wp-1586302855506.jpgWelcome to my stop on The Ancestor blog tour sponsored by TLC Book Tours! Thanks to TLC for the invitation!


My Thoughts:

Alberta “Bert” Monte receives a letter addressed to “Countess Alberta Montebianco.” She lives in New York, and this title comes as quite the surprise.

The kicker? She’s inherited the title, along with a castle in Italy. Bert isn’t  fully buying into it, but she is interested in a holiday in Italy.

The trip starts out in luxurious and idyllic fashion. She’s offered champagne and a private jet, along with lists of jewels and art. Finally, she’s taken via helicopter to her castle in the Alps.

It’s never that simple, is it? Bert learns her family has a dark and secretive past.

The Ancestor is unlikely any other book I’ve read. The gothic elements and atmosphere made my skin prickle, they were executed so eerily. The writing is beautiful, never a spare word. I was completely wrapped up in this story, and I LOVED Bert.

There’s a twist here that shifts towards horror. It took me by surprise, and I think the author wrote it well. Overall, those looking for a well-written, creepy, original book with a gothic setting, definitely don’t miss this one!

I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.


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.

Social Media

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Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Photo by Oren R. Cohen

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.


Have you read The Ancestor, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR