Book review – Incubus by Carol Goodman

‘This is where all stories start, on the edge of a dark wood…’

Dr. Callie McFay’s travels to the small college town of Fairwick in New York State for a job interview. Despite it being her second choice she finds herself talked into accepting a job offer from the Folklore Department to teach a class on demons and vampires. She also finds herself drawn to an old house in the woods where Gothic novelist Dahlia LaMotte used to live and buys it on a whim, despite the seeming reluctance of the estate agent to sell it to her.

But on the night of her job interview, she had a very vivid erotic dream about a man made out of shadows and moonlight, and this dream becomes a regular occurrence when she moves into her new home. Callie starts to feel like a heroine in one of the gothic novels she teaches as slowly it dawns on her that things at the college – and in her home – are not what they seem. She learns that her house is supposed to be haunted by LaMotte’s former lover and her new – and rather strange – colleagues tell her an unfamiliar fairy tale about an incubus-demon with a human past who was enchanted by a fairy queen…

It’s been a while since I read a paranormal novel so I was very excited to recieve a copy of the first book in Carol Goodman’s new series The Fairwick Chronicles. Incubus tells the story of college teacher Callie McFay as she takes up a job in the small town of Fairwick near New York. Callie is a student of folklore and has built her career on the study of Gothic novels, legends and fairytales.

The first part of the novel follows Callie as she attends her interview at the college and is drawn to an old Gothic house at the edge of a forest. I enjoyed seeing the town of Fairwick through Callie’s eyes and the first chapters of the book set the scene well for what is to come with Callie being mysteriously drawn to the old house; having a strange experience as she goes for a run in the woods and the return of Callie’s dreams about a lover made out of shadows. On the surface, all of these occurrences are explainable and Fairwick seems to be a fairly ‘normal’ college town but there is of course much more to Fairwick and it’s residents than an initial glance might reveal.

On accepting the job offer and deciding to buy the house by the woods, Callie discovers that the house belonged to Gothic novelist Dahlia LaMotte. As Callie settles into her new life she finds a treasure trove of Dahlia’s original manuscripts, complete with erotic scenes that were edited out before publication. As Callie ponders Dahlia’s prolific writing and the inspiration for it, her own dreams become more regular, vivid and strikingly similar to Dahlia’s written encounters.

As Callie gets to know her new colleagues better and they reveal the local legends surrounding the gate to Faerie, she begins to question whether her dreams and the shadow man who occupies them could actually be real. Potential readers should note that the dream/sex scenes are quite a feature at the beginning but become less so as the book progresses and although there is what would be described as ‘Adult’ content in the book, I think it would be suitable for the majority of young adult readers too.

The book changes pace dramatically when three of Callie’s colleagues realise that she is under the infulence of an Incubus and stage an intervention. The story really takes off once Callie is accepted into the magical community and begins to learn the truth about the town’s residents, her own heritage and role. At some points I felt that Incubus read like an adult version of Harry Potter with a fascinating cast of magical beings to get to know including witches, fairies, succubi, vampires and more! The characters in Incubus provide great variety and each has a strong depth with plenty of scope for expansion in future novels; Goodman has created a whole new magical and sometimes dangerous world for her characters to inhabit and her readers to enjoy.

Paranormal romance fans will certainly get their fix as Callie tries to work out her feelings for boyfriend Paul, the Incubus who haunts her and new tutor on campus, Liam. There are numerous references  to the recent obsession with vampires and the paranormal and  I enjoyed the way this book looks at the trend through the eyes of an outsider, acknowledging the great Gothic novels whilst not taking itself too seriously. Incubus feels very different in style to Goodman’s recent collaboration with her husband, Black Swan Rising and although I enjoyed both, Incubus definitely has the edge for me.

As the book ends, several new threads open up leaving plenty of scope for further novels in the series. After a slow start, this book pulled me in and wouldn’t let go. I’m pleased to have found another paranormal series to get myself hooked on and am already looking forward to the next installment of The Fairwick Chronicles. I haven’t found any information on the release of book two yet so if anyone knows, please shout! There is a fab interview with Carol at the back of the book and if you liked A Discovery of Witches this might just be the next book for you – a paranormal series with lots of potential!

4/5

Incubus is out now and I’d like to thank Emma at Ebury for sending me a copy to review.

You can find out more about Carol Goodman and her books at: http://www.carolgoodman.com/