Fieldnotes:
Whitechapel, 1888

1 Manipulative Wayward Teen with
Unrealistic Knife-Throwing Skills, and an
Unsubstantiated High Opinion of Her Ability to Solve Medical Problems after 1 Week of Cleaning Bottles
2 Handsome Suitors, of which
1 Golden and Serene and Respectable, and
1 Dark and Brooding and Connected to the Pre-Raphaelites

1 Long-Suffering Grandmother Hoping for Respectability
1 Dark Horse of a Butler
Several Prostitutes and Poverty-Stricken Women Used Largely as Plot Decoration

1 Highly Improbable Charitable Job at Whitechapel Hospital
1 Deeply Implausible Chase Across London (5 miles!)
1 Frenzied Mob Bent on Vengeance
1 Perplexing Familial Web of Illegitimate Children and Adoptees
1 Avuncular Doctor who Treats Our Protagonist as an Intellectual Equal with Absolutely No Basis

Several Psychic(?) Visions of:
1 Serial Killer on the Loose in Whitechapel
5 Canonical Victims & Patients
1 Hapless Police Inspector
1 Conclave of Cultish Conspirators (Gothic Variety)
1 Ritual Chalice
1 Dodo

The ranty version:
Honestly, I should have given up after chapter 1 when our 17 year-old heroine of supposed gentle birth chased a ragamuffin pickpocket at a dead run for FIVE MILES across the entirety of London from Kensington to Whitechapel in a BUSTLE and presumably a CORSET and HEELED BOOTS without so much as noting it. THIS IS NONSENSE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.

But I persevered, unfortunately. Our heroine is Miss Arabella Sharp (but call her Abby) - she has been saved from impecunity when her governess mother dies in London by a grandmother who wants to restore her family to respectability. But Abby, far from being grateful in any measure, thinks she can run off to become a governess (and the book quotes a lot of Jane Eyre at us to make us see parallels between the headstrong heroines). So, in a last-ditch effort to drum some compassion and sense of the life she is escaping with her grandmother's help, she is sent to do some charity work at the Whitechapel Hospital for Women among the drunks, the disease-ridden and the prostitutes of the slums of the East End. Far from acknowledging the danger she faces, Abby decides that she wants to be treated as a "colleague" and will go to medical school... *oof*

We have two young men vying for Abby's affections for no apparent reason. One is the golden-haired, calm and respectable Simon St. John. He is (obviously) destined to lose out to the dark, brooding and inexplicably hostile William Siddal - adopted by Dante Rossetti of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and named after his (deceased) muse. William lives with poet Christina Rossetti who has her own charitable work with prostitutes and unfortunates. It turns out later that Abby's mother also painted with the Pre-Raphaelites for a while and this is when she lost her mother's approval.

Patients of the hospital are being murdered and Abby is seeing visions of the murders and some sort of ritual involving a chalice. There are occasionally moments that were suitably creepy (the footsteps in the attic, for example), but for the most part the Ripper background seemed tacked on and the victims (despite our meeting them on-page) largely throwaway. Abby keeps running around the Whitechapel rookeries in the dark with no apparent regard for her own safety and seems to think being able to throw knives with the street urchins of Dublin has prepared her to fight off a murderer. This truly bone-headed assumption often turns out to be correct in ways that had me gritting my teeth at her supposed "strong will" and "gumption" that in any world that obeyed normal physics would have seen her killed by Chapter 3.

The ultimate explanation for the Ripper murders and the chalice is frankly absurd: the chalice is used in a ritual involving an elixir from the philosopher's stone and the doctor at the hospital and his cabal of housemates are immortal (from natural causes). The murders are perpetrated by Max - and are intended merely to draw attention to the poverty and misery of the East End...as a messed-up social engineering. Also apparently he can possess others' bodies and crawl down walls like a spider.... I didn't like Abby and thought her stubborn insistence on playing an "active" part in her life amounted to nose-cutting spiteful teenaged stupidity rather than any sort of useful or legitimate drive. The love triangle was banal and neither of these milquetoasts had any actual personality. I will not be continuing the series. ( )

4.25/5
I actually loved that book! Very much like Firelight, it brings distinct Gothic notes to the new type of historical paranormals, which is very refreshing.

