To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it.
Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father’s island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.
As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.
As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.
With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.
ABOUT MEGAN
Megan Shepherd was “born” into the book world, growing up in her parents’ independent bookstore in Western North Carolina. She is the author of THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER trilogy (Balzer+Bray/2013), and THE CAGE trilogy (Balzer+Bray/2015). When Megan is not writing, she can usually be found horseback riding, day dreaming at coffee shops, or hiking in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. She is represented by Josh Adams at Adams Literary.
Erin’s Thoughts
Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Her Dark Curiosity is book 2 of The Madman’s Daughter series. Because it is a while yet until the book releases, I won’t give anything away. I enjoyed this book and thought it was a solid second book to the series. If you liked The Madman’s Daughter, definitely check this one out when you can.
This book picks up with Juliet back in London after Montgomery sent her away from the island and Shepherd did a great job of sharing the things Juliet went through on her journey without making us start the book there. She definitely didn’t have an easy trip and even when she did get back, some old problems found their way back to her.
With the support and help from Professor von Stein, a former colleague of Juliet’s father’s, Juliet is slowly making her way back into the upper crust of society. He decided to step in and help her since he failed to help her father when he could have and it has become Juliet’s safety net. Because of him, she has a nice house to live in, warm clothes, and her reputation back (mostly). At the same time, Juliet has not given up her quest for a cure. She continues to suffer from the pain and side effects of what her father did to her. She keeps a hidden apartment in a less safe area of London and goes there to create the serums.
As if all of that isn’t enough to deal with, another problem has hit the area. People are being killed and the police think it may be a mass murderer. Juliet ends up linked to the case due to the fact that all of the victims happen to be people Juliet knows/knew. The killer leaves the victims torn apart like an animal and this is the thing that forces Juliet to try to find out just who the killer is before Scotland Yard and Detective John Newcastle does.
A lot happens in this book and we get to see some great new characters as well as some of my favorite old characters. If you follow me on Twitter or saw my Goodreads updates you may have noticed I had some comments….only a few. There were things that occurred in this book that made me a bit ragey. I actually like Juliet’s character – she is strong and smart but she does something that actually made me stop and think:
Ok – don’t hate me for that teaser…trust me when I say that once you read the book, you will know exactly what I am talking about.
I loved how Shepherd used Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as inspiration for the book – it fit well and gave the story some great layers. The way Shepherd intertwines the characters and brings all their stories together was great and I am definitely looking forward to the next installment. If it isn’t there already, add this one to your “to read” pile and grab it as soon as you can.
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