Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Publication: March 7, 2023

I know that this is a highly anticipated book for many so I was very excited when I was approved to read this book! This is my first book by Penner, with "The Lost Apothecary" currently on my TBR list.

I honestly really struggled with connecting to this book. I believe that I would rate this 2.5 stars. I loved how well researched the history and seances were done. However, when it came to the actual plot, I couldn't get into the story. The plot felt dry to me as a reader and I'm not sure if the characters all seemed to feel the same or the story was bogged down with so much historical information.

Perfect for readers: interested in history, a fall read, light mystery

Content warnings: murder, loss of a sibling

Lenna Wickes's sister Evie was murdered on Halloween. Evie was into the occult and very interested in the gentlemen's club London Séance Society, much to scientific-minded Lenna's chagrin. To find out what happened to her sister, Lenna goes to Paris to learn from the best medium -- Vaudeline D’Allaire.

Madame D’Allaire receives a message from London that her dear friend was also murdered on Halloween. Her friend was the head of the London Séance Society. The women return to the city to find out what happened to him -- and if Evie's murder is connected to the crime.

When the women return to London, they are hidden inside the gentlemen's club by employee Mr. Morley. But when tensions are high and anyone could be a murderer, no one knows who they can trust.

Switching narration between Lenna and Mr. Morley, the story offers twists and turns before coming to the novel's shocking conclusion. Recommended for fans of supernatural historical fiction or women's fiction.

Representation: lesbian main character

Set in the throws of Spiritualism obsessed Victorian London, The London Seance Society is a delightful murder mystery with plenty of shocking twists that keep the pages turning.

The London Seance Society is a men’s only club that is known for producing attainable results during their seances. When the head of their club is murdered, Vaudeline D’Allaire, a renowned female medium is called to help lead an investigative seance. Along for the ride is Lenna Wickes, her understudy who questions whether or not the summoning of spirits from the beyond is fact or merely a hoax. Lenna is also trying to uncover the secrets behind her own sister’s death and her relationship to the male dominated London Seance Society. The two of them discover together that they may be in way over their heads.

Full of wonderful magical realism and Victorian gothic vibes, the budding romance between Vaudeline and Lenna add a much needed sense of whimsy to an otherwise rather dark murder mystery. Well written with distinctive, likeable characters and a unpredictable plot.

For fans of cozier murder mysteries with a fantastical bent.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Penner, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

The seances were greatly researched and a pleasure to read, but the book was a bit of a disappointment. The characters were hard to connect with and the story line was wonky.

I have spent the last year raving about Sarah Penner and The Lost Apothecary to anyone who would listen, so to say I was hyped when the news about Penner’s newest book dropped is an understatement.

The premise of The London Séance Society draws readers in with promised elements of the supernatural, unsolved murders and mysterious organizations. Lenna is our MC, who finds herself embedded in the world of savvy mediums and powerful men capitalizing on general belief in the paranormal as she works to hunt down answers to what happened to her sister, Evie, which leads her to adventure across Paris and London in her search for justice and the truth.

Despite being set in the 1800s and centered around the historic spiritualist movement, The London Séance Society is missing the time-jump storytelling and themes of rising beyond a time of oppression that The Lost Apothecary delivered so masterfully. Yes, you could argue that this book also demonstrates the resilience of women in a time where independent female thinking was publicly discouraged and often condemned, but this subtext is almost lost with the ‘righteous’ male POV relied on too often in the plot, told through the eyes of one Mr. Morley.

IMHO, Penner would have been better off doing without Morley‘s voice entirely, which is both conflicting and wholly unlikeable from the very beginning. Plus, the villains behind Evie’s murder are made too obvious early on — something which is in part due to the alternating POVs that only manage to reduce any tension-building as the plot thickens. That alone makes this a difficult world to get lost in. (I actually had to force myself to resist the pull to DNF several times.) The only saving grace of the whole thing is the budding romance between Lenna and Vaudeline, which builds throughout and gets a satisfying conclusion in an otherwise dull tale.

