Early Review – Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman’s Daughter, Book 2) by Megan Shepherd (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Histocial Fantasy
Length: 432 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: January 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0062128058
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Madman’s Daughter series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review, so thank you to Balzer and Bray and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I enjoyed this book just as much as the last book in this series. It’s a very well done story that draws inspiration from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There will be a third book in this series which is Untitled but is due to release in 2015.

Juliet Moreau had been back in London for a few months, she is living with the old Professor who was an old friend of her father. However, secretly Juliet is working on a cure for herself…her condition is getting worse and worse and if she can’t prefect the serum she needs to survive who knows what will happen. All this sneaking around gets tougher for Juliet when a killer known as the Wolf of Whitechapel starts murdering people on the streets. Things gets incredibly complicated when Juliet finds out that it’s only people who have wronged her that are being killed and the bodies of the victim are killed in a way that is familiar to her.

While the last book was a retelling of the Island of Dr. Moreau this book is more of a retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you remember Edward from the last book then you will have a good idea of who the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde character is in this book. This book is dark and atmospheric just like the first book in the series. Juliet is an interesting heroine that I enjoy reading about. Unlike the first book, the majority of this book takes place in London.

I really enjoyed Juliet’s character throughout the story. She tries to be a good girl and a grateful girl, but she also has a dark and wild side that she struggles with. Trying to make her life as the wealthy Professor’s Ward and her life as a person who dabbles in genetic experimentation blend is obviously tough. At times she is sweet and thoughtful and loving; at other times she is reckless and ruthless. We see more of her darkness in this book and it is intriguing to watch as she struggles to balance the two.

Edward is in the story as well. He is by far the most intriguing character in this book. Because of spoilers I can’t say a lot about him. However, he has obviously loved Juliet for months. He clearly respects Juliet for her knowledge and tenacity as much as for her beauty. There relationship is of course incredibly complicated.

The other side of the love triangle is Montgomery. I honestly didn’t like him as much in this book as in the previous book. He really belittles Juliet and assumes that she wants the life of a pampered housewife. He seems to only respect the good and sweet side of Juliet and not embrace her wildness. He’s just very presumptuous and very dismissive of her opinions throughout.

Woven into Juliet’s scientific search for a cure for her ailment and her trying to hunt down the Wolf of Whitechapel is another storyline as well. Juliet and her friends have discovered that some of her father’s work may still exist. There is a clandestine group of men trying to use Dr. Moreau’s work for incredibly nefarious purposes.

The plot was well put together, I enjoyed how all of the storylines came together in the end. There is a lot left unresolved in this book, which will apparently addressed in the third book. At the end of this book they set up what the next retelling will be…it seems like it will be some sort of retelling of Frankenstein.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book and loved the dark Victorian tone to it. I enjoyed the characters and their struggles with darkness and lightness. I am not a huge fan of the love triangle going on, but I have enjoyed Juliet’s genetic tampering and the side storylines involving her father’s work. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series to see how everything is resolved. I would recommend this series to fans of historical young adult paranormal books with a dark and gothic theme to it.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Ebook Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge