A couple of books I've devoured lately.

In the past few weeks I've been reading some fun books!

The first is The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman.
An early reviewer described it as "Jane Austen meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and it is a very apt description. You can tell Goodman did a lot of research to build a very realistic Regency world, which she then inhabited with all sorts of demons, lurking behind human facades, at every level of society. At the outset we meet Lady Helen Wrexhall, a young heiress who is about to be introduced at Court. We also learn that she's an orphan being raised by her kind aunt, and less then kind uncle. Having always had an ability to read the faces of others she finds herself intrigued and worried about the attentions of a dark and mysterious Earl. There's SOOO much more I want to say about these characters and the situation, but I don't want to give away any secrets or spoilers because that's half the fun of the book! No really, it was quite the page-turner because I needed to know what exactly what was happening. Also, Lord Byron has a cameo.

It's billeted as being the first Lady Helen book, which is good because while you get some answers to the questions raised by the book there's so much more that I wanted to know by the time I closed the book. I'm looking forward to the next installment, to say the least.


The book I read right after was The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell
It's a novel about the last living Bronte, Samantha Whipple, who is now in her first year at Old College, Oxford. Almost immediately upon arriving at her new school, the school her father had spoken of so often, strange things start happening. Books she thought had been lost in the fire in her father's study start showing up at her door. I enjoyed this book and it made me angry. It made me angry because it's just another reminder that I could be doing this writing thing! It's the sort of book I wish I had written. It has reminded me of discussions I've had with fellow English major friends and it has made me want to re-read the Bronte sisters' novels. At turns it is a mystery, an academic discussion on reading, and a lovely story of a book-ish girl dealing with life.