I enjoyed Mary Hooper's evocative view of London during the Victorian era. She does a wonderful job conveying the grandeur, the excess and the wonder of the society to readers who are not fully aware of it without compromising much in the way of Victorian sensibilities.
I had two basic problems with the book. My first was that the viewpoint of the main character, Grace, struck me as somewhat discordant given the backdrop. This is always a problem when writing historical fiction, but I particularly felt that Grace was translating her experiences across 150 years rather than experiencing them - as if she knew she was telling the story to someone who didn't live the way she did. That kept me from falling totally into the story.
My other problem was that, overall, the scenery and setting were far more memorable than the characters. It almost seemed that Mary Hooper was more interested in the Victorian obsession with death (which, to be fair, is fascinating) than with the life of her own character.
So while yes, this was quite a good book and I found it to be a nice read and well written, it never really grabbed me.