About The Ancestor

Hardcover: 368 pages

Publisher: William Morrow (April 7, 2020)





From the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of the Angelology series comes a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges readers into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.





It feels like a fairy tale when Alberta ”Bert” Monte receives a letter addressed to “Countess Alberta Montebianco” at her Hudson Valley, New York, home that claims she’s inherited a noble title, money, and a castle in Italy. While Bert is more than a little skeptical, the mystery of her aristocratic family’s past, and the chance to escape her stressful life for a luxury holiday in Italy, is too good to pass up.





At first, her inheritance seems like a dream come true: a champagne-drenched trip on a private jet to Turin, Italy; lawyers with lists of artwork and jewels bequeathed to Bert; a helicopter ride to an ancestral castle nestled in the Italian Alps below Mont Blanc; a portrait gallery of ancestors Bert never knew existed; and a cellar of expensive vintage wine for Bert to drink.





But her ancestry has a dark side, and Bert soon learns that her family history is particularly complicated. As Bert begins to unravel the Montebianco secrets, she begins to realize her true inheritance lies not in a legacy of ancestral treasures, but in her very genes.


THOUGHTS/REVIEW:


Just imagine for a second that your dreams of being royalty (a princess or a countess) comes true. Then you receive a letter stating you have inherited a castle in Italy and you are a Countess!! What would you do?

Well this is the story of Alberta "Bert" Monte who was told she is the new "Countess Alberta Montebianco". She is flown to the Alps of Northern Italy near the city of Turin to see the estate she just inherited via a private jet. She meets with the attorneys and is whisked to her new life as a Countess with a long blood line of royalty. But of course, not all is roses when things start to take a turn and you uncover some strange mysteries surrounding the family and wealth you just inherited.

Trussoni's writing was amazing, in that she is able to set the tone of the story, leading the readers to want to find out what is going to happen next - this is truly her brilliance in this writing. The dark twists and turns really had my attention and I could not and would not stop turning those pages while anxiously anticipating what is going to happen next.

I also admired the characters that Trussoni wrote about with the strange and mysterious family members. The setting and the world building was short of incredible - bringing that gothic, mysterious, isolated, cold, feeling of seclusion, and being trapped. The short chapters and the perfect pacing really added to the enjoyment of this well written and well researched novel that I could stop recommending.

Pick this up for the perfect quarantine read. You will not be disappointed.











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About Danielle Trussoni

Danielle Trussoni is the New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of the supernatural thrillers Angelology and Angelopolis. She currently writers the Horror column for the New York Times Book Review and has recently served as a jurist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Trussoni holds an MFA in Fiction from the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she won the Michener-Copernicus Society of America award. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in the Hudson River Valley with her family and her pug Fly.



Find out more about Trussoni at her website, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.