I read the first book, "The Lost Apothecary" and when I heard that Sarah Penner was writing another book, I could not be more excited. This book did not disappoint. Much like her first book the story follows two strong female characters whose storylines intertwine seamlessly. What I really loved about this one was how it stayed in one time period; it gives the reader more time to learn about what it was like during the 1870s. The added murder mystery element was so much fun and kept me guessing and intrigued throughout the whole book. I can't wait for the physical book to come out so everyone and enjoy it.

The Lost Apothecary was one of my favorite books in 2021 so I was very excited when I heard The London Seance Society announced. While I enjoyed the storyline and the details into seances and late 1800s London, this book didn't hold my attention in quite the same way.

Londoner Lenna is attempting to uncover how her sister Evie passed away. She connected with internationally known medium, Vaudeline to help her learn the art of the seance in order to perform her own one day. While serving as Vaudeline's understudy in Paris, they get called back to London to do a seance for the leader of the renowned London Seance Society. This book is part mystery, part horror (maybe?), with a hint of romance intertwined. The story is told in two viewpoints: Leanna and a Mr. Morley who is a leader in London Seance Society. While I thought both the beginning and end were attention grabbing, there was a lot of slower periods throughout the middle of the book. I found the story to be a bit repetitious in parts where the same component of the story was told by both viewpoints. Overall I enjoyed the mystery, but I do not think it will land among the best of 2023 books.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for granting me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

The London Seance Society had a great premise and wonderful, atmospheric writing but the story and characters fell flat and the story itself was too drawn out. For a book about seances and secret societies plus a few murders thrown in, I expected more excitement and drama but the pace was too slow and the story lacked excitement. The story centers around Lenna and her search for answers about her sister’s murder. She teams up with Vaudeline, a medium who has fled to Paris. They both return to London to perform a seance for Mr Volckman, the leader of the London Seance Society. The story is told from Lenna and Mr Morley’s perspective but I didn’t enjoy either character or their point of view. The book dragged in the middle and then the big seance that was being built up too was rushed at the end. This book was a miss for me and I would have dnfed if it hadn’t been a review copy.

Part mystery, part paranormal, with a bit of romance thrown in. Lenna is a skeptic but has found herself becoming the understudy of well-known spiritualist Vaudeline in order to determine why her sister Evie died. Lenna assists Vaudeline as they investigate the former London Seance Society's president's death and she questions whether there really is a spiritual world or if its all illusion. The more they investigate with society vice president Mr. Morley, the more it seems like the seances were staged and that Evie was somehow involved in the scam. While this is going on, Lenna also questions her feelings for Vaudeline. The story was told from alternating viewpoints, between Lenna and Mr. Morley, but Mr. Morley's were a bit of a struggle to read due to his unlikeable personality. Overall, it was a decent mystery and readers who like paranormal elements will enjoy it.

For a book with "Seance" in the title, there wasn't much seance-ing going on and that was a letdown for me. The premise was interesting but I didn't love the execution - the chapters in Morley's POV especially really dampened the mystery factor.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for this eARC of Sarah Penner's newest book releasing in March, The London Séance Society.

I absolutely love Sarah's first book, The Lost Apothecary and so I was excited to be able to read this one. I went in completely blind 🙈

I was totally picturing the same set up as her TLA, and it does have 2 POVs, but it is not past and present. That aside, I really enjoyed the mystery and didn't have a clue how it was going to end, which definitely made me keep reading and I enjoyed how it all came together 😊

The spirits would like to speak to you now…

I am so excited to say that I just had the opportunity to read an ARC of the much anticipated second release from Sarah Penner!

My full review will come closer to the March 21, 2023 release date, but I can honestly say that anyone who loved The Lost Apothecary will not want to miss THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY…..like seriously you do not want to miss this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row for allowing me this amazing opportunity and providing a digital ARC copy!

UPDATED REVIEW 2/21/23:
For those that loved the imagery Sarah Penner brought in The Lost Apothecary, THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY will not disappoint. Just as with her last book, the characters come to life right on the page. I’ve always been intrigued by spiritualism and the idea of the occasionally thin veil between the living and deceased. Are there those able to reach from one side to the other? The fact that Lenna is not necessarily a believer, but immersed herself into the art as a means to an end for her own needs, adds to the mystery of the story. There are a lot of elements that come together to weave this particular tale. Although all the bits and pieces do not feel as seamlessly put together as in The Lost Apothecary, THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY is a truly entrancing read that will@have you racing to the finish.

