Once again I managed to select a book that is the middle of a series without realizing it. That's a problem with ARC's sometimes - you don't see a cover boasting "Book Two" or ""Continuing the Saga."

We are in Victorian era Ireland following the Wildenstern family. Brothers Nate (who has been traveling), and Berto (now the patriarch of the family after the death of their older brother, Marcos) are considering a new path for the family, but not everyone is on board with their thoughts.

They are a powerful family and they regularly work with supernatural (perhaps magical) elements. Witches and necromancy, secret societies and the power to raise from the dead are just part of an ordinary day for the Wildensterns. They also have a slave labor force called 'enigmals' -part animal, part machine - at their command.

Life gets a bit dicey when women who may or may not have a connection to the family are found dead by mysterious circumstance. If the Wildensterns don't act quickly enough, more could see the same fate.

By description, this book (and the series) would seem to have everything I tend to look for in fiction. The concepts, the characters, the cool-things-per-page (I mean ... the enigmals, c'mon!) are right up my alley. And yet this book really dragged for me. I'd read a bit, get bored and stop, then come back to the book, find something interesting, but I'd have to backtrack to see if I missed something, and then the cycle would repeat. I can't help but wonder if a large part of this has to do with it being a second book. Are there relationship nuances that I'm missing that s slowing it down? Or is it somehow over-explaining details that keeps this from being a thrilling read for me?

There's definitely enough here that has me wanting to read the first book in the series and then re-read this second, and probably onward. But based solely on this book, I am not comfortable recommending the book (or the series) without a little more series history.

Looking for a good book? The Wisdom of Dead Men by Oisin McGann might be a good read, but as a stand-alone, I can't give this a recommendation. Think about starting with the first book in the series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.