Beneath the hills of the Buckinghamshire countryside, a secret society meets. A playground for the idle rich to live out their debauchery, the Hellfire Club is infamous for its elite members. But when their warden, Anthony Pennington, is murdered, it becomes clear just how unethical this club really is. With Pennington gone, it’s up to his bastard sister, Dora, and an ex-army doctor, Jacob, to solve his murder and figure out what really is going on with this club and its members. But along the way, they find themselves caught in the middle of a rival between the Hellfire Club and the Illuminati.
The Persephone Code is touted as “Bridgerton meets The DaVinci Code” and while there are aspects of both, don’t expect the same caliber. While it does take place in Victorian England and it’s a mystery novel, that’s where the similarities end. The characters are underdeveloped and lack any personality. It was incredibly difficult to get into the story and find any attachment to the characters. While the plot held some promise, there was very little depth. There was an attempt at a romance aspect but it added nothing to the overall story and seemed forced between the two characters.
Aside from the issues mentioned above, the writing was fairly enjoyable if not shallow. At times it felt as if the author wanted to use an expanded vocabulary when one wasn’t needed to get the point across. If given more time, I feel like the author could have made this into an incredible adventure. But for me, it fell flat as an enjoyable mystery novel.
**I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley**
literary gluttony 
Leave a comment