Book review: Even in Madness by Virginia Wallace

Author: Virginia Wallace

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Great short stories for PNR, gothic and sci-fi fans

Even in Madness by Virginia Wallace is a collection of short stories of love, death, and…werewolves for paranormal, sci-fi, and gothic romance fans!

I’m a PNR fan and sunk my teeth into the pages of Renewing Forever and the Ritual. My favorite story is Talitha for gothic romance fans – think along the lines of Mary Shelley.

Virginia Wallace’s Talitha sucks you right into a world of gothic fantasy, progressing the story of Victor Frankenstein’s monster further. Here, the grotesque terror encounters a family, including a girl named Talitha. Horrified by the unnatural creature, the family flees, only to be struck down by disease, death, and poverty. The remaining survivor, Talitha, inherits the family’s finances and grows up to study medicine.

Years later, Talitha, now a doctor, meets an injured but otherwise physically flawless man named Ben. She performs a risky surgery to remove a bullet from his body, and he heals at a miraculously speedy rate. His nurturing love fulfills her life, a far cry from the hideous beast of Talitha’s past—a reminder of death and destruction. Ben and Talitha fall in love, court each other, and marry. You’d think that would be a sweet ending to this short story, right?

Nope.

Virginia Wallace surprises readers with a shocking discovery about Ben, which adds to the hair-raising twist in this sci-fi/horror/dark romance tale. Ben hides a secret connected to Frankenstein’s monster. Will his mysterious connection with the horrific science experiment kill the love between him and Talitha?

I couldn’t put the story down and read it in one sitting because I was keen to find out if this ill-fated romance would somehow turn into a happily ever after. I won’t reveal the ending, but I can say that Virginia Wallace has written another romance hit that resonates well with my reading preferences. I’m a fussy reader, and if a story isn’t a page-turner, I put it away. The story was definitely a page-turner for me, and I would gladly read it again.

I loved the heroine, who doesn’t come across as a woman needing rescuing. I do not like damsels in distress, and Talitha is anything but one. She’s strong, logical, and focuses on ‘what next’ rather than on a downpour of overloaded emotions and overthinking (a pattern I notice in romance novels in my DNF pile, but not in Virginia’s stories, which are cleverly written, polished, and professionally edited).

Virginia’s writing shows us her professionalism and experience as an author. She knows how to cut the crap, ‘show, don’t tell’, and move the story along at a pace that gives a natural flow in sync with the reader’s train of thought.

Well done, Virginia! I love your work! Great characters, strong story-telling.

Book Blurb

Our world is a depressing place sometimes. Just watch the news.

Ah, but in another world …!

In another world, a werewolf might go on the hunt for a human mate. In another world, the stars might shower us with sexy cowboys. Perhaps a pair of serial killers will fall madly in love, or a crumbling manor reveal itself as the gateway to another reality. Perhaps a fallen ‘goddess’ will seek refuge in the mortal world, or maybe a mysterious redhead will save her people from certain doom. Hell, Frankenstein’s monster might even re-emerge from the shadows!

Welcome to a kaleidoscopic collection of tales by the bestselling, award-winning author Virginia Wallace. For even in madness there is often an element of love, and love itself would soon become meaningless without the necessary contrast of horror …