I received this and as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Park Row for giving me access.

Having read The Lost Apothecary, I fell in love with Penner's writing and knew I needed to read The London Séance Society. After all, I love stories that are set in 19th century London and have a mystery to solve by a woman. This was an enjoyable read that I didn't want to put down. While the story had a slow build up, the suspense and ending was much worth the wait.

This one is great for mystery lovers of any kind.

I was so incredibly excited to receive a copy of The London Seance Society as I adored The Lost Apothecary. I absolutely love the way Penner writes but this just did not capture me the way I was hoping. The premise was so intriguing but I was let down. And it really pains me saying that!

2.75/5 stars! I have read and really enjoyed the author's "Lost Apothecary," so I was excited to get the chance to read this book. And the cover is super cute as well. Compared to her other book, this book lacks both an engaging plot and likable, 3-dimensional characters. The storyline was much more shallow than I was looking for and the "twist" was predictable. I was still able to get through the book and can see how readers who are very interested in spiritualism as a key plot point would enjoy it.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Let’s start this off by saying I don’t like ghost books. I didn’t consider that a book about seances will contain that content. This definitely impacted my enjoyment and connection with the characters. I was also confused as the the amount of romance/relationship development that happened over the first 30% of the novel. I expected a mystery and got that ... eventually. It hooked me at the 60% marker. I wish I had known that the focus was on characters in romantic relationships for the first section before it transitioned to the mystery. I think that this book was not for me as my expectations were not in alignment with the book I was actually reading. None of this is to say that this is a bad mystery, romance or plot. It just wasn’t for me.

I received an arc via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

The London Séance Society is an interesting mystery/romance/historical fiction, with a bit of fantasy, too!

Lenna Wickes is a practical woman, believing in things she can see and touch. Her deceased sister Evie, however, believed in the supernatural. Lenna is determined to find out who killed her sister, even if that means working with a famed spiritualist, Vaudeline D'Allaire. Evie had studied with Vaudeline a couple of years ago, and is willing to train Lenna so she can communicate with her dead sister.

Mr. Morley is the vice president of The London Séance Society, and he knows that the society is in trouble. The president, Mr. Volckman, was killed several months ago (the same night as Evie), and there are rumors that members of the Society are cheating people. He sends a letter to Vaudeline to ask her to come back to London to conduct a séance to talk to Volckman and see what he knew.

When Lenna and Vaudeline arrive from Paris, they are suspicious of everyone. Vaudeline had left London because she was aware that the Society had some bad eggs, and she's still not sure who they are. While planning the séance, they also try to figure out who is using fraudulent methods to pretend to contact the dead, and how Evie was involved in all of this.

This book started off a little slow, but the last half was full of excitement. I loved the romance between Lenna and Vaudeline. You will get whiplash trying to follow who is good and who is not, but that adds to the mystery central to this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

Interesting read. It has a mystery, some paranormal, and a bit of romance. I was intrigued by this whole seance society and what it was about. I was not really expecting it to go the route it did. Lenna's sister has died, and wants to find out what happened and what it has to do with the London Seance Society. This society is for men only, yet somehow her sister seems to be involved with them. With the help of Vaudeline, Lenna hopes she will find out who murdered her sister, though it seems not everything will go as planned. With Lenna and Vaudeline trying to learn what happened to Evie, another death occurred the same night, and Vaudeline needs to find the answer to that one. Mr. Volckman is in charge of the society, and there are accusations of fraudulent seances being held. What does this have to do with Evie and Mr. Volckman well all of it comes together at the end, and I was not expecting that. I liked how the ending came about. I was getting bored with the storyline around 20 percent in, and I commented with someone who had left a review asking if it got better. Luckily it did for me, but it was one that I was hoping would hurry up and get to the juicy parts. It just took too long the building up everything. I was looking for more paranormal and seances happening in the story rather than the feelings one has for someone. Make sure to read the author's note at the end because it contains some neat information I never knew.

