Synopsis:

London, April 1812. On the eve of eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall’s presentation to the queen, one of her family’s housemaids disappears-and Helen is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons infiltrating every level of society. Dare she ask for his help, when his reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her intelligence and headstrong curiosity wind up leading them into a death trap?

(Via Goodreads)

My Impressions:

I missed the release of The Dark Days Club back in 2016 and I’m sad that I only just now got to read it. But the upside is this: well before I finished this book, I found out the second in the trilogy, The Dark Days Pact, has already been released, a discovery I made because I didn’t want the one I had in my grubby little hands to end yet. Whew.

I may or may not have the sequel on order as I write this.

I cannot gush about The Dark Days Club enough. It’s deliciously dark, a thrilling urban fantasy. I don’t normally go in for Regency era narratives (yawn), but this one builds a rich world, lovingly detailed to strengthen the plot rather than detract from it. The book is large enough to use as a weapon in a fight, but the narrative wastes none of that space, moving right along from one bit of intrigue to the next. Alison Goodman pulled me in with an escalating cascade of questions and mysteries, one leading to another, growing grander in scale. Lady Helen Wrexhall is a sharp and clever main character, vibrant and lifelike. The other characters are distinctly themselves — from a horrid, overbearing uncle in charge of Helen’s life, down to the house footmen. At this point, I would love to meet the steadfast handmaid Jen Darby or the savage Lord William Carlston myself.

You know how we often get tales of heroines ripe for rebellion because, for some reason, they don’t ascribe to the norms of society in even the slightest? This is not one of those stories. Lady Helen Wrexhall lives a comfortable life in Regency London and when her life starts to shift toward the paranormal, she’s actually resistant to losing that carefree happiness. A refreshing change in characterization, in my opinion. The question of which life Helen will choose grows more and more exquisitely agonizing right up to the end. In Alison Goodman’s duology, Eon (which I highly recommend), the heroine does not choose the life or the lover I wanted her to pick (because, frankly, that choice would not have been heroic and would have led to her ultimate downfall). But this time around, Helen did not disappoint me in the slightest. Darkness rules the day in The Dark Days Club and I am well pleased.

Goodreads rating: 3.82 stars (why?!)
My rating: 5/5 stars (I would give it more if I could)