Overview:
London, April 1812. Lady Helen Wrexhall is set to make her curtsy to Queen Charlotte and step into polite Regency Society and the marriage mart. Little does Helen know, that step will take her from the glittering ballroom of Almacks and the bright lights of Vauxhall Gardens into a shadowy world of demonic creatures, missing housemaids and deadly power.
Standing between those two worlds is Lord Carlston, a man of dubious reputation and infuriating manners. He believes Helen is destined to protect humanity from an unearthly truth, but all he can offer is danger, savagery and the possibility of madness. Not the kind of destiny suitable for a young lady in her first London Season.
Against a backdrop of whispered secrets in St. James’s Palace, soirees with Lord Byron and morning calls from Beau Brummell, The Dark Days Club is a delightfully dangerous adventure of self- discovery and the dark choices of new found adulthood.
My Review:
This is the first book in the Lady Helen Trilogy and I absolutely loved it! Set against the backdrop of Regency England, this book combines history, romance, fantasy, and mystery in an exciting and enthralling story. None of those genres are easy to write individually- much less combining them all together - but Goodman is able to do it seamlessly and in a way that makes perfect sense.
In this book, we are introduced to Lady Helen Wrexhall who is preparing for her presentation to the Queen as part of her London Society debut. She and her older brother Andrew lost their parents when they were very young and have been raised by their aunt and uncle. Lady Helen has always known she was a little different but her aunt and uncle made sure she never stepped one toe out of line. When one of the household maids goes missing, however, Lady Helen vows to find out what happened and in the process meets Lord Carlston and learns she is a Reclaimer who must fight demonic forces and save the world.
All the characters are very well developed - even secondary ones - and I found myself caring immensely about what happened to them. I was more than willing to follow along in their journey, get caught up in the action, and believe everything happening was possible in the real world.
The plot moves a tad slowly at first as we learn about the characters but I didn't find that to be a problem and it only took a few chapters to really ramp up the action and excitement and I found myself turning each page more quickly than the last.
There is plenty of historical detail to keep fans of that genre happy without going overboard, along with adding layers of mystery, fantasy, and light romance (no sex scenes!) into one all-consuming story that reaches audiences across all genres. That alone makes this book worth the price of admission. I've been having a really hard time lately with several book series that seem to have lost their way and/or have become static and boring so it was really refreshing to find something that kept me reading long past my bedtime.
This isn't my typical genre and in fact, I wouldn't even know how to classify it. Barnes and Noble has it in the Teen Fantasy section but it is so much more than that so don't let that label turn you off. This book doesn't come across as a teen or YA novel (thankfully) and I think fans of multiple genres will enjoy it because none of the elements are too over-the-top or far-fetched. Every thing is perfectly balanced and well executed.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. In fact, I loved it so much I finished it only a day or two and went straight out and bought the second one, which I promptly finished the same day. Book 3 comes out in November.
Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? Did you enjoy the mixing of genres? Join the discussion below!
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I loved this book! I agree that it was a little slow in the beginning, but once it finally got going it was impossible to put it down! I loved all the characters and even the ones I didn't like were so well developed that it didn't make it difficult to keep reading. I don't think that the romantic parts of this book were too over the top so I hope that that trend continues in the rest of series. I don't mind a little bit of romance, but sometimes it gets in the way of the rest of the story and what is going on in the background.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I have already read the second one and can't recommend it highly enough! This is the way books need to be written - with well developed characters that feel like real people. Definitely read the next one because the last one in the trilogy comes out in November.
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