I must say that I was absolutely thrilled to receive this book because I loved The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner so much and have recommended it to others. I feel that she writes historical fiction really well and I am eager to read more by this author.

The idea behind this book I found to be very intriguing and I was eager to learn more about the story. The book follows two women: one who is a medium and teacher, the other who is her understudy, and the sister of a woman who was murdered. Vaudeline D'Allaire is the sought-after medium of the time in London and Paris. Her focus is to bring back murder victims to identify their killers and solve the case. Lenna Wickes is Vaudeline's understudy and also the sister of murder victim Evie. The story is told through the viewpoints of these women along with Mr. Morley the Vice President of the London Seance Society and friend of murder victim Mr. Volckman who also happens to be the President of the Society.

Lenna and Vauldeline I found to be particularly brave women, especially during the time period of 1873. Vauldeline with her urge to discover murderers and Lenna with her drive to discover who killed her sister. Both of these women were very driven and passionate characters. They were both willing to go the extra mile to find the information they were looking for. These women had to stay undercover at points in this story by dressing in male disguises so as not to be discovered by other society members. Females were prohibited to be in such societies during this time period. So the sneak factor for these two women was a serious thing.

This story I found to be a page-turner for sure with all the sneaking around, investigating, stories of the victims (multiple victims I did not mention), and the discovery of what Evie was really up to before she was killed oh, and how she died. Epic. I also found the seances to be creepy but maybe that is just because I do not tend to read things with too much creep factor due to being a bit of a chicken. I did really enjoy the fact that along the way you discover things about the characters that you were not expecting. Not all things seem as they are at first glance.

I was very pleased with the way things ended and was left not wanting any more from the story. I think Sarah Penner did a great job with this book and I strongly encourage others to read it. If you are looking for strong women, sapphic romance, murder, and mystery then this book is for you.

Trigger Warnings:
- Murder
- Sexual Assault
- Grief
- Death
- Violence

I just want to say thank you to Netgalley for this digital copy of the London Seance Society book by Sarah Penner. I received this book in return for my honest review and opinions. Everything I have included in my review is entirely my own.

Publication Date March 7th, 2023

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: March 7, 2023
Vaudeline D’Allaire is known far and wide for her talents at communing with the dead. Over the years, she has solved many murders by simply taking in the spirit of the deceased and, as such, has been in demand by citizens and police agencies alike. After the death of her sister, Lenna Wickes takes up as an apprentice of Vaudeline, assisting the woman with her seances with a secret hope of discovering who murdered her beloved sister. When a man involved with the high-profile London Séance Society is murdered, Vaudeline is called in to assist, bringing Lenna with her. Both women soon discover that there is a dark underbelly within the Society, composed of fakes and cheats, and Lenna and Vaudeline’s lives are at risk when they try to reveal the secrets that these men would kill to keep.
Sarah Penner is the author of “The Lost Apothecary”, a historical fiction novel of women seeking revenge, and this theme resurfaces again in her newest novel, “The London Séance Society”. In Victorian England, women were often restricted from most of the high-society clubs and societies (including the real life “London Séance Society”) but yet were seen as the most talented and adept at performing seances and communing with the dead. Penner introduces Vaudeline and Lenna, two strong characters who go against all of society’s norms, and I could not have loved two characters more. As Vaudeline struggles to maintain her reputation and Lenna vows to avenge her sister’s death, they both come face-to-face with a patriarchal Society, desperate to end them, one way or another.
“Society” is narrated by both Lenna and by Mr. Morley, a higher-up in the Society who is definitely not what he seems. Morley is able to tell parts of the story that Lenna is not, including the inner workings of the Society and the events that led up to Lenna’s sister, Evie’s, death.
The plot is fast-paced and I loved the supernatural elements of this story. Penner’s “authors’ notes” provide the historical events this novel was based on, and it was fascinating to learn about seances and the mediums who ran them (legitimately and not). “Society” is uniquely creative, full of rallying feminist themes and dark, spooky things that go bump in the night. Penner’s newest release is not to be missed!

