Review – A Cold Legacy (The Madman’s Daughter, Book 3) by Megan Shepherd (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction/Gothic
Size: 400 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: January 27, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0062128089
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Madman’s Daughter series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the final book in the Madman’s Daughter trilogy. This was a well done finish to this gothic historical fantasy series. This book is loosely based on the story of Frankenstein. As the with the previous books the story has a very dark and gothic feel to it.

Juliet, Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a very sick Edward have fled to the Scottish moors to the house of Elizabeth von Stein. The house is dark and creepy and full of many secrets. Meanwhile Edward is fighting for his life, in constant struggle with the Beast inside. To add to their trouble’s Lucy’s father is determined to hunt them down in revenge for Juliet killing his colleagues in the last book.

This book is very similar in tone to the previous books in this series. I enjoyed all the classic literature references. I also liked how things tied up for our characters. There are a lot of twists and turns in the story as well.

I really enjoy Juliet as a character with her struggle to keep the darkness at bay and not sucumb to madness. However the romance between her and Montgomery kind of fell flat for me. I just felt like Montgomery never respected all aspects of Juliet’s personality. I also felt like they both did too much lying and hiding secrets from each other.

I loved the Stein house though with all of its hidden passages and dark secrets. I enjoyed how capable and ruthless Juliet could be as well. The whole book has a very melancholy tone to it as we wait to see what dark secrets unfold and whether or not our characters can stay hidden from those that hunt them.

I thought the story wrapped up in a way that was realistic and very entertaining. I would love to read a story about what adventures Edward goes on in a future book.

Overall this was a well done conclusion to this series. I love the dark and gothic feel to this series and enjoyed the mysterious Stein house. I enjoyed how this story ties in with the classic Frankenstein story. The romance between Montgomery and Juliet fell a bit flat for me, but I really did enjoy Juliet as a character. In general I have loved this dark and gothic young adult series that ties together a bunch of classic literature stories into one comprehensive series. I would recommend to those who enjoy gothic reads that are dark and a bit strange.

Shepherd’s next book, The Cage, will be releasing in a couple months. I have a copy for review and will try to read it soon. I am curious to see what this new book holds.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Series Enders Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge