This is a more quiet, subversive effort when compared to book one, but that doesn't make it any less awesome. But now I really, REALLY want book three. "The Madness Underneath" is out now from Penguin in North America, so be sure to check it out when you get the chance!

I gave feedback on this years ago. It suddenly reappeared on my shelf after the addition of audiobooks. I contacted Netgalley a week ago and have heard nothing back so am getting these off my shelf this way.

With a publication date of February 26, 2013, there is only so much I feel comfortable saying about this book. And that can be summarized as: OMGWHAAAAA.

Forewarning: There may be spoilers from the FIRST book in the series. But I can guarantee no spoilers for this book. :)

Color me semi-sad. The color... gray. And that's my reaction to this book. I'm sad because I wanted oh-so-much to like it more than I did. I hadn't heard much about it, and I liked the first one (albeit probably not as much as I had hoped as well). I guess I was hoping this one would leave me waiting and wanting for more. Alas, it did not. Like the time my car was stuck in the snow in my driveway and I kept hitting the gas trying to get out... I kept waiting for the story to propel forward.

We start with Rory after the Ripper incident, the one that nearly killed her. She's healing, physically and emotionally. (Now, I've never been knifed, so to speak, but I have had a cesarean, and they cut you open for that. It seemed to me that Rory was moving normally awfully quick for someone who was sliced open and left to bleed out. That was a minor distraction to me.) She's in therapy but she can't address the real issue. She can't tell anyone about her new sight nor can she talk about what really happened in the bathroom back at Wexford. All of that makes sense.

With her new role as a terminus, however, her being away from the Shades is not conducive to their work. She's the only person that can make the ghosts go away. So her therapist is manipulated into suggested Rory return to Wexford. There's a lot of filler about her return; she's failing most, or all, of her classes (not a shocker). She has an insignificant relationship with a boy. Insignificant in the fact that it does nothing, really, to move the plot along, except maybe help her realize just how not "normal" her life. But did she really need a boyfriend to tell her the fact that she can evaporate ghosts now makes her life not "normal"?

Overall the story didn't pick up for me until maybe the last quarter. That's when things really started happening for me. Most of it was fairly predictable (in the fact that I said, aloud, "Really? You didn't see that coming? C'mon!"). There was a bit of a shocker at the end that I was really impressed with.

I will read the next installment, but I won't be rushing to get my hands on it. I was left with a lukewarm feeling with this one, so who's to say how I'll feel about the next one when it comes around.

I really love this series! If you like YA and supernatural elements you will enjoy this book! I just wish we didn’t have to wait so long between installments! Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Was not able to read this book before it expired. I believe I would have liked it based on the synopsis.

Rory is stuck in Bristol following her close-call with the Ripper copycat. She can’t tell her therapist what really happened and she’d rather not be in therapy at all. She’d rather be back in London, with her friends and the people who know what really happened to her. When she tries to reach out to the ghosts of Bristol, she finds something odd and scary happening; the ghosts are vanishing. So when her therapist suddenly decides it would be beneficial to return to Wexford, Rory jumps at the chance to go back to school.

Whilst the first book was a gripping thriller, this second instalment is much more about Rory coming to terms with her mixed feelings and anxieties and how her life has been completely turned upside-down. She’s incredibly isolated whilst her parents are trying to keep her safe, understandably for them. Yet back in London, the Shades (a supernatural ghost-busting police force, top secret, hush hush) are reluctant to let her get too involved with their work. Except that she has new found powers which they really need. So she also becomes frustrated being back in London and her schoolwork starts to suffer as well.

Of course, there is plenty of ghosty goings on and suspicious things to be investigated; it is overall a much slower and more thoughtful novel. I didn’t really believe Rory’s sudden trust in her new therapist and the quite clearly dodgy set up they had going on. She just seemed to be uncharacteristically naïve all of a sudden.

But the ending! Oh how my heart breaks. There’s something about the quietness of it all that makes so much more of an impact. It’s also a cliffhanger ending that feels like a conclusion but leaves you desperately wanting to read more. The wait will be a long one…

*I didn't get around to reading and reviewing this title.*

The Madness Underneath is the second book in the Shades of London series and it is wonderful. Loved it! The only negative that I would say is that the ending is maddening and the wait for the third book in the series is going to be long and hard.

I really thoroughly enjoyed The Madness Underneath and the series as a whole. I found the whole premise to be fascinating and enthralling. Though this novel felt a little disjointed in comparison to the first, I still really enjoyed it and was absolutely blown away by the ending. The series as a whole is definitely recommended!