Delilah Marlowe is living an ordinary, if boring, life. Then, for her birthday her boyfriend buys tickets to the most spectacular menagerie traveling show. This menagerie is comprised not of ordinary animals, but human shifters, nymphs and other fae folk, and even a minotaur. Seeing the poor treatment of one teenage wolf shifter, Delilah morphs into an unknown, terrifying creature. Stripped of her human rights, Delilah is sold to the menagerie and has to adapt to living caged and putting up with abuse from the humans who run the show. But not all the crew members are as they seem, and one might just give Delilah the chance she needs to break free.
Fantasy readers will rejoice in the wide variety of fantastic folk not seen in other urban fantasy series. Violent treatment toward Delilah and her fellow captives will have readers rallying behind her efforts to get free. The suspense builds quickly and doesn't let up for the entire read, even the ending will have readers wanting to move on immediately to the next in the "Menagerie" series, Spectacle, out now. Perfect for fans of darker urban fantasy stories.
Delilah Marlow and the rest of the renegade cast and crew of Metzger's Menagerie don't have long to enjoy their hard-earned freedom from captivity. Quickly into the second of the "Menagerie" series, Delilah and many others are found to be impersonating humans and are quickly captured and bought by The Savage Spectacle. Once again imprisoned, Delilah and other non-humans are forced to serve the rich patrons who visit The Savage Spectacle. Now, instead of being held captive in a cage, non-humans are surgically implanted with tracking devices that electrocute the wearer if s/he misbehaves or tries to escape, and this time, Delilah's protector, Gallagher, is also caged.
Vincent crafts an even more brutal edition in the "Menagerie" series, where some non-humans have to battle against others gladiator style to the death as entertainment for the rich. The sense of injustice as well as suspense is just as high in this installment as in the first book, Menagerie, although a too-convenient twist and ending may stretch credulity a little too far for some readers.
Ella Arlington flees her home when her cousin inherits and plans to commit her to an asylum because she has epilepsy. Now destitute and on the run in London, Ella attends a séance hoping to speak with her beloved father but instead has a seizure. Confusing Ella’s episode with possession by her dead daughter, Phillipa, the wealthy Mrs. Trombly takes Ella into her home to act as her private medium. During a visit to Mrs. Trombly, her daughter’s former fiancé, Viscount Isidore Blackwood, meets Ella and is furious that she has duped Phillipa’s grieving mother into hiring her services, vowing to reveal Ella as a fraud. However, Isidore’s friends are hiding terrible truths, and he will need Ella’s help to uncover what really happened the night Phillipa died. The mystery surrounding Phillipa’s death may be too predictable for some, but readers will still be enthralled, wondering if Ella’s epilepsy will be discovered and what her fate holds.
