of course she did not disappoint in Blackthorn.Maven Blackthorn has returned to her family home in Solstice with her daughter Bea in tow. She's come back to bury her grandmother and is welcomed by her quirky aunts and their mute caretaker, Quentin. But there's also someone she doesn't want to see, and that is the man that broke her heart after the death of her mother.'You never forget your first love.Especially when he's also your worst nightmare.'Ronan Croft lingers in the shadows and seems to always be around. His family basically owns Solstice and has their hands in many jars. He's the last man that Maven wants to see. He broke her heart years ago, but she still feels some sort of way towards him even if she continuously fights with him. They constantly banter and all he wants is her. But without knowing much about their past, you have to be satisfied with their enemies to lovers sarcastic back and forth banter."I adore it when you threaten me with violence. Did I ever tell you that?""God, I regret I came home.""I don't. This is the most fun I've had in years."Along with this tension between Maven and Ronan, now Maven's grandmother's body has gone missing. With this new development, Maven and Bea can't leave and Maven dives deeper into the mystery surrounding her family and the missing body.I loved all the vibes of this book and loved the fact that it was eerie, gothic, dark and sexy and had me questioning all the strange things that started happening at the Blackthorn's. Was it real? Was it a dream? What the heck is happening?? But I liked the fact that while during the strange occurrences, Geissinger keeps the mystery of the missing body at the forefront while also giving us a taste of a push and pull relationship between Maven and Ronan. It's exciting and electric, but also a little confusing.With all that said, I was enjoying the first 80% of the book, even when it seemed a little disjointed with having a lot of different things to focus on. And then the last 10-15% had me thinking I was reading a completely different book with very sinister characters. HELLO PLOT TWIST!! As one friend said, it was like a monster romance all of a sudden and I'm not sure it gelled with the majority of what I enjoyed previously.Overall, Geissinger gave a lot of twisted goodness, especially with the Gothic vibes that were so addictive. The tension between Maven and Ronan was nothing short of electric, even when they tried to hate or stay away from one another. It's the abrupt and odd twist of an ending that had me questioning what the heck I just read. But all in all, it was a unique read that kept me intrigued throughout.If you're ready to read a genre-bending story that includes everything from gothic to paranormal to mystery to dark(ish) romance, then be prepared to read the trigger warning before diving into this unusual yet addictive "spooky season" read.'I have no idea when reality ended yesterday and the smut version of Alice in Wonderland began.'

When author J.T. Geissinger announced she was diving into fantasy with a dark gothic romance, my excitement was through the roof!Then, the announcement that the audiobook features a multicast duet narration, including Connor Crais, Tara Langella, and Veronica Pace, was the icing on the delicious cake that was this book.In summary of this wicked standalone, following a young woman, Maven Blackthorn, who returns to her small New England hometown she fled from after her mother's death 12 years ago. The quirky Modge Podge home she and all the generations of the women in her family lived in hadn't changed a bit. Over the years, they added different rooms to expand the familial house, which is as creepy as it looks, yet it remains home. When Mav's daughter Bea comments that it looks haunted, she's not wrong. She never told her daughter Beatrix about the Blackthorn women, and this will be her first introduction to them. Her mother's twin sisters are infamous in this old town, and everyone is scared of them. No need to get into details about this female legacy with Bea. They won't be here long enough for the house and town to suck her into their witchy ways. At least that was the plan.Most of the town fears the Blackthorn women —Esme, Davina, and Mav —and they should, but Maven Blackthorn doesn't miss this place and has good reason for leaving. A death in her family was part of the reason she left Solstice, Vermont, all those years ago and hasn't looked back. Now it is the reason for her return when her grandmother unexpectedly passes away from an accident, not from declining health due to age. The other thing she was running from was the heir of the richest family not only in the town, but nationwide, the Crofts. He stole her heart and stomped all over it, and the last thing she wants to do is run into Ronan Croft. When he catches wind that she is back in town, of course, he has to be standing outside the gate of her property in the dead of night like the devil stalking his next victim. He's even more attractive as a grown man than he was as that magnetic hot teen all the girls wanted in school, and she had him (in secret). It makes her want to punch his face in. Their families have been rivals since one of their great-grandmothers in the past had one of her great-grandmothers burned at the stake for being a witch, and the family feud has been ongoing since.Two things have thrown a wrench in this supposed quick trip home to pay respect to her grandmother. One, her grandmother has gone missing from the funeral parlor. Two, Ronan wants to see his daughter, whom Maven is trying to convince him isn't his, by lying about her age (she is small for 11), but he doesn't believe her. Also, he is hard to resist; no matter how hard she tries, she keeps running into him, and he knows he can get under her skin. The more she digs into where her grandmother may have gone, the more she starts looking into other odd things regarding her family. When she is home, she hears strange things, sees even stranger ones, and this wicked house with her witchy family has a way of making the Blackthorn women feral. It's starting to dig its claws into her daughter, and her all over again.This book has the gothic, spooky, witchy vibes you want for the season. It also has Geissinger's signature twists, which she is known for in her books, and this one is particularly spicy. Her books are usually high on the spice chart, but as she jumps into the paranormal genre, this one got a little freaky. If you don't like open-door spice, this isn't the book for you. You can skip over it and focus on the story to see how it unfolds, but it's definitely there if you don't mind doing that. I'm not complaining, just warning anyone reading this review.I am biased with this author since I've read several of her books. I was slightly scared knowing how the plot twists in two of her previous books shocked me and made me cry. This had me very nervous, and she certainly did throw some twists, but thankfully, my supply of tissues is safe.Some tropes you will see in this standalone:*Small Town Return*Witches & Spells*Touch her and die*Shady Rich Family*Forbidden romance*Grumpy/grumpy*Plot twists*Strong Generation of Women*Enemies to lovers to enemies to...?*I have always loved you*Young heartbreak*Teen Pregnancy*Powerful Families*Accidental Deaths?