Echoes of the Oval Portrait  by Meadoe Hora

Genre: Gothic Romance/ Gothic Suspense

Length:  334 pages

Publisher:  Meadoe Hora, 2025

Reviewed by Leoma Retan

Can lost and broken souls call to lost and broken living across the bottomless chasm of death?

Echoes of the Oval Portrait by Meadoe Hora is part love story, part ghost story, and part redemption story. Meadoe Hora deftly twines ghostly threads of love and loss across the century from Anna, who came to the newly-built Harcourt Manor in the early 20th century as a young bride, to the newly arrived and emotionally battered Nora, who is only there to catalog the treasures of the now-aging Manor for potential sale.

When Nora arrives on the island, where Harcourt Manor sits alone near the edge of a cliff, she is running from a past that has become too painful. Then she begins hearing and feeling what appears to be the ghost of Anna Harcourt and questions whether she is slipping into the same disconnect from reality that took her mother from her. She desperately needs to talk to someone but her past makes her unwilling to trust anyone—especially when it comes to visions that may or may not be real.

Through the points of view of Anna and Nora, Echoes of the Oval Portrait explores themes of love, loss, and the possibility of redemption through the lens of unexpected connections.

In Nora’s unwanted visions, Anna repeatedly says, “See me.”

I see you, Anna Harcourt, and your story is worthy of notice. I believe other readers of this book, whether they believe in ghosts or not, will see you, too.

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Reviewer Bio: Leoma Retan is a retired engineer, avid writer, proud techno-freak, and pet mom of up to twenty cats and one dog. Born in Wisconsin, she’s lived many places. A member of the Wisconsin Writers Association, she builds worlds in her dreams and relaxes by exploring past, present, and future possibilities.  Leoma Retan website