Harley Laroux ventures into uncharted territory with House of Rayne, crafting a standalone gothic romance that feels simultaneously familiar and refreshingly distinct from their previous work. Known for the steamy paranormal elements in the Souls Trilogy and the intense dynamics of the Losers Duet, Laroux here channels their signature boldness into a sapphic love story wrapped in atmospheric horror. The result is a novel that succeeds spectacularly in its romantic core while occasionally stumbling in its horror execution.
Set against the rain-soaked backdrop of Blackridge Island in the Pacific Northwest, the story follows Salem Lockard, who arrives at the historic Balfour Manor expecting nothing more than a quiet retreat. Instead, she finds herself stranded and inexplicably drawn to the manor’s enigmatic owner, Rayne Balfour. What begins as an electric attraction quickly spirals into something far more dangerous when Salem discovers the island harbors a deadly secret: a supernatural creature that has been hunting the residents for years.
The Heart Beneath the Horror
The novel’s greatest strength lies in the palpable chemistry between Salem and Rayne. Laroux excels at crafting characters who feel authentically flawed and beautifully human despite the supernatural circumstances surrounding them. Salem is refreshingly proactive, an adventure-seeking mountain biker who refuses to be relegated to damsel status even when genuinely terrified. Her courage doesn’t stem from recklessness but from a deeply rooted determination to protect those she loves.
Rayne, meanwhile, is a masterclass in layered characterization. Scarred by her mother’s brutal murder and her father’s subsequent emotional cruelty, she has built walls so high that even she has forgotten what vulnerability feels like. The way Laroux peels back these defenses throughout the narrative feels earned rather than rushed. Rayne’s journey from isolation to connection, from believing herself unworthy of love to accepting Salem’s devotion, forms the emotional backbone that keeps readers invested even when the plot mechanics creak.
The romance itself is rendered with Laroux’s characteristic heat and emotional depth. The intimate scenes are explicit and well-integrated into the character development, each encounter revealing new facets of both women’s personalities and desires. There’s a tenderness woven through the passion that distinguishes this from mere erotica, particularly in moments where vulnerability becomes its own form of intimacy.
Gothic Atmosphere and Narrative Ambition
Laroux demonstrates a keen understanding of gothic conventions. The crumbling Balfour Manor, with its whispers in the darkness and crimson shadows stalking the halls, serves as more than mere backdrop. The setting breathes with malevolent life, creating an oppressive atmosphere that makes every creak and groan feel pregnant with menace. The Pacific Northwest location is perfectly chosen, its perpetual gray skies and dense forests providing ideal camouflage for ancient evils.
The novel’s structure alternates between Salem and Rayne’s perspectives, allowing readers to experience both the horror of discovery and the burden of terrible knowledge. This dual perspective enriches the narrative, though it occasionally robs certain revelations of their full impact when we’ve already glimpsed the truth from Rayne’s viewpoint.
Where the Angel Falls Short
The central antagonist, referred to as “the angel,” presents the novel’s most significant challenge. Laroux’s attempt to blend religious horror with creature feature elements yields mixed results. The angel itself is genuinely unsettling in concept: an eyeless, multi-limbed monstrosity that mimics human voices and builds nests from the remains of its victims. The lighthouse scenes, where Salem discovers the creature’s macabre lair, rank among the book’s most viscerally disturbing moments.
However, the mechanics of the creature’s summoning and the rules governing its existence feel undercooked. The revelation involving Rayne’s father and the ancient book of dark magic introduces compelling thematic elements about grief twisted into vengeance, but the explanation feels rushed in the novel’s final act. Readers seeking the meticulous world-building of Laroux’s Souls Trilogy may find the supernatural elements here frustratingly vague.
The pacing also suffers in the middle section, where the narrative treads water as characters process revelations that readers have already anticipated. While this allows for character development, it occasionally stalls the momentum when the supernatural threat should be escalating.
Themes That Resonate
Where House of Rayne truly shines is in its thematic exploration of inherited trauma and the cycles of violence passed from one generation to the next. Rayne’s father, consumed by grief and religious fervor, literally curses his daughter’s future through his actions. The novel asks difficult questions about accountability, forgiveness, and whether we can truly escape the sins of our parents.
The religious horror elements, while inconsistently executed, provide fertile ground for examining how faith can be weaponized. The islanders’ willingness to accept the angel’s killings as divine judgment reveals the danger of interpreting tragedy through the lens of punishment. It’s a critique that feels particularly relevant without becoming preachy.
The romance between Salem and Rayne also serves as a counterpoint to the inherited darkness. Their relationship represents the possibility of creating new patterns, of choosing love over isolation, of building rather than destroying. The epilogue, set three years later with the couple raising two adopted daughters, feels earned rather than tacked on, a hard-won happily-ever-after that acknowledges healing takes time.
Technical Craft and Prose
Laroux’s prose remains one of their greatest assets. The writing is sensory and immediate, whether describing the cold bite of Pacific Northwest rain or the warmth of skin against skin. Action sequences are clearly choreographed, and the explicit scenes are rendered with both heat and emotional resonance. There’s a confidence to the prose that makes even familiar genre beats feel fresh.
The dialogue sparkles with authenticity, particularly in the banter between Salem and Rayne. Their conversations feel lived-in, capturing the tentative dance of two people learning to be vulnerable with each other. The secondary characters, particularly the two young girls Rachel and Rebecca, are sketched with enough detail to feel real without overwhelming the central relationship.
Final Verdict
House of Rayne is an ambitious novel that succeeds more as a romance than as horror, though its gothic atmosphere remains compelling throughout. Readers primarily seeking the emotional journey of two damaged women finding love and healing will be richly rewarded. Those hoping for the intricate supernatural world-building of Laroux’s previous work may find the horror elements frustratingly underdeveloped.
The novel represents Laroux pushing into new territory while maintaining the core strengths that made their earlier work compelling: complex characters, scorching chemistry, and fearless exploration of desire in its many forms. It’s a book that understands love can be both sanctuary and battlefield, and that sometimes the most terrifying monsters are the ones we inherit.
For fans of sapphic romance seeking something with genuine stakes and atmospheric dread, House of Rayne delivers. The four-star consensus rating feels appropriate: it’s a very good book that occasionally reaches for greatness but doesn’t quite grasp it. Yet in its best moments, when Salem and Rayne are illuminating each other’s darkness, it reminds us why we read romance at all.
For Readers Who Enjoyed
- The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling – Another intense sapphic romance set against life-threatening circumstances
- Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth – For gothic sapphic horror with metafictional elements
- The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston – Atmospheric historical romance with supernatural elements
- Wilder Girls by Rory Power – Dark sapphic fiction set in an isolated, dangerous environment
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Gothic horror with romance elements and atmospheric dread
House of Rayne may not be perfect, but it is perfectly itself: unabashedly romantic, unapologetically queer, and willing to venture into the darkness to find the light.