All in all, Penner’s follow-up to The Lost Apothecary falls short of its predecessor. This book has less of what Penner’s debut offered in droves — less magic, less intrigue, less meaning and just less of what made The Lost Apothecary so spellbindingly good.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Strong female characters, 19th c London, ghosts and seances: this book *should* work for me, but it doesn't. Penner seems to have missed the lesson on "show, don't tell," and the mystery's pieces either fit too easily or not well at all. Switching from first to third person is more jarring than the purpose it serves. I'd love to see this in movie form, but not on paper. That said, take this review with a large grain of salt. I felt similarly about The Lost Apothecary, which was loved by many. And the final seance *was* pretty great.

The London Seance Society
By Sarah Penner

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book to review!

WOW, Absolutely loved this book !

Everything you could ever want in a Gothic horror/mystery. Vivid descriptions make the reader feel like they stepping into a Victorian psychic's parlor.

Psychic medium Vaudeline D'Allaire is teaching her protege Lenna Wickes the correct way to hold a séance. The psychic's specific talent is reaching out to murder victims to disclose their killers.

The London Seance Society is an all male group of Victorian spiritualists, psychics and experts on the occult. There has been a murder of one of their own and D'Allaire is called upon to reach out to the deceased and identify of the killer.

An evolving mystery with many puzzle pieces that magically fit together in an absorbing and spell binding read.

Best book in this genre that I have read in over a decade !!

The London Séance Society started out in such an interesting way: with a séance! It really pulls you in and gets you excited for everything that’s about to follow.

There are some real positives about this book. When you read through reviews, you’ll see a lot of comments about the dark, gothic vibes, which I’ll agree was really the star of the book. It really pulls you right into the whole séance scene and makes you feel like you could be sitting around the table with them. Very cool stuff.

Another thing I loved about this book is Vaudeline. She’s just awesome – a stand-out woman when it was incredibly hard to be such a thing. She knows what she wants, and she’s not afraid to go for it. Not to mention, she’s in touch with the spirit world 👻. In my opinion, she stole the show, and the female narrator, Lenna, was just okay.

The last thing I’ll touch on (no spoilers, don’t worry!) is the ending of the book. Things got pretty intense at the end with a very dark, very high-stakes séance. The whole book really is leading up to this one big thing (it’s talked about through a lot of the story), and the big thing didn’t disappoint for me. It actually gave the book back half a star!

Now, the parts I didn’t love so much…the pacing. Somehow I was bored at times, and just wanted to get to the juicy stuff. It seems like that’s what the author was trying for, as there’s some sort of “dun dun dunnnn” reveal/revelation at the end of just about every chapter for a good stretch. That kind of pacing made it a little cliché for me.

There’s also one point near the end of the story where you find yourself yelling at a main character, “What the heck are you doing?? Don’t you think maybe you should get the heck out of there?!?” There was just this whole plan put together, and then the character arrives where she’s supposed to get something and leave and she just….sits there. It didn’t make sense to me and made me want to throw the book down. Come on, character, get your act together.

So, overall there were some pain points for me, but the ending redeemed the book a little. I have no doubt The London Séance Society will have many fans and delight readers everywhere, but for me it was 3.5 stars.

This story has great drama with spooky and atmospheric writing however the story was flat, too drawn out and slow. I enjoyed the historical aspects taking place in the Victorian time period, London and exploring the fascination with death and after life with the use of spirts, mediums and seances. The story follows Lenna who is skeptical about the spiritual world, but becomes an understudy to Vaudeline, a renowned spiritualist in order to avenge the recent murder of her sister, Evie. Lenna and Vaudeline become entangled with the London Seance Society, an all gentlemen club who also has an interest in the spiritual world, when they are told about the murder of its head, Mr. Volckman and asked to help solve the mystery. The book started out feeling a bit like Sherlock Homes meets a female cast with protagonist Lenna as the sleuth, but the story just did have much happening and was predictable. There is this huge build up to this seance to conjure Mr. Volckman that doesn't happen until the very end which just felt to dragged out. I didn't enjoy the characters and did not felt drawn to anyone. I wished there had been more focus on the fascination with spiritualism and the afterlife during this time period and less with the mystery part which was unfortunately very predictable. This book was just ok for me and most likely wouldn't have finished except I wanted to write this review.

