Dangerous Spirits, from Jordan L. Hawk (Spirits #2)

Hello! This week the blog is full of reviews because a great will power made me finish three books in a week (with college and dissertation to do). Now I’m trying to catch up with myself to review all those marvelous books, haha! Today I’ll talk about Dangerous Spirits, second volume of the Spirits series, by Jordan L. Hawk ❤ I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review and the book is out today! I’ll leave some links in the end of the review, where you can check out Dangerous Spirits 😀 I’ve read the first one earlier this year, before start blogging (I started on May, it’s been 5 months already?! =O), so I apologize for the lack of review. I’ll try to re-read the book in December, after my graduation, and then I’ll have a review, haha! Anyway, I had loved Restless Spirits and you can imagine my happiness when I learned that the book would have a sequel and when Jordan sent it to me ❤ Thank you from the bottom of my bookish heart! But let’s go to the story 😀

from my Instagram :) — from my Instagram 🙂

Story

Recently moved from New York to Baltimore, Vincent Night couldn’t be happier with his life beside his lover, Henry Strauss. After all the adventures on Reyhome Castle, the medium and the scientist united themselves on business as well and opened a little shop specialized on extinguishing ghosts and spirits, using both Vincent’s powers as a medium and Henry’s inventions as a scientist. Lizzie, an old friend and business partner of Vincent, also entered the partnership and helped them with her own gift and the three of them counted too with the inventions of Henry’s cousin, Jo. As in any business start, things were slowly and the money was scarce, but all four were very optimistic that a presentation that Henry would do at the Psychic Society would change things and bring in more clients.

Henry was the most anxious one in the party, as Vincent never hid how little he thought of the society and, besides making everyone’s lives more comfortable, Henry would be able to prove his lover wrong. Unfortunately, even after relating their findings and experiences at Reyhome Castle, the society discredits Henry’s work and bans him from their meetings. When Henry was going to deliver the bad news for Vincent, in an impulse, he lies and says that the presentation was a huge success, and knowing all the efforts that his lover and Lizzie had to move in to Baltimore, he loses courage to tell the truth and misses his opportunity.

Meanwhile, Vincent and Lizzie’s old master best friend, Sylvester Ortensi, summons them to help him in a complex case with a powerful ghost that is scaring a whole little town called Devil’s Walk (haha). Henry insists in accompanying them, together with his cousin Jo, but doesn’t feel confident anymore to use his inventions along with Vincent and Lizzie’s gifts to catch the said ghost; after all, if not even the Psych Society believed him, why would Vincent and Lizzie?

Between several twists and misunderstandings, Henry and Vincent will have to make a choice: will they allow white lies to drive them apart? Will their love be stronger than social intrigues and an angry ghost?

Dangerous Spirits picks up Henry and Vincent’s life after we last saw them on Restless Spirtis, so I highly recommend that you read the first book before giving this one a go 🙂

Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I don’t even try to mask how much I love LGBT books, especially if it’s a male/male couple in the 19^th century ❤ I’m not familiar with Hawk’s other works, but I love Spirits and I can’t promise an impartial review, haha! Sorry.

I loved this book. It’s a very short one (my pdf file had 171 pages) and you can read it on one day easily – more precisely, in 4 hours while doing your house work #truestory 😉 From beginning to end, I was stuck, needing to know what in hell was happening on that town, without knowing it I could trust Sylvester of it my sixth female sense was right, fangirling over Henry and Vincent… This book was a roller coaster for me because it left me breathless and with my heart on my mouth in every. Single. Page. That’s why 5 stars ❤

The narrative was third person, but always following either Henry or Vincent’s perspective. At the same time that this technique gave an air of mystery and covered most of what was happening at the Devil’s Walk, it left some holes in the plot and simplified it in a bad way. I wish there was another book coming on the series (please, Jordan, please!) to fix these holes. I also think that it could have been super cool to have a prologue or epilogue showing a little how the life of the person that became the ghost was before her death, to bind things up and leave an air of romantic decadency.

