Title: Galvanism and Ghouls (Manners and Monsters Book Two)
Publisher: Ribbonwood Press
Author: Tilly Wallace
Pages: 338pp
Price: $15.99 (paperback) / $4.99 (ebook)
A monster is haunting the fields and homes of Chelsea. Meanwhile, someone is stitching body parts together. When one of those parts — a seemingly sentient hand — is recovered and brought to the home of Hannah Miles, she finds herself pulled into another investigation with the gruff Viscount Wycliff. In working alongside him, Hannah discovers that he is not quite as awful or intimidating as she had feared … and that her father and mother have been keeping secrets from her ….
After finishing Manners and Monsters, the first book in the series, I immediately downloaded the second, Galvanism and Ghouls. I enjoyed it just as much, and was excited to see the relationship between Hannah and Wycliff continue to evolve. Even better, the pantheon of monsters and creatures was further expanded, with more references to pop culture and horror literature added to the mix. By the end, the book could safely be described as “Jane Austen meets the Addams Family.”
I particularly liked the introduction of Greek and Egyptian mythology and cosmology to the story. Hannah suspects that Napoleon’s dark mages found something in Egypt, and that the ancient Egyptian belief that the heart was the seat of the soul holds the key to breaking the curse. Wycliff also begins to discover more about his condition, and how it ties in to the judgement of souls, earth-bound spirits, and the afterlife.
Book three, here I come!
Highly recommended to fans of Regency romance, classic monster literature, and paranormal romances such as the Hexworld series by Jordan L. Hawk, and The Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis.