Thank you net galley and Park Row Books for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read a pre-release copy of The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner.

I loved The Lost Apothecary so I was really looking forward to this one. I believe Sarah Penner is a great author and her new book was well written and well researched.

The London Séance Society was hard for me to get into. I tried a few times to restart and go back to the story. When I reached the half way mark I was able to be engaged in the novel and finish it. The characters were interesting yet I couldn't find a way to bond with them.

The mystery in the novel was surprising and well crafted. There were some good twists in the end.

I find my mood effects my reading and I struggled with this book yet I feel that it will be a great novel for many readers.

Thank you to NetGalley, Author, and publisher for giving me this ARC for review.

Sarah Penner did a great job with the Lost Apothecary and so I was so excited to get this ARC. The book is very fast pace and keeps your attention through the change in character POVs. This is a great historical mystery mixed with paranormal seances and a dash of romance. While the story became a bit predictable it didn’t bother me as I liked the characters and Sarah kept the plot moving.

Sarah Penner has officially become an auto buy author for me! I’m not normally a historical fiction reader but I loved the historic apothecary vibes of her first book (The Lost Apothecary) so I was excited to read The London Seance Society and it did not disappoint. Similar to TLA, Penner explores the darker side of Victorian London with mystical elements in TLSS (spoiler alert - it involves séances!!!).

Sarah Penner puts me under a spell with her writing and it’s clear the she does a lot of research by the amount of details throughout the book! (I also loved the authors note at the end with facts about Victorian customs and recipes!!)

I really enjoyed the pacing of this book as well. While the plot started becoming a little predictable, the quick pace and back and forth between the female main character, Lenna, and the male main character, Mr. Morley, kept my heart race up and I could not wait to see how the story played out! Another enchanting mystery by Sarah Penner!!
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Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The premise sounded written for me but I could just not get in to this book despite several attempts. Hard to finish but I did!

Well this was really interesting and I was really excited to read it since I think the best part of Lost Apothecary was the historical fiction story. So we have Lenna Wickes who is studying under acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire to try and get over her bias against the occult and hone her own talent so she can figure out who killed her sister who was also a student of Vaudeline before she died. The plot twists and turns and you think you know who the bad guys are but the story keep revealing you have no clue. There are alternating perpectives with Mr. Morley who is the Vice President of the London Séance Society the one who called Vaudeline back to London to have her conduct a séance to find out what happened to the President of the Society since he was murdered. Lenna wickes is the other perspective who is determined to figure out what her sister was involved in and if that was the reason she was killed and they alternate chapters and follow a pretty clear timeline mostly. There is a lgbtq aspect to this with Leanna being a lesbian closeted of course in Victorian England but there is something between her and Vaudeline but it is mostly on the backburner until the end except for the tension between them. The subject matter was interesting and I enjoyed how much the plot twisted and turned and kept me guessing.

Thanks to Park Row and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Sarah Penner did not disappoint with this new book. I loved the mystery, and was thrilled to follow along to see what would be coming next. Lenna was a wonderful main character to follow as she learned how to utilize her skills as a ghost summoner. The author is so good at making it feel like you're actually in the time period shes writing about

Another captivating historical mystery from Sarah Penner!

Told in alternating POVs, the novel begins with Lenna, a spiritualist understudy, preparing to begin a séance with her teacher, the renowned medium, Vaudeline D'Allaire.

Lenna, skeptical about the supernatural and bothered by the death of her beloved, little sister on All Hallows Eve becomes D'Allaire's understudy in her quest to seek answers about Evie's mysterious demise.

It is at this first séance, that D'Allaire is summoned back to London from Paris by Mr. Morley to help solve the mystery of her friend, and president of the London Séance Society, Mr. Volckman's death.

Mr. Morley, our second POV, greets Lenna and D'Allaire as they arrive in London. The women are soon disguised, as D'Allaire is concerned for her safety and because the London Séance Society is a gentleman's only establishment.

While the two women set out to find answers about the two deaths of those close to them, they soon begin to solve several other mysteries by conjuring their courage, as well as some spirits, along the way.

