Newbie from the Pacific NW

[Penfeather]

. . . they tend to be caught in a battle between logic and sentimentality.

That is so beautifully put. To survive, a proper Gothic heroine must rely on both deduction and intuition. Not counting the ones where the hero appears at the last moment, deus ex machina, to save her. That's cheating.

I'm envious that you live in the Pacific Northwest. I spent a winter in a cabin on Puget Sound a few years ago and it was heaven. The NW is such a suitable environment for a Gothic -- too bad there aren't any (that I know of) set there. There are plenty of lighthouses and weatherbeaten old Victorian mansions along the coast, from Oregon up through British Columbia, that would make ideal Gothic locales.