Possessed by Kate Cann

The beginning of Possessed drops the reader right into the stifling life of Rayne, a young London teenager. Her relationships with her mother and boyfriend are dysfunctional, and she’s unable to find a moment’s peace amid the noise and crime of the city. Kate Cann does an excellent job of showing us Rayne’s frayed nerves and her desire to get out of her neighborhood by any means necessary. Desperate, she takes a live-in job at the country estate of Morton’s Keep.

As Rayne settles into her new life, Cann continues to excel at depicting the character’s mental state. When Rayne exults in her freedom, we feel it right along with her; when creepy events occur and Rayne is frightened, we feel that too. Rayne is not always a “nice” girl — she lies a lot, for one — but we are given plenty of reasons to sympathize with her. She makes mistakes, but they’re... Read More

Consumed by Kate Cann

When I learned that Consumed (Fire and Rayne in the UK) was being released stateside, I was excited. I enjoyed the previous book, Possessed, and was eager to find out what lay in store for Rayne and for Morton’s Keep. Kate Cann has done a great job with this sequel, giving us a hair-raising tale that tops the first book and brings Rayne’s story to a thrilling conclusion.

Sir Simeon Lingwall’s modern-day pawn has been defeated and his basement chamber of horrors filled in with concrete — so why is Rayne still seeing and hearing uncanny things, and why are gruesome crimes being committed in and around the town of Marcle Lees? Rayne begins to suspect the evil has not been completely laid to rest and may be rising again even stronger than before. The only hope of stopping it lies in traditions half-remembered by... Read More