But this is a particular of me, as since I was little, I always thought that the past was fascinating, especially if I could feel it on a place or object. ~pausing the review for major meditation~ I don’t know why, but I always felt attracted, mesmerized by the past. Imagining how people’s life used to be, how it went with their intimacy, their histories, their pains, their joys… There’s an unexplainable beauty on what used to be, in the old, in the decadent, in the forgotten. Of course I like to know more about famous incidents and people, but to find the history of a common person in their time it’s priceless for me. The majority of the best days of my life is related to this series of serendipity. I can remember to this day how much I enjoyed to go down on my grandma’s basement (in an early 20^th century house with eight bedrooms) and go through her governess’ stuff, hear their stories, see the black and white pictures… Another very warm memory dates from my late childhood, when my mom took me to a resting house for elderly people that our church helps to maintain. Several women went and I tagged along for some reason. I stood hours there listening to old people telling their histories, about their own childhood and life In general, how they ended up there. I liked that place so much that I actually whined when my mom said it was time to go – and I was 10 or 12 already, lol. Abandoned places also drive me crazy and I love being able to walk inside them. I admit that my experiences are very restrict, but I enter them always that I can. I become fearless of rats, insects, dirty, everything. For that little stolen moment, I wish I was a part of that place, that I could blend in with its walls and unveil its mysteries, its magic. To find out about the background story of the woman that turned into ghost awoke this macabre side of me, haha! I wanted to understand better how her life was, who was she, why things happened in the way they did. I guess this little side story awoke the journalist in me as well and left her disappointed, haha!

Anyway, that’s a very personal point. I didn’t take any stars on my rating for this, but I missed this element on both narrative and plot. The describing was fantastic and I need to highlight Hawk’s sex scenes. Henry and Vincent are madly in love with each other and this is reflected on the small things, even in the bedroom. The sweetness of each touch, the longing in their stares, everything is filled with love. Really, is beautiful ❤

Talking about the plot itself, as I commented, there were some holes thanks to the narrative style, but nothing serious that interfered on the reading or on the end of the main problem. I liked the plot; it was decent enough and highly interesting for me as a fan of the series. The interesting thing about Hawk is that she presents us to very modern problems even with the scenario being a supernatural historical romance. Henry and Vincent need to be honest with each other to work things up in their relationship, Vincent and Lizzie have a bound with Sylvester forged in gratitude, that leads them to a crucial conscious conflict, especially with Henry and Vincent’s forbidden love.

We are introduced to most of the main characters in the previous book in the series, for obvious reasons. I have a special place in my heart for Henry and Vincent; it’s amazing how they complete each other as a couple. Despite his tastes, Henry is very conventional, tidy and even too common in his own opinion, whereas Vincent is a highly stylish medium and descent of the North American Indians – which means awkward social situations thanks to North Americans’ prejudice in the 19^th century. Lizzie is actually a man dressed in woman’s clothes, as she never felt a man, with a golden attitude. Despite her problems with Henry, as she thinks he is a bit silly, I love her! Jo, Henry’s cousin, is another complicated character. Jo is a black girl and, when her parents died, Henry was the only one in the family that took her in with open arms and didn’t treat her like a slave (and he was shut off from the family for that). Sylvester is a new character and I hated him since the beginning – not because of any technical details, I just didn’t like his attitude, haha! And I loved Rosanna, it was an automatic empathy and I still want to know more about her.

Some of the strongest points in the book are the mystery and the romance around the supernatural. Jordan always created verisimilar situations even when her characters are face to face with a ghost and that’s super cool 🙂

Overall, I loved Dangerous Spirits and highly recommend it if you like a good historical LBGT romance (this is a very underrated genre, so let’s keep trying to take them out of their dark corner at book stores!), mystery, ghosts and some steampunk elements – thanks to Henry’s inventions to catch ghosts 😉

That’s it, guys! Thanks for reading and sorry for another mega reflection, haha! Keep your eyes open to the blog, the review for The Heir, by Kiera Cass, shall be out before Friday!

And, as promised, here’s the list of places where you can find Dangerous Spirits! Both Restless Spirits and Dangerous Spirits are only available in digital formats, for US$4,99.