The Dark Days Club (Lady Helen Trilogy, #1)

by Alison Goodman

[liz089]

Read more about this review and others on my blog Freyja Eats Books

REVIEW.
This book is the first part in the Lady Helen series, which will consist of three books in total. Unfortunately, they are not released yet and we will have to wait until next year..

I picked this book up in the middle of my book slump.. I have not been able to stick to a book in a while and it is really bothering me. Because it took me a while to finish this one.. I think around a week and a half ? I can’t say if it is because of my slump or if I would normally take this long to finish this book.

It is not that long a read, just over 400 pages.. but at times it felt very long. I had to push myself to continue reading it, but when I was in it, I wanted to continue reading and was right back into this new world.

So the story is about Lady Helen, who lives in the Regency era in London, England. She lives with her aunt and uncle (who is a complete asshat) because her parents died tragically a couple of years back. Her mother got branded as a mad woman and a traitor and Helen tries her best to overcome that “taint”. While going through the motions as an eligible woman ready for marriage, she finds out there was more to her mother than she thought and she inherited her powers. She is a Reclaimer, who can fight evil Deceivers and reclaim tainted souls. Lord Carlston, who is a Reclaimer himself, tries to help her as a mentor and train her. But because of her coming into her powers, there is also the arrival of the prophesised Grand Deceiver…

I can’t help comparing this book to These Vicious Masks, that I read earlier this year. Even though they have a very different plot, both of them feature a noble woman in an era where they are seen as some kind of burden. Women are less than men and have be taken care of. Both of them are woman with more life in them, and who do things that are frowned upon. Only on the side of lady Helen they fight against “demons”, a different kind of creature, and in lady Evelyn’s story we ourselves, humans, very extraordinary powers. Both have a men in their lives who have powers of their own and are trying to convince them of their own.
But, to be honest ? If you are in the mood for a fantasy novel around this era.. I would recommend These Vicious Masks above The Dark Days Club.

This book was very slow paced, had not that much action in it, and the romance was well.. what romance ?? There was NO ROMANCE ! I was kind of looking forward to this one with more promise of romance.. but there was almost no flirting or passion in this book at all. NO SWOONING MOMENTS. Quite disappointing.

I did like the world building, even though it was slow-paced, it gave a lot of background and information about how the world works. With different kind of Deceivers, and the Terrane, who help the Reclaimers, combined woth some Alchemy and stuff. I liked that.

I’m also a big fan of this era, and she put a lot of history in the plot. Though it was very thorough.. I could have lived without all the callings and sitting at stiff diners. For me, that kind of put me off the plot sometimes and made me like it a little less. I would have liked it better if she put more information into the Reclaimer world instead.

Also.. even though I liked the main character, I did not really feel much connection to her. I loved the plot and that was what kept me going.. but it did not really pull me in as much as I would have liked. Maybe it’s me? But I missed something.

Oh !! And what is up with Lord Selburn ?? I do not trust him AT ALL.

FINAL THOUGHTS.
Overall I liked the book, it is the first one I managed to finish in weeks, but it was a little too slow for me. I would have liked more passion and action, and the lack of romance was a real bummer.. But I did like it, and now that all the world-building is settled, I hope the next one will be a bit faster paced. So, I would like to give this one 3 Freyja’s, and I hope the next book will be better.