I am an avid fan of the historical writer Lauren Willig, whose work spans historical fiction, Historical Romance, and Mystery & Suspense.  Her enthralling novels are meticulously researched and often focus on different historical eras.  I first came to know her through her Pink Carnation series, a sprightly, slightly silly blend of Napoleonic-era espionage and romance.  When she writes with frequent co-authors Beatriz Williams and Karen White, the trio delivers engrossing mysteries that delight discerning readers.

Plenty of Willig’s marvelous signature style shines through in WHAT HAPPENS AT NIGHTFALL, her first foray into the paranormal realm.  I thoroughly enjoyed much of this paranormal romance; the paranormal aspects felt a trifle off-putting to me.  Could I be overly critical of this novel because it departs so sharply from her typical novels?  Perhaps.  Or perhaps Willig's handling of the paranormal will become more deft if she continues to write in this vein?

Gothic novels are generally too tense for me to relax into and enjoy.  The beginning of WHAT HAPPENS AT NIGHTFALL felt very Gothic to me, enough so that I wondered whether I would have to DNF it because it was too scary for me.  But the story opens up into something much more nuanced, with rich detail about New York City and Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery.  The hero and heroine are engaging and well developed, and wonderful secondary characters round out the cast.

Jess Waters recently lost her finance job after blowing the whistle on her employer, and she’s a bit at loose ends.  She stumbles across a little boy alone in the cemetery during a night tour with her bestie, and after taking him home, she meets his dishy dad, Adam, the cemetery’s arborist.  Adam's family, it turns out, is haunted by a demonic pact! Jess and Adam team up to defeat the archdemon trying to take over Adam’s progeny, and the sparks begin to fly.

There’s a lovely strand of Gilded Age history woven into this paranormal romance.  Willig does her usual bang-up job of evoking the era and fleshing out the details to immerse the reader in the story.  Despite my initial questioning of this tale’s genre, I ultimately enjoyed sinking into the plush and mysterious tale of Willig’s WHAT HAPPENS AT NIGHTFALL.