MINI REVIEWS #1 – THE DARK DAYS CLUB by Alison Goodman & PLUS ONEbyElizabeth Fama

Hi Everyone. It feels like it’s been a while. I haven’t really solidly been blogging for a while… I’ve been ill which has taken me a while to get back up and running. I’ve been pretty good over the last year not to get a cold or anything until now. Typical. Then some personal issues as well has taken presidencie the last couple of weeks too. I’ve read some brilliant books but just wanted to do a short review rather than a long one.

The Dark Days Club (Lady Helen #1)
by Alison Goodman
Publisher – Walker Books
Release Date – January 21st 2016
Buy – Amazon | Book Depository

London, April 1812. Eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall is on the eve of her debut presentation to the Queen. Her life should be about gowns and dancing, and securing a suitable marriage. Instead, when one of her family’s housemaids goes missing, Lady Helen is drawn to the shadows of Regency London.

There, she finds William, the Earl of Carlston. He has noticed the disappearance, too, and is one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of powerful demons that has infiltrated every level of society. But Lady Helen’s curiosity is the last thing Carlston wants—especially when he sees the searching intelligence behind her fluttering fan. Should Helen trust a man whose reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her headstrong sense of justice lead them both into a death trap?

In The Dark Days Club, internationally best-selling author Alison Goodman introduces readers to a heroine who is just as remarkable as Eona—and yet again reinvents an establlished literary genre, making it her own.

Raised by her aunt and uncle, Lady Helen is being presented into society, yet her family is tarnished but her mother and father going against the crown and drowned at sea. But when Lady Helen starts seeing an aura around her made, she finally realises that something strange is happening to her – her senses sharpened, her growth of speed and agility, and her increase of strength. Only a distant cousin of her uncles knows all the answers that she is seeking… Lord Carlston. 

I read this a long time ago and only now has it taken me review it. I absolutely loved this book. Whilst it took a while to get into, I found that the first half was about the world building and setting and describing a regency outlook. But once we caught up with main characters towards the second half, we were on a roll. Lady Helen is such a strong and likable heroine, she has everything that you want in a female character. She basically kicks ass of the debutantes of YA. She has class and standards of a young woman, yet has the stature of being a formidable demon slayer. Her relationship with Lord Carlston was very interesting. He has quite a reputation, we see some signs of a deeper connection between Lady Helen and Lord Carlston, but that is all… I’d like to know where this will go. I’m intrigued but his character too, I really couldn’t pin point his age, he seemed young, but then far too old and mature for his age. Almost as if he lived longer than his years. 

The Dark Day’s Club had class, danger, etiquette, hidden romance, scandal, and demons. What more could your really ask for….I really can’t wait to continue this trilogy. It’s the next Shadowhunters. I just discovered on Alison’s GR that she describe this as “Pride and Prejudice meets Buffy in English high society”, she couldn’t be more right! 

Rating – 5

Plus One (Plus One #1)
by Elizabeth Fama
Publisher – Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date – April 8th 2016
Buy – Amazon | Book Depository

A dying wish. A family divided. A love that defies the law.

Sol Le Coeur is a Smudge–a night dweller in an America rigidly divided between people who wake, live, and work during the hours of darkness and those known as Rays, who live and work during daylight. Impulsive, passionate, and brave, Sol concocts a plan to kidnap her newborn niece–a Ray–in order to bring the baby to visit her dying grandfather. Sol’s violation of the day/night curfew is already a serious crime, but when her kidnap attempt goes awry, she stumbles on a government conspiracy to manipulate the Smudge population. Sol escapes the authorities with an unexpected ally: a Ray who gets in her way, a boy she might have hated if fate hadn’t forced them on the run together–a boy the world now tells her she can’t love.

Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day/night divide, Elizabeth Fama’s Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights, and a fast-paced romantic adventure story.

A lot like The Dark Days Club, I found that the first part of book was largely based on the concept and world building of the novel. At times, I was hesitant to continue hence why I’m not surprised that there is a few DNFs against this book. However, I persevered with it and the second half was well worth it – the pace of the book grew, relationships built, tensions multiplied, suspense and family feuds. It had it all! Sol was a little irritating at first, I found that although she was quite the troublemaker, she was honest about it. She knew she wasn’t the golden child like her brother, but what I admired was that she stayed with her grandfather, and that’s what counts. Her reason that unfolded this novel, was pure and inspiring – that’s what I loved. D’Arcy – the Ray was quite the opposite, they regard Smudges as people beneath them, to me in his character in the beginning made him quite unlikeable, he was bit of a pompous git and a mummy’s boy if I’m honest. First impressions aside, I found that his character developed, I find myself liking him even more when you knew more about him, his family. There is more to him that meets the eye – he for me was the image of Fama’s “complex, human characters” which I enjoyed immensely. 

Rating – 4