#london seance society

[mountainmaven]

Currently reading.

[coffeeatmidnight]

ARC Review: "The London Séance Society," by Sarah Penner

Happy almost publish day! I was given Sarah Penner’s The London Séance Society as an ARC after falling in love with her first book The Lost Apothecary (thank you, Harlequin and Netgalley!) While Society was less my style than Apothecary, I still can’t wait to talk all about it! From the Publisher: From the author of the sensational bestseller The Lost Apothecary comes a spellbinding tale about…

[agameofbooksblog]

New book! I haven’t read this yet. Have you?

[childrenstoryhour]

Just finished the London Seance Society. Really enjoyed this one: Victorian England, murder mystery, ghosts!

[marzipanandminutiae]

so I'm reading a new book

"this character is a sapphic medium in the 1870s! she's off to solve a murder mystery"

oh cool!

"...she's also a masochist who fucked her former lover's ghost into such corporeality that he left a bite scar on her thigh. during aforesaid fucking. and her current love interest seems very into that"

[ko2mi]

when everyone said the secret history was dark academia i was thinking secret libraries and studying by candlelight but this just sounds like normal college (minus the murder)

[onlymurdersintheafterparty]

The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner

I finished the book today and I give it four stars. Lenna’s ongoing struggle with believing in the supernatural but pushing through it to get justice for her sister was an interesting read and as odd as Mr. Morley was, the book wouldn’t be the same without him. I found the book to be predictable in some parts but still found myself shocked at the plot twist at the end when the truth was revealed. I wish there was more Lenna/Vaudeline rather than mutual pining and hesitation because of the mystery they were trying to solve because it would have been nice to get some flashbacks of how things were when they first met.

[ferretsarefurryappendagedsnakes]

On chapter 5 of The London Seance Society and every other thought is “these bitches gay⁉️👀”.

If they aren’t, this is the worst case of queerbaiting I personally have ever experienced.

[andreabadgley]

Rainy spring night.

[oracleofmadness]

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

This is a thrilling tale about the dark side to seances and the lengths frauds go to to make money off of their unsuspecting victims.

The scene opens on a cold night in Paris at a spooky chateau that was the scene of a murder. Lenna is sitting around a table as an apprentice to the great Vaudeline who is renowned for her work with the supernatural while performing a seance. Lenna has recently lost her sister, Evie, and is learning this art so she can channel her sister's spirit and solve her murder.

This story also follows a Mr. Morley, who is head of one of the departments of the London Seance Society. He soon reaches out to Vaudeline, requesting her to perform a seance in London to learn more about the director's sudden death.

Many secrets are revealed, which only gave me more questions to consider throughout this story, definitely keeping me on the edge of my seat.

I loved the story and the attention to detail about seances at that time. However, I didn't completely love Lenna's character and often had a hard time relating to her.

Out March 7, 2023!

[innocencel0st]

Update: my mom is moving in to my grandparent’s and she’s bringing her internet!

[pinksolitude]

there’s just something about a story of women in the 1800’s defying societal norms and shutting down stereotypes that just improves my psyche

[abookishidentity]

Books finished in June 2024

-Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway started May 29, 2024 and finished June 3, 2024- 4/5 stars. Kind of a crazy book for just fiction. Could have easily been urban fantasy. Son of a mobster who doesn’t want to carry on his dads legacy and just wants to work on clocks. Funny thing is that trying to fight fate doesn’t usually work out. People go through extreme lengths to get what he knows. It makes sense that after some torture and spending an indeterminate amount of time in a mental hospital he’s like “Fuck it. I’m going to be what people see me as. A gangster like my dad” This book also spends a lot of time going through the background of a certain character which is interesting. She was cool. Annoying how she died though. Good book. 

-The Pale House Devil by Richard Kadrey started and finished on June 4, 2024- 4/5 stars. Quick read as you can see. I love Richard Kadrey’s work. This book was like 112 pages so I’m glad I didn’t buy it. The two main characters work so well together that I saw them as a couple. One man was alive, one was undead or whatever. It was good. I would read more of these guy’s adventures. 