The prose is vivid, luscious, mysterious and full of hidden meaning like Pre-Raphaelites paintings.

Arabella is very brave in the best traditions of Gothic literature. She grew up on the streets of Dublin where her mother, an estranged daughter of an aristocrat worked as a governess until she died. Then Arabella's grandmother brought her back to London and in an attempt to make the wild girl appreciate her luxuries and be grateful for them, she ordered Arabella to help out in a hospital in Whitechapel just at the time when the famous Ripper murders started...

I'll tell you straight away, that girl will surprise you with her tenacity and bloodthirstiness. I was pretty shocked in the end and cheering for her. Not once she whined or waited for her two gentlemen admirers to save her, and I loved every bit of it. She is unconventional, adventurous and knows her mind.

The world-building is not explored much, but it's such a fast, glorious, dark read, you forgive this book its drawbacks.

Recommended to everyone who loved Firelight by Kristen Callihan. The feel of the book is very similar to it. ( )

I love a bit of gore in my reading. – who doesn’t? I was foaming at the mouth to read Ripper as soon as the book/description hit my radar. There was a great balance to this book that I’m sure paranormal fiction fans will enjoy (even those with a tender stomach may still enjoy it). In all honesty it really wasn’t gorey. Ripper gives you Amy Carol Reeves’ take on the story of Jack the Ripper along with all of it’s mystery, an intriguing dash paranormal elements and just enough but not too much romance on the side. Perhaps even a few thriller moments.

Reeves’ heroine Abby is not your typical ‘lady’ – and definitely not the one her Grandmother wishes her to be. She tires of endless days of embroidery, tea, sitting around reading quietly or visiting, all the while expected to be prim and proper. She longs for something more. To be active. Activity is just what she gets when her Grandmother recommends that she perform volunteer work at White Chapel, a hospital for women in a seedy part of the city. What Grandmother sees as somewhat of a punishment for Abby’s rebellious nature, Abby views as blessing. She is strong willed and unused to the sedentary life of the rich.

Ripper definitely had a nice smooth pace for me, easily moving from one scene to the next. Each event no matter how small it seemed still held my interest and Reeves’ did well to set the tone of the book by starting off with a chase between her and a pickpocket…where their encounter ends with just a enough of a feeling that something unusual has just happened. I felt all of the people Abby meets has a presence and implied importance that didn’t make me discount any of them.

One thing I did note was each time she met a male character there seemed to be a lot of “eye action” going on between them. I have to admit this made me smirk a bit thinking, more eye oogling? (example “arrested me with his eyes, penetrating eyes,” etc) – but I think it was good that it was there. It keeps you guessing. I knew there was going to be a romantic element somewhere and thought she did a very good job at keeping you guessing as to who ‘the man’ would be…as well as making you wonder – could he be the Ripper? I liked it that I didn’t feel like I knew who was going to be important or a villain until much farther into the book.

The action definitely increases immensely at the end, though there wasn’t as much “action” throughout the book the mystery is what keeps you turning the pages til you get to the action/climax. It was definitely worth the read and recommend it.

I didn’t realize until the end of Ripper that another book was likely to follow. When I discovered from the author’s twitter feed that there definitely is a second book – titled ‘Renegade’ I was super excited. I am aching to know what becomes of Abby and various other characters (I won’t name names or that might give you undue hints! It will be very interesting to see how Reeves’ continues the story as I’m pretty confident the ‘Jack the Ripper’ part of the tale is done – so what could she possibly have in store for us next? ( )

Review from ARC from NetGalley.

Slogged through to the end because my husband likes Jack the Ripper stories. Not purchasing. Felt anachronistic. Hated it. ( )

I haven't been writing reviews for books read lately, but I'm going to write a brief one for this book because a) I loved it and b) the author is an old college friend and I'm enormously proud of her.

Knowing Amy and reading her debut novel added so much depth to the book...particularly, her Jane Eyre quotes at the beginning of each part were so quintessentially her, it made me smile to read each one.

Mystery, intrigue, great character development, and a surprise ending added to my utter enjoyment of this novel. I can't wait to read the second one. As someone who usually doesn't enjoy cliffhanger endings, Amy answered enough questions to make the reader feel satisfied, but left enough hanging to assure continued reading of her series.

Thank you for your story, Amy...I am really looking forward to the next one! ( )