Fans of Penner's debut novel, The Lost Apothecary, will find the same evocative writing and themes of female empowerment in her latest novel. The London Séance Society is very much the Victorian era murder mystery that I was hoping for in Penner's second novel, this time with a hint of romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It’s 1873 London and there are some questionable things happening within the London Seance Society. Lenna Wickes is desperate to solve the murder of her sister Evie and therefore seeks out the famous spiritualist, Vaudeline D’Allaire. D’Allaire is known for using her mediumship to solve murder cases and being as she was once Lenna’s sisters mentor, who better to help solve the case?

Mr. Morley is the Vice-President of the London Seance Society. He is plagued with the mystery behind the death of his superior, Mr. Volckman. Not only that, but people are starting to suspect that the society’s seances are nothing but a fake. In hopes of solving the mystery of Volckman’s death and hopefully putting a stop to said rumors, he writes D’Allaire to bring her back to London after she was sent to Paris for her own protection. It will be a risky move, but one that will hopefully be right.

I really enjoyed reading this title. It’s chock full of twists and keeps you wanting to know more the whole time. Because it takes place over just a couple days, it seems to be a quick read, but there is so much that happens within those few days that it keeps things interesting every second.

I’m not a big historical fiction reader, but that didn’t stop me from liking this. I personally liked that Sarah Penner did not write in old English. There were moments where you could tell it was set back in time, but overall it just felt like you were reading a modern day mystery without all our technology (which was a welcomed idea).

I gave this read 4 stars and will be recommending it to readers as soon as it comes out! Thank you NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy in place of an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Park Row, for allowing me to read a digital copy of "The London Séance Society" by Sarah Penner. I was excited to receive notification that I could read this book before the release date, and this is the second novel I've read by Ms. Penner. Even though I enjoy stories about magicians, mediums, spiritualists, possessions, and seances, it took me a while to get into the flow of the novel. It was interesting to learn that Lenna's motivation for studying spiritualism, under the tutelage of Vaudeline D’Allaire, was to bring her sister's murderer to justice, determine their motive, and bring comfort and peace to her grieving family. The story unfolds from the alternating perspectives of Lena and Mr. Morley, the vice president of the London Séance Society. Gosh, there were a plethora of twists and turns in this novel, and Ms. Penner kept me riveted to my seat as I tried to figure out the murderer’s identity. The climax and reveal were both exciting and creative. Oh my!! The strong female characters in The London Séance Society kicked butt and showed the male characters that they were intelligent, formidable forces.

The London Séance Society has a March 21, 2023, release date; I recommend that you read this book.

Review Rating-3.5/5 stars

In 1873, Lenna, desperate to solve her younger sister’s murder, turns to well-known medium, Vaudeline, to learn the art of summoning the dead through séance. When Vaudeline’s help is sought to solve the murder of the president of the London Séance Society, the two women start to uncover sinister truths about the organization. These discoveries put their lives in danger while their feelings for one another grow.

Penner does an excellent job creating the dark atmosphere in this novel. It’s a gothic mystery/thriller and as the reader, I found myself anxiously waiting to learn if the London she painted really was full of spirits or if all of it was a ruse. I enjoyed this aspect of the book. Those who love spooky vibes will love this read.

However, the characters never quite felt like fully formed persons and there was a lot of hand-holding and repetition as new pieces of the mystery were revealed. It seemed like the author didn’t trust the reader to be smart enough to understand what certain revelations meant. So much was revealed to the reader in the chapters that featured Mr. Morley and I prefer a mystery in which the reader is only privy to the information the main character possesses. The way the mystery was solved was unsatisfying.

Overall, this book is fine for me. I think many people who love historical fiction and ghost stories will really enjoy it. Fans of Penner’s first novel, The Lost Apothecary, will not be disappointed.

The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner is a gothic thriller absolutely oozing with spiritualism, eerie atmosphere, and twists you won't see coming! After devouring Penner's debut novel, The Lost Apothecary, I was thrilled to get an early look at TLSS—and it did not disappoint! Definitely one of the most original and addictive books I've ever read. Highly recommend!!!