So..it's 4:45am and I have to be at church at 9am but I must write my blog first as I just finished this book 15 minutes ago. I started my Saturday reading at around 2pm on page 124 and finished this book on page 420 at 4:30am. Yeah...I read 3/4 of it at one time...
I found that this one was quite different, in terms of style, from the other books by Paula Brackston. Typically, we get information about other characters from conversations with the main protagonist or from information directly from the protagonist; however, in this book Brackston gives us full information straight from the horse's mouth. It may be in third person but we actually receive great detail about other key characters in this book...specifically the antagonist, Nicholas Stricklend. Also, she seems a bit more verbose in this book. It was very easy for me to get rather dragged down in the beginning by the language, but once the story started unfolding I was eager to keep reading. I would imagine though, if you've never read a Brackston novel before, this one may not be your favorite. My advice...go read The Witch's Daughter first...become a fan of Brackston, and then read this one. It's by far her most in depth in terms of character analysis that I feel she has written yet.
Anyway...on to a little plot and about the book itself! There's a lot, and I mean A LOT, going on in this book with multiple plot lines and a lot of detailing and characters I'm going to leave out. Read if for yourself if you want the dirty details! Good plot twists too that I'm conveniently leaving out for you as well. As I said...read it for yourself!
Lady Lilith Montgomery has just inherited the title of Head Witch of Lazarus Coven upon the passing of her father. Her brother, Freddie, has inherited the title of Duke of Radnor since he is not a witch. The Lazarus Coven specializes in witchcraft but more predominately, necromancy. Now, the Lazarus Coven mostly communes with spirits in order to divine the future and ways in which they might prevent certain events from occurring. London is on the verge of World War I and the Lazarus Coven is on the brink of war with a separate sect of necromancers that are actually sorcerers known as the Sentinels. They are ruthless and have no regard for who they raise from the dead. They are power hungry, one in particular set upon bringing about the demise of the Coven is Nicholas Stricklend. He is a perfectionist who has no regard for anyone else as they all interrupt his ideal of what perfection is. I honestly rolled my eyes at this asshole a couple of times. He sees the perfect opportunity to bring the Coven down with this change in Head Witch status. He has placed spies within the Coven and has summoned a long dead sorcerer to enter, unbidden, into Lilith's thoughts to plant seeds of doubt.
Also entering the picture, is Bram Cardale, an artist who, against his father's wishes, has come to London to live with a respected sculptor by the name of Mangan, in order to work on his art as a painter. It is whilst living with Mangan that he meets Lady Lilith and the two feel something about the other. Of course, the first time they meet is outside an opium den so she definitely does not have the highest opinion of him. That all changes when her friend, Charlotte, is having a sculpture of herself done for her parents and Lilith accompanies her for her sittings. During these sittings, Lilith is able to spend time with Bram and eventually the two fall in love. The problem though is Lilith is engaged to another man, a witch in fact, and the man she finds herself truly loving, is not a witch. How on earth will this ever work?! Simple...you have to give Bram more credit than you're currently doing.
It is one night at a ball, the night before Lilith and Bram are to run away together for a week, that Stricklend sics one of his minions to kill Freddie if Lilith does not tell him the Great Secret and give him the Lazarus Elixir. The Lazarus Elixir, as you suspect, brings the dead to life and the Great Secret is the final ingredient needed to make the spell successful....and no I'm not telling you the Great Secret. Read the book and you'll find out. Lilith has been raised to maintain the secrecy of the Coven and the items she has been entrusted to protect, no matter the cost or sacrifice. Freddie is killed and distraught with her grief, Lilith decides to use the Elixir to bring him back to life. It works of course, because she knows what she's doing but after, a literal pit of hell opens up with freaks Freddie the fuck out and he runs away like a scared little bitch. Appropriate response, I suppose. Stricklend has men tailing Lilith so when she and Louis, her witchy fiancee, go searching for him, the bad guys find him first and kill him again. Needless to say, she doesn't meet with Bram and he flees back to his home thinking she has spurned him because of all the differences between them. UGH. Years pass...Bram enlists in the war, Lilith works feeding the hungry at the local convent, and she still puts off marrying Louis. It's because you don't want to marry him and have his babies, girl! You want to do the horizontal polka with Bram! DUH!
Finally, almost two years after the war has ended, Bram is returning to London for an exhibition of his paintings at a local art gallery. He sends an invitation to Lilith and they meet once again, the sparks flying just as they had years prior. She decides then and there to call off the engagement, which she does and finally she and Bram do the horizontal polka. She has also introduced him to the coven and is basically like look I'm a modern woman as it's the fucking 20's and I can love whom I damn well please. Get off my nuts. The Coven really has no other option but to accept him. After their raucous love making, they go up to her rooftop conservatory where they are attacked by Stricklend. And then...........LILITH DIES! AHHHHH! As she is dying she tells Bram the Great Secret which is overheard by the dead sorcerer who is doing the bidding of Stricklend. Only, the ghosty leaves before hearing everything so the information he delivers isn't quite right. Bram calls upon Louis to get his ass to Lilith's house and using the Elixir, Louise is able to successfully bring Lilith back to life. Lilith, in this holy shit badass risen witch mode, confronts Stricklend and his ghosty at the cemetery where she honestly kicks some major ass. Sucks to be the bad guys in this one because she banishes them to the pits of hell. I'm telling you...she's a badass! Bram and Louis survive the attack though and she and Bram live happily ever after. I hope Louis wasn't too uncomfortable with their kissing and hand holding at the end. I like to think he found another witchy woman to make him happy. He was much too bland for Lilith anyway.
In the end, Lilith found her strength as a witch, Head Witch, in fact and she got the man of her dreams. Happiness and champagne all around! Until the next Sentinel asshole comes along to try to steal the Elixir and the Great Secret...
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