Her Majesty's Necromancer: Book 2 of the Ministry Of Curiosities Series

I found this book to be a bit of a let down after the first in the series. There is not much that really happens between the pages of this slim volume apart from listening to Charlie moan on and on about how conflicted she is by Lincoln Fitzroy and her feelings towards him. We learn little else about any of the supporting cast either - although it becomes apparent that Seth has an eye for the ladies and that they seem to appreciate him too. Once you get past all the fluff there is a tale of body snatchers and the removal of what appear to be selected corpses from various graveyards around London. This is the perfect opportunity for Charlie to flex her talents and, indeed, she does to varying degrees of success. At least when she gets in to trouble this time she manages to rescue herself rather than waiting around for someone else to. Overall there is little character development here and the main story could probably have been told within 100 pages and has been padded out with interminable tales of sponge cake and tea. Add a dash of "forbidden" but reciprocated love in to the mix and you can spin it out to fill the book - sadly that is what it feels like. This is a shame because the writing itself is good and Ms Archer does evoke the scenes exceptionally well and her hand with dialogue is deft and sure. I have the third book already but I am not as excited about reading that as I was to get to this after the exceptional first book in the series.

Too predictable. Needed more suspense. Good job of tying up loose ends. Almost entices me to read the next book, but just not riveting enough to keep my attention. A good light read.

So much better than the first book in this series. I wasn't really hopeful after reading the first book but now I'm glad I gave this a chance and I'm looking forward to reading the whole series.