Format: Hardcover, 544 pages
Release Date: November 20, 2018
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Historical
The thrilling, genre-bending conclusion to Lady Helen’s demon-hunting adventures, set in the glittering Regency world.
Lady Helen has retreated to a country estate outside Bath to prepare for her wedding to the Duke of Selburn, yet she knows she has unfinished business to complete. She and the dangerously charismatic Lord Carlston have learned they are a dyad, bonded in blood, and only they are strong enough to defeat the Grand Deceiver, who threatens to throw mankind into chaos. But the heinous death-soaked Ligatus Helen has absorbed is tearing a rift in her mind. Its power, if unleashed, will annihilate both Helen and Carlston unless they can find a way to harness its ghastly force and defeat their enemy.
In the final book of the trilogy that began with The Dark Days Club and continued with The Dark Days Pact, the intrepid Lady Helen’s story hurtles to a shocking conclusion full of action, heartbreak, and betrayal.
The Dark Days Deceit, by author Alison Goodman, is the third and final installment in the Lady Helen series. This series is set in 1812, during what is called the Regency Era. It is a blend of the Regency Era, along with the supernatural. Lady Helen Wrexhall has spent the past 6 months training to be a warrior, often masquerading as a man since women doing men's work is frowned upon. She, along with Lord Carlston are a pair called the Grand Reclaimer. They are bound by blood along with Helen's maid Darby
They belong to a group known as the Dark Days Club hunting down not only the Great Deceiver, but also minions called deceivers. Deceivers are creatures who can inhabit the bodies of humans, killing them in the
process, and feeding off those around them to create weapons and power
in an attempt to open a portal to their world. Helen carries the key to power in her memory, but can't retrieve it. She absorbed the Ligatus which is a mad mans journal written in the blood of slaughtered people.
The Great Deceiver holds one part of the Trinitus that is able to defeat and prevent a massacre. Oh, and did I mention that Lady Helen was also betrothed to marry Duke Selburn? Despite her pending nuptials, Helen still feels drawn to Carlston. This is where things get tricky and interesting. Helen's relationship with Carlston has become something of a conflict now that she is in Bath getting ready to be married. Especially when her aunt and brother show up for the nuptials and try to interfere. Another part of the story I found fascinating is the
reclaimer-terrene relationship that exists between Helen and Darby, as
well as Carlston and Quinn.
So, the first two books in the series were in various places across England like London and Brighton. This time, the author uses historical Bath as her setting and gets it right. A good author always does her research, and Goodman puts the reader in a setting that actually comes alive. I think it is challenging for an author to created a protagonist who is relatable, if not symptomatic, and able to carry the character through 3 books. A character the reader will want to follow from the beginning of the series until the last page is turned.
With that being said, I think that the characters, including Helen, missed key clues as to who the actual villain of the series was. In fact, this villain hides in plain sight until one particular moment when everyone believes the villain has been defeated and Helen can stop chasing deceivers around. There is also a particular scene where a male character pretty much tells Helen that she will be his, and that he won't be putting up with her nonsense, including her relationship with Carlston, or her membership in the Dark Days Club. I think this speaks volumes of the way women of this era were treated by men.
I would have enjoyed this story a bit more had the book not been so long, or bogged down by the wedding shenanigans. I think it's fair to say her family is a huge Debbie Downer and I would have liked to see a stronger Helen tell them to piss off. The ending is a bit complex as well. I think there is plenty of opportunity for the author to revisit this series to see where Helen's new adventures will take her.
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