European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

Written by Theodora Goss

Narrated by Kate Reading

In the sequel to the Nebula finalist The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Mary Jekyll and the rest of the daughters of mad scientists from literature embark on a madcap adventure across Europe to rescue another monstrous girl and stop the Alchemical Society’s nefarious plans once and for all.

Mary Jekyll’s life has been peaceful since she helped Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the Whitechapel Murders. Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, Justine Frankenstein, and Mary’s sister Diana Hyde have settled into the Jekyll household in London, and although they sometimes quarrel, the members of the Athena Club get along as well as any five young women with very different personalities. At least they can always rely on Mrs. Poole.

But when Mary receives a telegram that Lucinda Van Helsing has been kidnapped, the Athena Club must travel to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to rescue yet another young woman who has been subjected to horrific experimentation. Where is Lucinda, and what has Professor Van Helsing been doing to his daughter? Can Mary, Diana, Beatrice, and Justine reach her in time?

Racing against the clock to save Lucinda from certain doom, the Athena Club embarks on a madcap journey across Europe. From Paris to Vienna to Budapest, Mary and her friends must make new allies, face old enemies, and finally confront the fearsome, secretive Alchemical Society. It’s time for these monstrous gentlewomen to overcome the past and create their own destinies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jul 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781508255222

Reviews for European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

[lauren · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's so rare to find a sequel that is as eventful as the first book in a series. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I shall gladly read the third.

[Kim Saint · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a fresh and original series! Absolutely can not wait for the third.

[Nicole Foote-Lenoir · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really good reader fo the audiobook. The tale itself cleverly weaves your favourite gothic tales of "monsters" into a new thoughtful iteration with a wonderful female point of view. Spies, cats, knowledge, humanity. A great fun package.

[Tiffani Smith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just as good as the first book. I love how these books incorporate so many other characters from works of fiction. It makes it like reading all your favourites, or at least mine, all at once.

[Anna Corino · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's just so beautiful, I can't wait for the next book in the series.

[Dave Johnson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A coterie of bright, talented young women solve another mystery, meeting friends old and new along the way. I am interested to see what they get into next.

[Donald Prevost-Hart · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Athena Club crosses Europe to rescue Dr. Van Helsing's daughter. A lovely romp.

[Reici Newsom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful adventure into this creative world of monsters and detectives! It is so well told it pulls you in to that bizarre world creating a strong desire to follow the story line to the very end.

[Jennifer O'Kelly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This series is delightful entertaining reading. It references many of my favorite fictional characters and brings them together and new storylines focusing on the next generation of creative outlier protagonists.
Appropriate for imaginative minds of all ages and led by an ensemble cast of superlative female characters supported by and antagonized by (for the most part) powerful, intelligent male patriarchs of questionable moral fiber.

[Lucia Garcia · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting take on the monstrous classics.
The novel flies by with its adventures and it is fun and entertaining.

[Tanya Szymberski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book series keeps getting better! I found this book a “page turner,” with adventure and danger around every bend of the European roads & train tracks! Once again, Kate Reading does an amazing narration job with this awesome story. She breathes life into the multitude of characters of many nationalities!

[Krystal Gibson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one seemed to be less exciting than the first. It could be because there are less short stories in the middle. Whatever the reason, I found myself bored in several spots. Still I enjoyed a lot of it.

[Elizabeth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Come for the adventure, stay for the bickering and discussions of literary style. Loved it!

[danielle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The book is great, however not sure if it’s this app or what but the audio book skips huge portions. I have go back and forth between the book and the audio for it to make sense. It’s really irritating.

[Saprya · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like this book a lot. I don't have anything that bothers me about it. I really can't find a fault.

[Debra · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This 2nd book is not quite as good as the first, but maybe it's because the 2 shilling hark is annoying after awhile. That said there it's no super literary work but entertaining.

[PamelaJoyceSilva · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Amazing, in originality. The characters are wonderfully developed and st times it is actually hilarious. I hope it is a long series.

[stefanie bush · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love these stories! Such an interesting concept! Can’t wait for next one!

[Monica Seeber · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoy the story but the audio book skips like a scratched CD. It’s annoying and confuses the story; I have to switch to the ebook if I want to know what happens and I can’t do that if I’m driving!

[mikedowd_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good, but long, and kind of long winded, mimicking an early 20th century style. Gets a little tiresome after a while, and the primary plot leads to kind of an anticlimax

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really loved this sequel -- glad to see the delightful and powerful ladies of the Athena Club return, and still find both their aside squabbles and their personalities to be deeply amusing. I kind of love that the sequel continues the collector's tradition of the first book. In addition to all our usual ladies, they are now on a quest to rescue Lucinda Van Helsing -- some unexpected allies come to their aid and provide yet more interesting tie-ins to the literary canon. Love it.

Some things I were different -- Mary! Resume your confidence! I think you will need it. And Can't Diana pleeeeease have a puppy? Hoho seems like an excellent addition, is all I'm saying. Really looking forward to the next book.

Some specific feedback about the ARC (late, I fear) -- it is an enormous book, and some of the asides could be pared back without sacrificing much -- in particular, Diana's continual brattiness gets a little repetitive in the asides, since it is also abundantly present in the narrative. Since that is ARC commentary, I'm not sure it's relevant to the published book, as it may have been edited further. Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.

[bookbrig-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like this series. Even when I don't love all of the mystery aspects, the characters are charming and funny and really make for an enjoying read.

[boundtogetherforgood · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book immensely. I am glad that I listened to the first book again before starting this one. Goss is talented with characterization and plots. I eagerly await the release of The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl, October 1, 2019.

