Review: Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

Her Dark Curiosity (The Madman's Daughter #2) by Megan Shepherd
368 Pages
Release Date: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: Balzer+Bray
Genre: Historical Fiction/Retelling/Horror
Level: YA
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Rating: 4 STARS

Goodreads Summary:
To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it.

Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.

Just like The Madman's Daughter, Megan Shepherd creates an eery, haunting, and suspenseful sequel as she continued to write about Juliet's journey in Her Dark Curiosity. I loved the way that the writing and dialogues matched the time period and it was awesome reading about how England was back then especially the way the nobles and elite worked. My favorite aspect of this novel was the way Megan Shepherd was able to incorporate the ideas from Jekyll/Hyde and how bloody brilliantly she did it. When I heard it was going to be added into the story, I wasn't sure how the story would work and that it would add more to the book but it stayed to the main plot. Then at the end when you find out something huge it also deals with another classics(??)/old loved stories and it's just amazing how all 3 stories were able to connect and link into this one huge wonderful and new story.

Juliet has grown more mature as opposed to the first book now that she's been exposed to her father's work and her naivety is gone. We see her shift perspectives on her life and the way things are in her life. With her experience at her father's island, her "dark curiosity" becomes more apparent as she begins to try to find a serum/cure for herself and Edward. The mention of curiosity is used quite often and it's nice to be able to relate back to the title of the novel. I do feel like that she made a couple of rash decisions and let her curiosity get the better of her at times. It was pretty creepy how much she represented her father, not in the mad scientist way but how far she might take her "curiosity" to. Lucy, her best friend, also becomes a secondary character in the story and it's pretty cool that we see how Lucy's and Juliet's life intertwines. She also helps to become a lady friend that I feel Juliet desperately needs.

In this book, the first half was basically dedicated to Edward while the second half was to Montgomery. Both Edward and Montgomery annoyed me at some scenes and it might just be the way guys were during that time but it irked me how much they assumed and wanted to tell Juliet what to do. Thankfully Juliet's stubborn and smart enough to get her own way. My god I think for now I am Team Juliet. I don't want things to go too far with any of the guys and first deal with the bigger problems before making any huge decisions in her love life. It felt like a family reunion when Edward, Montgomery, Balthazar (YES HE COMES BACK AND IS AS SWEET AND AWESOME AS EVER), and Juliet all get together in the book :P Then Megan Shepherd decides to drop this huge bomb on us (secret wise of course) and events go awry from there.

As brilliant as this book was, it also broke my heart more than once. With all the secrets that get uncovered, Her Dark Curiosity, is not a book you want to miss reading. If you loved The Madman's Daughter, you will LOVE the way Juliet's story takes a turn in Her Dark Curiosity. I recommend this book to YA historical fiction, retelling, romance, mad scientist like readers who want a thrilling and dark read. Happy Readings!