Book Summary and Reviews of An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino

An Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino

An Immaculate Deception

A Novel

by Isabela Livino

  • Publishes:
  • Sep 1, 2026, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A debut Gothic horror set in 1870s Brazil—a tale of creeping suspense in which a young pregnant woman finds herself unable to escape her lover's isolated family home, and a family's deal with the devil goes terribly wrong.

1877, Pernambuco, Brazil: Raised in a deeply religious household, Madalena knows Dante's Inferno by heart and fears her mother's reaction as much as she fears God. When she falls pregnant with a child conceived in sin, her mother issues a threat: marry or surrender the baby. Madalena is confident that the father, the dashing Leandro Neves, will do right by her and propose. But just as she is about to tell him about the baby, a violent storm sends their carriage careening off the road.

Madalena awakens in Leandro's sprawling, secluded home, under the care of the mysterious and larger-than-life Doctor Lobo. Leandro is there ... but he is no longer the charming poet she knew. He's silent. Obsessed. Always watching.

Strange perfume haunts a locked room. Pages vanish from books. Jewels lie untouched in a forgotten wardrobe. And mirrors begin disappearing after Madalena sees something—or someone—ghastly in the reflection.

Leandro is unraveling. Doctor Lobo may be hiding something even darker. Trapped in a decaying house of secrets, Madalena must uncover the truth before the men around her destroy her, and before the hell she fears becomes the one she's living in.

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This information about An Immaculate Deception was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Isabela Livino

Isabela Livino studied philosophy at the University of Rochester before receiving a master's degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. A native of Pernambuco, Brazil, she currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, their two Caribbean-born coconut retrievers, and the river ducks. An Immaculate Deception is her debut novel.

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