Review Detail

After the events of Her Dark Curiosity, Juliet flees London with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward. Their destination: a remote estate in a little town, a mansion owned by Elizabeth. Though it appears safe at first glance, Juliet soon discovers new dangers hidden in what was supposed to be their sanctuary.

This book picked up immediately after Her Dark Curiosity and had the same dark feel of the first two books, though maybe a little less dark than the first two. The three books had such different settings(a private island, London, and now an estate that acted as a haven for girls running away) but I think the estate turned out to be my favourite of the three. It was creepy, remote but still within reach of the people Juliet was trying to escape, it had the feeling that something was always lurking and about to jump out.

Juliet has been a favourite protagonist of mine since the first book and she didn't disappoint in this one. I enjoyed her overall growth and struggle through the whole series, trying to discover who she was, wondering if she was too much like her father, if she was 'tainting' Montgomery with her darkness. A Cold Legacy brought even more struggle to her desire to leave her father's experimentation behind her and added in Juliet struggling with Elizabeth's new expectations of her, which didn't flow with what Montgomery expected of her. On top of her personal struggles, she wanted to keep her friends safe and alive. There was never a time, really in the whole series, that I felt each decision Juliet had to make wasn't high stakes. Sometimes she made the wrong decision and had to deal with the consequences, sometimes she made the right, and hard, decision and also had to deal with the consequences.

I really enjoyed Juliet's relationships with the other characters. Each one was so different. Elizabeth was like a surrogate mother who had her own vision of how Juliet's future should turn out, Lucy was as close as a sister who Juliet wanted to shield from the darkness and keep as innocent as possible, Edward was wonderfully complicated with the Beast inside him and a connection that Juliet couldn't deny, as was Balthazar and him being just awesome and sweet and a reminder that good could come from her father's crazy mind.

The only relationship I wasn't completely sold on was the main romance of Juliet and Montgomery, but I actually kind of liked that I wasn't sold on it. Montgomery was a little(okay, more than a little) controlling over who he thought Juliet should be as a person, always reminding her of her darkness even when he was trying to be supportive, and really, he just rubbed me the wrong way in his interactions with her but I do think he cared for her. It felt like Juliet thought she should want to be with her and love him, so she did.

There were new characters introduced that really added to the story, and previous characters were a little more fleshed out. Elizabeth's connection to the Frankenstein myth was brought into the forefront as Juliet discovered more about the truth of the mansion and the loyal servants. Every new character seemed to be a potential threat and it helped keep the suspense through the whole book.

Like the two previous books, there was a lot of information that was slowly revealed but it was done in a way that the book never felt slow. There was always that danger lurking, the mystery of the mansion, the feeling of who can Juliet truly trust. The twist on Frankenstein was one that I really enjoyed. Knowing this book would be a re-telling of Frankenstein, I thought I knew where it would end up going after the second book, but there were more twists to discover and it was great.

I liked that the series wrapped up in a way that left me wanting and hoping for more. It was satisfying and I can be happy with it that way, but if some characters were to later to get their story, I wouldn't complain.