The Dark Days Club (Lady Helen #1)

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

Age: Young Adult
Category: Fantasy, historical
Rating: 5 stars

Marta Thinks: If there’s one thing I can appreciate, it is originality, and in “The Dark Days Club”, Alison Goodman delivers in spades. Pitched as a Georgette Heyer Regency romance fusion with Buffy (which is astonishing accurate description, by the way), the book is set in the 19th century, against the backdrop of the upper-class English society. For our heroine, Lady Helen Wrexhall, parties, marriage and respectability are not her priority. Lady Helen desire one thing only: independence, which she does not have under the authoritarian eye of her Uncle.

Not only that, though: Lady Helen must protect her reputation and tainted heritage. Her mother and father drowned at sea, and were declared traitors to the crown soon afterwards. Lady Helen longs for her parents, though she must hide her feelings, and the only thing which remains of her mother is a pendant. It is this very pendant that will change Lady Helen’s life and allow her to discover the darker and more dangerous side of society, the one with the answers behind the disappearance of London girls.

What makes this an exceptional book, and distinguishes it from the other historical/fantasy books out there, is the witty dialogue, the strong and real female friendships and Lady Helen, who is thoughtful and kind, but also desires a life of her own without endangering others. The only downside? The sequel comes out next year.