The Dark Days Deceit

The Lady Helen Trilogy, Book 3

By: Alison Goodman

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham

Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The thrilling, genre-bending conclusion to Lady Helen's demon-hunting adventures, set in the glittering Regency world.

Lady Helen has retreated to a country estate outside Bath to prepare for her wedding to the Duke of Selburn, yet she knows she has unfinished business to complete. She and the dangerously charismatic Lord Carlston have learned they are a dyad, bonded in blood, and only they are strong enough to defeat the Grand Deceiver, who threatens to throw mankind into chaos. But the heinous death-soaked Ligatus Helen has absorbed is tearing a rift in her mind. Its power, if unleashed, will annihilate both Helen and Carlston unless they can find a way to harness its ghastly force and defeat their enemy.

In the final book of the trilogy that began with The Dark Days Club and continued with The Dark Days Pact, the intrepid Lady Helen's story hurtles to a shocking conclusion full of action, heartbreak, and betrayal.

©2018 Alison Goodman (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Recorded by arrangement with Viking Children's Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, a Penguin Random House Company.

Very enjoyable

My only real problem with the book is that the word “body” is used innumerable times. It got very annoying. Otherwise the book was a fun read.

Perfecting ending

I was so excited for this book I pre-ordered both the audiobook & the hardcover from Amazon. Fiona Hardingham does an amazing job (again) reading! Super enjoyable!

From my Goodreads review:

What a fantastic ending to a wonderfully well-written series!

Throughout books 1 & 2 I had my suspicions about the Grand Deceiver and I loved how in book 3 Alison Goodman kept me second guessing with false leads.
With the same sort of set-up as book 2, book 3 has a lot of hanging about in Bath with Selburn and Carlston at each other's throats (the tension of which, was super fun, and Alison Goodman's writing is never boring). + I loved how Helen's Aunt kept unintentionally sabotaging the work of the Dark Days Club for propriety's sake. She knew what was up with Helen and Carlston. ;)
Darby is just so friggin loyal and perfect. She plays Alfred to Helen's Batman & I totally support strong women helping strong women...Even if it means interrupting her own personal life/possible happiness with Quinn.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I just have to say that the ending worked out perfectly. I was totally nervous for everyone's lives, and it just worked out so perfectly. Sometimes, the easiest route for the plot (even if it's easily guessed) is the best for the readers.

And though the ending worked out nicely, I wish this wasn't the end. I want to see more Dark Days Club adventures with Helen, please!!

Also, I think I wrote this before in my review for The Dark Days Club and The Dark Days Pact, but I think it's worth writing again: Alison Goodman is a superb historical writer! Yes, this book is all about monsters/demons, but it's obvious that Goodman did extensive research to write this book and make it feel like a Regency-era novel first.
Super fun & well written!

And the last story redeems the series!

I'll be very honest. Parts of this series were very touch-and-go. There were times when Helen, the female protagonist, made me want to put a rusty spike through my brain. The writing was wordy, over flowery(but I guess that's a Regency thing), and SO pretentious I wanted to scrap the whole thing.
However, the premise of the story was always intriguing and with the last novel it was like the author tore down the veil of pretension and exposed the rough and tumble world of the reclaimer. Death and destruction were around every corner. Protagonists were outnumbered and struggling to come to terms with their own powers, and for the most part.....Helen grew up. THANK GOD!
This last book was quite good. The characters were enjoyable, the plot moved at a good pace and was very interesting, there were a few good red herrings, and I bought the love story.
In general, I'm glad I listened to this series. Give it a try. You just might like it.

awesome series

very original and well written book. the amount of research must have taken months. loved all the details and characters.

Another entertaining & interesting installment of the dark days

I would not call this series completely captivating as I was able to take breaks in listening, however I fully enjoyed these sequels. Dark days deceit not feeling to entertain and throw in a few twists. The performance was also wonderful.

Way too melodramatic and never-ending.

I enjoyed the first book in the series, but this story seems to have outgrown the author and rambked inti an angsty, attenuated, and contrived mess.

This book dragged on and on

I really like this narrator, she always does a good job! This book felt like it went on way too long though. It was almost painful. I will say I enjoyed the beginning and the final conflict. I wouldn't listen to this one again. Which is disappointing because I enjoyed the first two books.

Sadly predictable

The trilogy did a great job of getting me invested in the characters, but allll of the foreshadowing hints were very obvious and I had pegged the Grand Deceiver in the 2nd book already. The letdown of being right took away some of the enjoyment.

Heroine became an idiot

I nearly set this one aside multiple times because she ceased having any backbone. Her betrothed is totally being an unreasonable ass but she consistently makes excuses that his demands are reasonable. Loved the first 1 3/4 books