-The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner started June 4, 2024 and finished June 6, 2024- 3.5/5 stars. Good read. Feminist and I love how the main character deals with the men who fucked things up at the end. I’m glad the sister was doing good. 

-Severance by Ling Ma started June 7, 2024 and finished June 8, 2024. - 3/5 stars. What an interesting read. Kind of pretentious though. I think I would be like the main character and keep trying to work at my job even though the world has ended. Book just sort of ends. Wonder how she’s going to give birth in that kind of life. 

-A Pale Light in the Black by K.B Wagers started June 9, 2024 and finished June 12, 2024. 3/5 stars. Should have done more research with this one. I liked that the main character was ace. It had good characters and family drama. I just didn’t care for the games. The majority of the book was that. Also, if a science fiction book has spaceships and takes place in space where are all the aliens? There weren’t any cool aliens. 

-When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill started June 12, 2024 and finished June 14, 2024 - 4/5 stars. Such an insane but great read. Pretending that the dragons don’t exist at all? Don’t look up at the sky? Also the fact that the main character has to practically raise her cousin sister daughter is kind of insane. Mom dies and her dad just kind of shoves them into an apartment without him and tells her to raise her cousin-sister-daughter? Insane. In some places this book felt like a trans allegory which was cool. 

-My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland started June 14, 2024 and finished June 17, 2024. 3/5 stars. Decent urban fantasy. Wished she didn’t fall for the cop. She spent like a good amount of the book being like “What the hell? Why do I want brains?” The cop was the one who turned her and he didn’t at all go up to her to be like “I know you are confused. Here is some help” just some cryptic ass notes. Also she should have just cut off her abusive dad at the end. Not going to continue to read the series. 

-Echo Rising by Danie Ware started June 18, 2024 and finished June 22, 2024- 3/5 stars. This book seemed cool. The first part of this book was pretty cool. Reminded me of Blade Runner. Then the main character gets essentially isekai'd into a fantasy/cowboy land. It was pretty entertaining to read his thoughts on it and people’s reactions to him. It wasn’t enough of that though. There was too much going on. There were too many characters I didn’t care for. The evil centaur basically enslaving a woman and raping her to do what he wanted was very unpleasant to read. Not going to continue on with this series. 

-Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Winters started June 23, 2024 and finished June 26, 2024 -3/5 stars. Is it weird that I thought this book was kind of boring? It’s certainly not terminator. I think the problem is how it’s written. Found footage kind of thing. Makes me think how it’s even possible. Too many characters also. 

-And Then? And Then? What else? by Daniel Handler started June 26, 2024 and finished June 27, 2024. 3/5 stars. I didn’t expect to read this book. Daniel Handler is such an interesting dude. There were some interesting parts of the book. He kind of writes in a pretentious way though. Also he had passages from different books in the book. I want to read his words and not other people’s. 

-Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore started June 27, 2024 and finished June 30, 2024- 4/5 stars. Eric Carter has a pretty interesting life going on. Married to a goddess of death who is essentially manipulating his life in certain ways. It’s awesome. He also thought he was losing his mind because he kept seeing and interacting with his dead friend. I would continue reading this series. The third book seems impossible to get without spending lots of money though. 

[melodies-and-memories]

Finished The London Séance Society

2/5 ⭐

didn't like it very much

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner

Author: Sarah PennerPublisher: Park RowReleased: March 7, 2023Received: Own (BOTM) Book Summary: The year is 1873, and Lenna Wickes has no intention of letting go of her sister, Evie. Evie was brutally murdered, yet there’s no suspect and no real investigation into the case. As such, Lenna is taking the matter into her own hands. She will have Vaudeline D’Allaire teach her everything she knows…

[shesamreads]

This book comes with recipes! I know what I'm doing this weekend.