Ahoy there me mateys! When I heard there was going to be another book in this series, I was very excited.  Sadly this was a flop.  There were three problems: Verity, the romance, and the plot.

Verity is the main character and she got on me nerves.  She is naïve and childish.  Dare I say stupid?  Aye, stupid. She disregards evidence of evil doings and doesn't consider anything.  She seemingly has the inability to use her brain for critical thinking.  Verity also seems both stubborn and selfish.  I wasn't really rooting for her.  I was waiting for her to show both initiative and spark but it never happened.

The romance was odd and unrealistic even for this gothic setting.  I couldn't tell if the author wanted her to be in love with Alex or not.  Actually, it never seemed like Verity knew if she wanted to be in love with him either.  So, when we are finally told Verity does love him, it seems to be out of nowhere.  As a character, Alex was light on real substance.  Plus the thrown in lust triangle was ridiculous.

The plot was just convoluted and nonsensical.  Verity is supposed to see ghosts but this is not used as a plot point particularly well.  Also the set-up to the story was amnesia about Verity's past.  I thought that was a weird choice.  The mystery of the house was seriously laughable as were the hints about the number 3.  Even the timeframe was awkward.  The pace was slow so it seemed like no action happened at all for 3/4 of the book.  Then, sadly, the action was a soap opera with a ridiculous twist that seemed obvious.  The cliff hanger ending was also super lame.  How can Verity be THAT stupid?  Actually all of the characters had flaws when it came to logic and long range planning.

I could write a lot more about the specifics that irked me (peacocks, tea, manservant, experiments, Alex's parents, etc.) but I don't want to think about this book anymore.  Shame because the first one was fun.  Arrr!