It's so hard to decide which book I liked more in The Doomsday Books series. As much as I loved this, I think I have to give it to the first book for spending more time discussing the wildlife and landscape of the marsh and having a little more action and mystery. This book is a bit like a gothic novel where a newcomer has to contend with an intimidating estate and the unwelcoming people living in it with them. The estate is not spooky or particularly mysterious, though. The story focuses more on internal character struggles and family dramas (not that those aren't present in the previous book.) You also get a clear sense of how time has passed since the last book, and a lot of familiar faces pop up from the last story. The premise of the Inheritance drama is a good setup for introducing the new characters. Luke and Rufus are fantastic together. KJ Charles seems to be really good at creating characters that feel like unique, distinct people despite them sharing similarities with each other. Luke and Rufus are not just transplants of the lead characters in the last book, their circumstances and their romance are their own. The uncle and aunt causing 90% of all the problems were comically awful people, I always pictured Victoria's parents from The Corpse Bride when they were in a scene.