Book Review: Beyond The Grave by C.J. Archer

Title: Beyond The Grave

Author: C.J. Archer

Series: The Ministry of Curiosities #3

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Steampunk, New Adult, Historical Paranormal

Publisher: Self

Pub Date: November 24, 2015

Pages: 235

My Copy: Purchased from the Kindle Store

Book Summary:

At the request of Lady Harcourt, Charlie and Lincoln begin searching for her missing stepson. Still recovering from her ordeal at the hands of a diabolical villain, Charlie is supposed to be resting. But resting is dull, so she throws herself into the task at hand, much to Lincoln's frustration. 

The search leads them down a dark path littered with family secrets and titillating scandal. Using her necromancy to expose those secrets, Charlie unwittingly raises a spirit with the power to override her control. With a dead body on the loose in London, Charlie and Lincoln must work together to send it back before havoc is unleashed, and the committee members find out. 

Because if they do, they will have more ammunition in their fight to send Charlie away from her home and everyone she loves.

Book Review:

I thought that this was an interesting installment as I found that this totally developed a lot of relationships in this book. Like the fact that this book has a mystery element to it as well since Lady Harcourt’s stepson has gone missing and needs Lincoln and the ministry’s help to find him.

Charlie is certainly in a weird place at this book with Lincoln given what happened between the two of them at the end of this book. I like that this disappearance gives them the chance to work together or more precisely in Charlie’s mind Lincoln is the one who gives orders and everyone else listens. Charlie doesn’t always listen at times to Lincoln. Sometimes her independent streak rears it head and she does things that she shouldn’t do, but does things that get her and others in trouble.

There is a great deal of things that we learn about Lady Harcourt’s family and her background which gives us a greater understanding of who Lady Harcourt is and why she is the way that she is. We also learn that her stepson got into something very bad. Julia is very worried about him because of things that have happened in the past. What I like about this book is how nothing ever goes as planned. Charlie is doing her own investigation because she is awfully curious. Charlie never does anything half way though. 

As the book progresses, we learn about a woman who may hold answers, but she is dead, so Charlie decides to raise this woman and things don’t go according to plan. The woman tricks Charlie into going back into her body and then the woman utters words, a spell of some kind and Charlie can’t return her to the dead. This means trouble and of course, this is bad, because you never know what someone might be planning with revenge on their mind, which this dead spirit has in mind. We learn that the Ministry is not happy about this. Yet, Lincoln says that he ordered Charlie to raise the dead body and this means that Lincoln is protecting Charlie from the Ministry members from sending her away. They are still afraid of what her powers can do or could be used by some evil people for very bad things.

I do like the progression of the story. We do find out that the lady that Charlie resurrected had a reason for her revenge and wanted justice for her death. Also we learn a lot more about the Harcourts than we could have asked for. It definitely was a lot to take in. They eventually find Julia’s stepson in one of the weirdest places possible. We learn why he ended up there and it’s a really good story of course. The other thing that I like was we learn more about Charlie’s mother. This leads to Lincoln proposing to Charlie that they travel to France to investigate this lead, but things happen.

Lincoln’s feelings for Charlie are growing and this complicates things between them for a lot of different reasons of course. The ministry would frown on it, despite him being in charge. Plus Charlie is his ward as well. Yet sometimes pursuing your feelings can be so right. I do enjoy where this series is headed. This was a good story in this series.

Rating:

4 Hearts