[herenya_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I started this last year but didn’t get very far before it was due back at the library. I decided I’d request the audiobook next time. That was a good move: Kate Reading really does a great job with all the characters’ voices and accents, which made the story all the more engaging, and even listening at 1.5 -- 1.75 speed (because the audiobook is over 20 hours and I wanted to finish it before it was due back!) it was easy to keep track of who was speaking.

Mary Jekyll and Justine Frankenstein set off for Europe to rescue Lucinda Van Helsing at the request of Mary’s former governess, Mina Murray, and receive help and hospitality from people like Irene Adler and Carmilla. And the rest of the Athena Club become involved. I particularly enjoyed their interjections and digressions, and interactions with each other. They make a great team.

CATHERINE: Can you please do your best to not give away the plot? Like the fact that Mary eventually made it safely home… I won’t say whether or not the others did!
MARY: Oh please. If we hadn’t made it back, we wouldn’t be writing this book. The important thing is, what happened to us on the way?
CATHERINE: It’s unbelievable, what authors have to put up with from their own characters. Remind me why I agreed to do this?
MARY: Excuse me. We are not your characters, but fellow members of the Athena Club. And as to why you agreed... we need money, remember?
CATHERINE: Oh, right.

[citizenjoyce · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Someone told this author that she needs to mention that her characters perform bodily functions like eating, so we get to read about every meal, every sausage eaten. Cut the meals out and it would have pared 100 pages from this overlong novel. It was a good concept but severely in need of editing.

[lucky2loki · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The novel has a bit less focus and pace to it than the first installment did, but in other aspects, it is an improvement, fleshing out the world and the characters. My main complaints from the first one remain, but so do all the things I liked. The real pet peeeves that detract from my reading experience is how one character has to mention three times per page she's in that "she's really a puma", and the entire cast's constant insistence that the protagonist is so clever and brilliant, when she in two thick books still have yet to do a single thing particularly brilliant or clever. (Too bad, because I otherwise like the character.) Like the first this is a decent book which with a few more rounds of discerning reader feedback and critical editing might have been rather great. I do, however, really enjoy how many Victorian worlds are being merged and reinvented here, and with the clifhanger ending setting up a third installment, I must admit I'm rather set on continuing reading the series.

[quondame · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I do not find Theodora Goss nearly so clever as she finds herself. This book, and the first, might be much improved at 1/3 the length and without the constant inserts of characters arguing the text, but they would still be one note struck over & over and that note one I can do without. I will let the Athena Club adventure on without me.

[iansales_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the first book of this series enough to pick up the second book… And, yes, it’s more of the same. Having said that, the central conceit does seem to be wearing a bit thin, and even though Goss has been hard at work roping in all manner of characters from Victorian horror fiction, she’s rung so many changes on them they might as well have been invented by her in the first place. In summary: in The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Mary Jekyll brought about the creation of the Athena Club – Diana Hyde, Justina Frankenstein, Catherine Moreau, Beatrice Rappaccini, plus housekeeper Mrs Poole and maid Alice – while assisting Sherlock Holmes solve a series of murders in Whitechapel… which ended up being linked to Adam Frankenstein (ie, the Monster) and the Society of Alchemists. In this second book, Mary’s old governess, Mina Harker (yes, that Mina Harker), asks for help to rescue Van Helsing’s daughter (yes, that Van Helsing and, er, his daughter) from a Viennese asylum, where she has been incarcerated after an experiment to turn her into a vampire. It’s all because Van Helsing and his cronies want to seize power in the Society of Alchemists – current president: She, AKA Ayesha – because their experiments in transmutation have been banned. The Athena Cub end up fighting Van Helsing et al. With the help of Count Dracula. Who is a good guy. I love the conceit, and Goss handles it marvellously. She drags in Victorian monsters willy-nilly and then gives them a place in the setting which fits perfectly. The way the narrative is interrupted by conversation between the characters, who explicitly refer to the narrative as a narrative – is cleverly done. But. The prose is all so very light and commercial, and at 720 pages this story is too long. Goss can write, I know she can because I’ve read some of her short fiction. But European Travels for the Monstrous Gentlewoman reads like an airport bestseller or a book to read on a train journey. The prose doesn’t try hard at all. I like the characters and I like the story, but this novel could have been so much better. I hope the third book in the series remembers that picking the right words and putting them in the right order is as important as telling the story.

[beserene · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I cannot fully express how much I love the Athena Club. I can only say that I wish we had had such books when I was a kid -- perhaps I would not have felt so monstrous myself growing up, or at least not so alone.

This sequel picks up where its predecessor left off, which is to say a few months after a certain dramatic rescue and only a short while after the arrival of a certain mysterious telegram. Mysterious telegrams, in fact, abound in this particular volume, which finds our gang of monstrous females traveling not just around England, but all the way to Budapest in order to rescue a fellow experiment. Along the way, there are kidnappings and fires and plenty of snacks, just as anyone who has read the previous installment might expect.

The series carries on with its experiments in narrative style, with character intrusions and commentary in and on the narrative itself, often peppering humor and insight in with the plot twists. In this particular book, those insertions are often joking and unsubtle foreshadowing of the coming events, as well as the occasional breaking of tension. Nothing here is meant to be purely logical, so those who don't care for such interruptions may be better off with a more straightforward book, but those thinking of reading this probably already know what they're in for.

Indeed, those asides are indicative of the book's greater point: the emotional growth of our central characters and the development of their relationships as a club of young women in a world that too often underestimates and limits young women. The bonds between these characters are the most important part of the book; in reading their interactions, one does feel enveloped in the warmth of their emotions and, indeed, less alone than perhaps one did when one started.

Add to that the delicious period details, the familiar literary guest-stars, and the thoroughly modern attitude, and you have a book that speaks to my readerly soul. Seriously. I love all 700 pages of it. That's it and that's all.