Stay alive til this horror show is past

This book was great fun! I’d seen it recommended from several other Cannonballers and I think narfna described it as Buffy meets Pride & Prejudice. Not that I’d ever pass up a narfna recommendation but that description was enough to make me request it from the library as soon as possible.

Dark Days Club introduces us to Lady Helen Wrexhall, who has just turned 18 and is ready to be presented to society. Her parents both died when she was a child, so she’s been taken care of by an aunt and uncle ever since, and they are incredibly focused on her future. Her well-meaning aunt and absolute Dursley of an uncle are worried for her reputation, as her mother created quite a stir years before as a traitor to the crown. Moms.

Lady Helen is a bright, vivacious girl, and her uncle is worried that she has too much of her mother in her. Lady Helen worries about that, as well, but eventually learns that it might not be such a bad thing. She wants to be focused on parties and finding a husband but can’t ignore some of the strange things going on around her. Because her maid goes missing, she’s soon drawn to the Earl of Carlston, who has long been suspected of murdering his wife, though her body was never found. He’s mysterious and different, and seems to know something about Lady Helen that she doesn’t. She believes him to know something about her family’s missing maid, and even suspects him of some wrongdoing (due to all the wife-murdery rumors), but as they grow closer she’s drawn into more of a mystery than she ever would have imagined.

I don’t want to give too much away but there is some weird shit going on and Lady Helen finds herself smack dab in the middle of it. Like Buffy, she’s resistant to giving up her normal life, especially when she learns that what she’s faced with means more danger and the loss of everything she’s ever been taught to hold valuable. Much of the novel serves as setup for future novels, so I was very disappointed when I got to the end and realized the next novel isn’t even out yet. Boo! But this was good enough to read more, so yay!