Lenna doesn’t know if she believes in the paranormal or that a séance will really allow others to have access to those who have passed. Her sister however believed it. When her sister dies under mysterious circumstances Lenna has no other option then to turn to Vaudeline, her sister’s old teacher in all things otherworldly. When Vaudeline is called back to England to conduct a séance to try and solve the murder of the president of the London Séance Society Lenna goes with her in hopes that she might also figure out what happened to her sister. What waits for them in London though is not all that it seems. The London Séance Society has a dark history that no one knows about and they are willing to protect that history at all costs. Will Leanna and Vaudeline be able to untangle the web of lies or will they too become trapped within its web?
I loved the concept of this book. I will admit that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the Lost Apothecary. There was something off in the storytelling and it didn’t quite pull me in as much as Lost Apothecary. However, it is still a lovely story and one that readers are going to enjoy getting lost in. I look forward to recommending this book to patrons real soon.
Thank you so much to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me access to an advance copy of this title.

This story of magical realism is told from multiple viewpoints, and you don't know what you don't know until the narrator admits it to you. I thought the book was somewhat obvious, but I was wrong. The first twist took me completely by surprise. I guessed the second twist, and the third twist surprised me yet again. The story takes place in 1873 when most people believe in spirits and frequently hold seances to connect with the dead. Lenna Wickes is in Paris to learn how to lead seances from Vaudeline D'Allaire, so she can connect with her dead sister and find out who murdered her. Meanwhile, Mr. Morley is in London and reaches out to Vaudeline to have her return to London to hold a seance to connect with his murdered boss. These storylines intersect and you don't know who to believe or what is real. My favorite part of the book was around Vaudeline and her process for conducting a seance. A number of the characters are quite unlikeable (intentionally), and some you might not like, but they will surprise you. Overall, it is another interesting read from Sarah Penner.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advance copy. My opinion is my own.

Sarah Penner has once again crafted an engaging and suspenseful historical thriller with a feminist bent, and this time we have the addition of the supernatural! I thought that THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY was a fun and suspenseful read as two women mediums, one a master at the craft and the other her apprentice, are pulled into the investigation of a murdered friend who was a prominent member of a men's séance society that may be hiding some secrets. I really loved Vaudeline, the famous and passionate medium who has true gifts and talents she wants to keep seen as legitimate, and Lenna, her apprentice who is trying to find out who murdered her younger sister Evie, who had also been an apprentice to Vaudeline, and may have been hiding something from them both. The mysteries are well done and compelling, keeping my guessing as the book went on, and I loved the historical themes of spiritualism, superstition, and the misogyny that was all over the Victorian Era and permeates the narrative.

THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY is another winning book from Sarah Penner. Fans of historical thrillers who like a bit of a fantasy twist should give it a shot!

The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner is a fantastical mystery. When Lenna’s sister Evie is murdered in her families garden and the police have no answers, Lenna decides to enter her sister’s world of the supernatural. Lenna becomes the apprentice of Vaudeline D’’Allaire a renown medium hiding for her safety in Paris. Vaudeline returns to London after being summoned by the London Seance Society to perform a seance for the murdered President. Vaudeline and Lenna both return hoping to uncover the truths about the two murders.
I really enjoyed this novel, however the changing perspectives slowed down the story just as it was getting good..
I want to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy and give this honest review.

In 1873 Lenna Wickes goes to Paris to study with the renowned medium and spiritualist, Vaudeline D’Allaire. Lenna’s sister, Evie, has been murdered and Lenna hopes to find a way to communicate with her sister through a séance to find out who murdered her. Lenna doesn’t really believe in the paranormal but her sister believed so Lenna is trying to understand all of it. When the president of the London Séance Society is murdered, Vaudeline is called back to London because they want her to uncover the mystery of who killed him. Vaudeline and Lenna head to London only to discover that Evie was involved with the society and she and the president of the séance society were both killed on the same night, All Hallows Eve. Is this a coincidence or are the two deaths connected? There is also some evidence to suggest that some people in the society are using fraudulent practices and damaging the reputation of the society.

Told from different points of view, this part historical mystery, part occult fiction has had many stellar reviews. I loved the author’s first book, The Lost Apothecary so I wanted to love The London Séance Society Unfortunately, I didn’t. For me, characters weren’t very appealing, the romance felt flat and I struggled to get through it. Other readers have really liked this book so you might want to look for it when it is published on April 7, 2023.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishers and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.