Unholy Testament: The Beginnings by Carole Gill ~Book Tour & Guest Post~

Unholy Testament: The Beginnings

Gothic Romance/ Paranormal

Title: Unholy Testament – The Beginnings

Author: Carole Gill

published by Tudor Rose Press

Date Published: November 4, 2012

Synopsis: 

The day Eco first laid eyes on Rose Baines was the day she discovered (The House on

Blackstone Moor) her family’s savage butchery at the hands of her mad, incestuous father.

“I saw you leave the house that day, Rose, that terrible day you discovered your family

butchered. I saw you…”

Eco realizing he has fallen in love with her pens a confession documenting all of his sins

committed in the course of his immortal existence. The one request is that Rose reads his

confession.

Rose, having become his captive, is forced to read this unholy testament of his.

From Ancient Egyptian vampire cults to Roman vampire brothels to The Dark Ages, The

Crusades, The Black Death of 1348 to his meeting with child murderer and Satanist, Gilles de

Rais, concluding with his wicked affair with the Blood Countess herself, Erzebat Bathory.

Eco is, if nothing else, frankly and brutally honest. The pages are filled with debauchery and

vice and murder--yet, there is also love or what Eco swears is love.

The story is continued in Unholy Testament – Full Circle, to be released in early 2013.

Thoughts

Eco is back!!!!! And thus my nightmares are going to start up again!!!

I love Carole Gill's ability to engross the reader into the story so well that you actually feel like you're there.

This book goes beyond the WHOLLY BOOGERS factor....Eco has Rose and the Children trapped on a ship to which he's not letting them go until she reads his journal.

(As if he'll do it after that either...he's a flipping DEMON!!!)

This journal is suppose to make Rose feel for dear sweet, misunderstood Eco and how she should see him differently.

I mean really.....sucking blood, eating human flesh, raising child murders from the dead is all just a misunderstanding....really?!?!?

Heaven forbid we mention the whole  Bird Creatures...Yep .........CREEPY!!!

Personally I loved every page of this book,the story is so in dept. The character are all the same from The House on Blackstone Moor , with a few added extras.

The twists are many and by the time your at the end the BIGGEST plot turn has found you......

AWESOME READ....Awaiting the next!!!!!

AMAZON    

Carole Gill

10 Favorite Books and Why

Dracula

Dracula has not been out of print since it was first published in 1897. That says a lot. The structure of the novel is terribly interesting. The story is told from journal reports, letters and various papers.

I love that because the first person narrative (a favorite of mine for long fiction to read and to write) creates intimacy. It makes it all quite real as well.

I look to it for inspiration and always shall. This novel decided me on choosing my point of view for my novel, The House on Blackstone Moor and frankly it further decided me on how to write the sequel, Unholy Testament.

I think every author, of whatever genre, should study the technique used here because it is brilliant.

Interview with a Vampire

This to me, is as ground breaking a novel as Dracula was. It is a brilliantly told tale but it is written for the modern reader.

Here we find that vampires are not all the same. They feel and remember their living lives.

Rice shows us that vampires are more complex than any other monstrous fictional creations. That is why the genre will go on, adapting itself continually for each generation of reader.

Jane Eyre

This novel is the best representation of just how harsh English society was in the middle part of the 19th Century. It was class based. Whatever class you were born into, you remained in as did your children.

Jane Eyre, one of society’s unfortunates is determined to survive and be loved at all cost. This alone makes the character remarkable. She wants love in a loveless society.

I love the dark romance in the novel as well as the beautiful narrative.

I often joke that The House on Blackstone Moor is Jane Eyre with vampires, in a way it is! Read it and you’ll see what I mean!

Wuthering Heights

This is a far darker and more controversial story than Jane Eyre. When it was released it was perceived as such.

Just what is Heathcliff and Cathy’s relationship, are they related or not?

Their love is doomed as they are because of this irresolution.

This is a dark, beautifully told story. And really, for me, the test of what makes a novel great is whether we remember it. This is another one to remember.

Rebecca

This is the first gothic romance novel I read. There is a dark mystery at the heart of the story which I find very intriguing. Just why does the housekeeper hate the second Mrs. DeWinter as much as she does?

The questions abound as the mystery deepens. There are surprising twists that will shock and delight. I loved it.

My Cousin Rachel

This is told in the first person narrative. A young man tells this story of doomed love, of dark desires and deeply felt romance. There is a ponderous question at the center or it. Is Cousin Rachel good or bad? Was Philip’s beloved uncle poisoned or not by her?

The truth comes out and it will haunt Philip for the rest of his life as well as those who read the tale!

The Portrait of Dorian Grey

This is a gothic masterpiece. It is positively Faustian in that young, handsome Dorian Gray in a careless moment, stares at his reflection and offers his soul in order to remain as he is.

It is an allegory for all of us, in whatever century we live in. It is the reason we seek Botox treatments and face lifts. And the key question is, if we could offer our souls to remain young as Dorian did, would we?

A Tale of Two Cities

If I had to choose a novel that had everything in it a novel should have, it would be this one.

There is love, romance, bigotry, madness and hatred—told against the backdrop of the French Revolution.

This is Dickens’ masterpiece. For it depicts the greatest gift one human being can give another: their own life sacrificed in the name of love.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Two beings in one body—a just man and a monster: Jekyll and Hyde. This is one of the most remarkable pieces of fiction ever written.

Hyde looks like what he is, a monster. Jekyll ostensibly wished to see if he could make himself evil.

Of course we could ask ourselves was this a noble scientific experiment or did he wish to know ‘how the evil half lived?’

He could then give into whatever dark desires he might have! If that is in any way the case, it puts a whole different light on this amazing story.

The Woman in Black

The most superbly satisfying ghost story ever written in my opinion, this is the mother of all haunted tales.

I love it because it is well written and plausible. Hatred has survived death and that hatred, in the person of the Woman in Black, seeks revenge. Revenge that is as terrifying as it is brutally unfair.

~Author Bio~

I wrote my first story at age 8. It was sci-fi but as both my parents were sci-fi fanatics it

wasn’t a surprise.

I continued to write however life got in the way as it often does, and it wasn’t until 2000 that

I turned back to writing. I joined a local writer’s workshop and was greatly encouraged to

keep up with my writing and to send things out.

Shortly afterwards, I was selected by Northwest Playwrights of England for further

development but found I preferred fiction writing.

Widely published in horror and sci-fi anthologies, The House on Blackstone Moor is my first

novel. It is a tale of vampirism, madness, obsession and devil worship.

Set in 19th Century Yorkshire, its locales include Victorian madhouses as well as barren,

wind-swept Yorkshire moors. The story is a marriage of horror and gothic romance. I think it

can best be described as being gothic paranormal romantic horror.

I suppose you could say I want to put the Goth back into Gothic.

Living in the area the novel is set in, was very beneficial. Also, as a great admirer of the

Brontes and frequent visitor to the Bronte Parsonage in Haworth, I found myself nearly

obsessed with recreating the gothic romantic narrative.

Having been employed in a hospital which had been historically a workhouse and

asylum in Victorian times, I was able to add great realism to the depiction of the asylums

as described in my novel.

The next in the series, Unholy Testament – Full Circle is the continuation of Eco’s

confession. It will be released in 2013.

Book 4 in the series follows that.

Website

*Disclosure of Material Connection: no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising*