European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman - the Second Extraordinary Adventure of the Athena Club

What better way to start off the new year that reuniting with the daughters of Frankenstein, Dr. Jeckyll, Mr. Hyde, Dr. Moreau, and Dr. Rappaccini?  Especially when their second adventure as members of The Athena Club takes over 700 pages to tell the full story!  EGADS!  When I first sat down to start reading this book, I did not realize it was pretty much going to take me the entire month of January to read it - but with work responsibilities, my birthday, David's birthday, and a horrible bout with the stomach flu, what might have normally only taken a week to read ended up taking literally an entire month.  But that's not a bad thing - spending time with Mary, Diana, Justine, Catherine, and Beatrice is always guaranteed to be fun, and these exceptional ladies did not disappoint!

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman is Theodora Goss's second foray into this fictional world where the female creations of these mad scientists have come together to battle the forces of their fathers' evil society of scientists and, along the way, form a familial bond stronger than any bloodline could ever be.  While the first book was a set up for the series, bringing the young women together, introducing each of them to the readers and giving us background as to who and why they are - with that established, Goss has the freedom in the second book to expand the world, giving the story and more soap opera feel - which is meant to be a compliment!  Because now not only do we have a new escapade for the Athena Club to jump into (rescuing the daughter of Van Helsing, who has been locked away in a psychiatric ward for reasons unknown), but we get more involvement from the supporting cast (in one instance, it is in the most surprising and unexpected way) and subplots are introduced that will clearly lead into future stories.

Due to the length of the book, it is broken up into two parts - Book One provides the tale of how the girls get from London to Vienna as they begin their search for Lucinda Van Helsing after Mary gets a telegram from Ms. Van Helsing informing her that Mary's former governess and teacher, one Miss Wilhelmena Murray, had recommended she reach out to Mary for help.  Book Two offers up the conclusion to this particular story, as the girls head from Vienna to Budapest, where they must not only face off against Van Helsing and his blood-thirsty army, but they must convince the Alchemical Society to put a stop to all of the experiments that have created women such as they.

And that is not the only division in this book.  Goss also breaks the team apart for separate missions in this story.  As Mary and Justine head off for Vienna (along with Diana, who, unbeknownst to them, has stowed away for the trip) to meet up with Irene Adler Norton, who, at the bequest of Sherlock Holmes, will help the women locate Ms. Van Helsing, Catherine and Beatrice go undercover of sorts to learn just what Dr. Seward is up to at the asylum with the intent of joining Mary and the others later.  The book alternates narratives, following Mary, Justine and Diana for a bit, then going back and relating the events that have transpired simultaneously with Catherine, Beatrice, and the young maid, Alice (who goes from a small supporting character to a much more integral part of the tale!).  Ultimately, what Catherine and Beatrice discover reveals a much deadlier plot than any of them had envisioned, and under the guise of joining the circus in which Catherine once performed, they head for Vienna to meet up with their fellow Athena Club members to stop Van Helsing, Seward, and their devious plans for the world!

There's plenty of adventure, danger, trickery, blackmailing, betrayal, surprises, secrets, and suspense to keep the reader turning page after page after page for all 700+ pages of this story!  There's never a dull moment, as the Athena Club (and the reader!) learn more about Lucinda Van Helsing and who, and what!, she is, and Mary, Justine, and the others discover that there were more secrets in their own past that, when revealed, cause some drastic changes to who and what they thought they already knew about themselves.  Marry and Diana come face-to-face with their father!  Justine comes face-to-face with the monster who was determined to make her his bride!  Beatrice comes face-to-face with love once again, a love that she knows can never be! And Catherine comes face-to-face with the man she thought she would never see again - the man who claimed to love her, but left her to the mercy of a mad scientist on an island of deadly creations!  And in this second book, the Athena Club is introduced to two new potential members - a young woman whose life depends on drinking the blood of living beings and a young girl who can, quite literally, make herself disappear!  A vampire and the invisible woman - yet two more "creatures" of the horror stories of literature have joined the ensemble to keep things interesting (as if they weren't interesting enough!?).

 

From the streets of Vienna to the dark, foreboding castle of Mr. Hyde ... from the cottage of a 300-year old vampire and her faithful lover to the hidden weapons room of Irene Adler Norton's fine home ... from a monastery training a vampire army to the Academy of Sciences where a final deadly battle is waiting to happen.  The Athena Club truly travels the European countryside in this grand adventure, and Goss provides readers with a beautiful description of the countryside, the grandeur of the cities, and the Gothic darkness of the cold, stone castle that makes the reader feel as if he or she were there right along with Mary and the gang.

Oh, and did I mention the subplot involving Sherlock Holmes' disappearance?  And Irene Adler Norton's own secret mission?  And the domineering woman who has taken a sudden - and deadly! - interest in young, sweet Alice?  Well, stay tuned, as there will certainly be more about those things in books yet to come!

I am so glad that I decided to dive into this series, as it is proving to be a spectacularly fun read, and I absolutely enjoy the interruptions by the characters throughout the story as Mary, Diana, Justine, Beatrice, Alice, Mrs. Pool, and even Catherine herself (who is allegedly writing the tale) interpose their thoughts and opinions about the events and the way Catherine is telling them.  It adds a certain reality to a thoroughly unrealistic story and further expands on the characters in a three-dimensional way that normal story-telling techniques could not accomplish.   And I laughed at the constant reference to the first book in this series and its availability for purchase by readers of this book (albeit at the cost that would have been appropriate at the time this story is allegedly taking place).  It was reminiscent of the old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books that always referenced the previous mystery at the beginning of each book.

Definitely this is a series that I would HIGHLY recommend, no matter what genre of story you may normally enjoy.  Theodora Goss knows how to write an engaging, suspenseful tale that will keep your attention from beginning to end!

RATING:  10 rolls with butter and jam out of 10 for holding nothing back and not being afraid to tell a superbly written tale in a most unique way (and not worrying about how many pages it took to tell it!)