My Five Word TL:DR Review – A series I am loving

This series is so very good.  I’m thoroughly enjoying it.  See my review for Stoker’s Wilde here and also I must give a little shout out to Pages and Tea who first brought this series to my attention – thank you so much you lovely person you.

So, this second instalment largely follows the mode of storytelling set out in book No.1, diary excerpts, journals, field reports, telegrams, etc.  The epistolary style is something I love and to recreate it here, with such style and panache is a real work of genius.  This is a series full of characters and references that I simply adore and so, I’m not going to lie, I was pretty much bowled over by both books.

What differs with this particular instalment is that the authors take us out of Victorian England and into America and the Wild West and the change in setting is fantastic and inspired.  We have cowboys, gold diggers, gunslingers and a host of familiar names, not least of which is Calamity Jane.

I won’t over elaborate on the plot.  There are of course vampires and dastardly deeds which involve certain people trying to open the doors between the realms, and there is plenty of action, jumping off cliffs and traversing the country on horseback or train.  Suffice to say -highly entertaining.

Again we have Stoker and Wilde, Florence and in this instalment the addition of a couple of other voices that add to the story.

As with the first, I think Oscar really shines, I love his diary inserts and his show stealing ways.  He’s so outrageously and delightfully flamboyant.  Stoker completely manages to downplay this by being so downright no nonsense, in much the same way as the first book, and of course Florence also plays a much bigger part in this story and I really enjoyed her scenes and character growth.  I think the three are really growing in terms of friendship and strength and I can’t wait to see what they get up to next.

I also love the way that both stories are interspersed with real facts and events, such as Oscar touring America or Stoker taking his theatre company there.

The writing is, again, perfection.  I love the voices of the two main characters and they makes me long for more and more adventures.  They manage to get themselves into such outrageous situations where death feels like a real possibility, but at the same time, you know something or someone will save the day.

In terms of criticisms.  Well, I think this one meandered slightly and also there are quite a few plot lines coming into play in the early pages – I mention this simply to make readers aware as I personally didn’t find this problematic at all.

Overall, I just love this series.  If my arm was twisted and I was hard pressed to choose a favourite I would say the first book stole my heart.  That being said, this book was incredibly enjoyable.

I receive a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the author, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars