Reviews

The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young

mommagracereads's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Gripping read. Full of mystery, twists, and laughs. I found myself balling by end and wanting more!

dragnfly18's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This was such a good read! If you liked Girl on the Train, try this. It has the same exciting feel to it. What starts as a murder mystery turns into so much more. I enjoyed every page, especially the ending. The author tied up all loose ends with some great twists and turns.

spookysoto's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I liked this very much, I was intrigued and invested in the story and the characters. This is a paranormal mystery that reminded me of the series the ghost whisperer without the cheesiness, it was more like Patricia Arquette's medium.

Charlotte is a writer who recently lost her son and suddenly starts having visions of children in danger, that leads her into a 30 year old mystery that happened in Louisiana.

I liked the setting, the atmosphere and the characters. Charlie felt real and acted the way you'd expect someone in her position to act.

Spoiler It turns out that the child Charlie was seeing was alive and not the missing child, that one was Noah. His brother Andree killed his father, Sean, because he was in love with him and found out he wasn’t gay and didn’t love him back and that he had an affair with his mother.


In this novel you have suspense, romance and mystery. The story was compelling, enthralling and very interesting, I was never bored.


This is a trilogy but you can read it as a standalone. I will definitely continue.

snormand08's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

booksinkandpaper2's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Just like a good bowl of gumbo, this book was rich and satisfying. A multi-layered plot that captures the spirit of Louisiana and kept me moving through the story of the disappearance of a little boy.

Part mystery, part love story, Young's book was well paced and adequately developed.

I will definitely read more by this author.

trisha_thomas's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

“I wonder if the boy is a witness, perp, or victim. It bothers me that I can't tell, that a predator can look no different from its prey.”

This was a great story to start - mother grieving that was lost and aimless - and an old plantation in Louisiana and a very old mystery. But as pieces began to fall together, I found myself not enjoying this as much. The mystery felt obvious but I did like the supporting characters and I am glad I found out how it all went.

But I don't plan to read any more in the series.

annadseal's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I didn't hate this, but this is one of the first mysteries I've read in which I was able to predict almost everything. I knew either just before or at least halfway through that Noah was really Gabriel. I figured that Andre must have been in love with Sean but that the feeling (obviously) was not reciprocated. I knew that Andre was evil and would be dead by the end of the book. The only part I couldn't figure out was how Charlie's original vision of the little boy, who she thought was Gabriel, in the swamp played into the rest of the story. But after Leann got the call from her son and the author played it off as him being sick and upset that his mom wasn't there, I thought that he was the child from the vision, too. I'm really terrible at deducing things in mysteries, so I'm not sure how I was able to figure all of this out.

However, as I said before, I really did enjoy the book. It was an easy, fast-paced read, and, for the most part, I really enjoyed the character of Charlotte Cates. I look forward to reading the next book in this trilogy when it is released.

mdodds11's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Finally...I book that I didn't fully guess the outcome!

kris10coopah's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

lilmisssouthernyn's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.0