New-to-me author Amy Rae Durreson’s A Frost of Cares is a superbly-crafted little gem of a book that combines a genuinely creepy ghost story with a lovely, gentle romance, and addresses some serious themes in a sensitive manner – all in just over one hundred and fifty pages. It turned out to be the perfect choice for this month’s TBR Challenge Spooky/Gothic theme, taking place as it does in an old, mostly abandoned country house, complete with an unnerving legend, inexplicable footsteps, cold spots, bad dreams, and a dangerously unhappy ghost.

Looking to make a fresh start, historian Luke Alcott takes a job cataloguing the archives at the former Royal Academy of Military Medicine at Eelmoor Hall near Aldershot. It’s been ten years since his boyfriend, Danny, disappeared and Luke has decided it’s time to finally let go, accept Danny isn’t coming back, and move on with his life. He puts the flat they’d shared on the market and makes his way to Eelmoor, where he’s been offered accommodation for the duration of the job.

Arriving later than he’d planned, he’s greeted by the taciturn, somewhat disgruntled caretaker, Jay McBride, and directed to his room and the library where he’ll be spending most of his time. Dropping off his bags, Luke figures he might as well spend a few hours in the library, putting down the random creaks and groans to the movement of an old building and the footsteps he hears overhead to McBride walking around. That night, his sleep is full of strange, fragmented dreams from which he wakes unnerved a couple of times – but the third time, he wakes to find himself unable to move, paralysed by an all consuming fear that washes over him in waves of terror and freezing cold. It’s absolutely chilling (don’t read this one in the dark!) and he’s sure he’s going to die – but slowly, the waves recede and he falls into an exhausted sleep. When he wakes again in the early hours of the morning, he can move again and decides to get to work to take his mind off the weirdness of the night. By the time the brightess of morning appears, he’s convinced himself it was nothing but his mind playing tricks, a combination of bad memories, hunger and the dregs of a hangover.

A few hours into the day, Sergeant McBride – Jay – a veteran who lost part of his leg while serving in Afghanistan and who is in the process of being medically retired – offers to drive Luke into town to buy groceries, and on the way back, Luke suggests he cook dinner for them both by way of a thank you. Jay is reserved at first but slowly reveals a dry sense of humour, and a tentative friendship begins to develop over the shared meal and conversation. As they talk, Luke tells Jay the legend of the Mistletoe Bride, an urban myth dating from the seventeenth century claimed by lots of old houses in England – including Eelmoor. The Bride was a young woman who went missing on her wedding night during a game of hide and seek and was never found, dead or alive. Some versions of the story say she was accidentally locked into a trunk and couldn’t get out – and the history of Eelmoor Hall Luke has been reading indicates that one of its previous owners brought back a replica of the trunk from Italy, having been told it was the chest from the original story… and that he imported the ghost along with it.

Luke’s nightmares return that night and the next and the next… and in the mornings, his knuckles are bruised and bloody – as if he’s been trying to fight his way out of something. He becomes increasingly convinced that the ghost wants something from him and won’t let him go until she gets it.

A Frost of Cares is a creepy gothic mystery in which the author does a great job of building the tension, creating a genuine sense of fear and foreboding, and delivering a couple of shocking, jump-out-of-your-skin moments I didn’t see coming. It’s intelligently written with enough historical background to be interesting, and while I sometimes have issues with romance novellas because there isn’t enough time to develop the love story and build intimacy, that isn’t a problem here. The humour and affection, the open vulnerability during the intimate moments – Luke’s respect and honesty in the face of Jay’s obvious self-consciousness about his prosthetic limb, Jay’s reminders, in the face of Luke’s grief and insecuritues, that he’s worthy of being alive – and the way they support each other and the strength of the emotional connection between them means their romance – even though it takes place over just a few weeks – evolves naturally and feels organic.

The author has chosen to tell the story entirely from Luke’s perspective, but a decade after the events he’s relating, encouraged (by Jay) to write them down as a way of working through what happened and perhaps excising the ghosts that remain in his head. It’s an interesting choice; it’s not an unusual narrative device for a nineteenth century gothic novel, so it works as a genre convention and kind of homage, and allows the author to insert some contemporary observations without breaking the flow. The little private snippets of ‘off page’ conversation also offer glimpses into Luke and Jay’s relationship as it is in the present and their thoughts on it in the past, which is another thing that helps the romance feel so very right.

The ghost story and love story are nicely interwoven, and I liked the subtle reminder that Jay and Luke are dealing with their own metaphorical ghosts as well as the actual ghost, the manifestation of the bride providing the necessary push for both men to put their pasts behind them and move on. The exploration of Luke’s past relationship with Danny is deftly handled and the way that part of the story is wrapped up is sad but fitting.

A Frost of Cares is a quick read, but doesn’t stint on atmosphere, chills or romance. It’s a haunting, beautifully written tale of two men who have been dealt a rough hand in life finding strength and, ultimately, love, where they least expect it.

“This isn’t a ghost story. This is a love story. It’s the story of how I fell in love with you.

And it has a happy ending, like the best stories do.”

I love it when a book I’ve never heard of turns out to be a real find – this is definitely one for the keeper shelf.