Second Sight by Amanda Quick

Well, I've finally read an Amanda Quick. And um....eh.

Second Sight by Amanda Quick is the first in the Arcane Society series. It's set in Victorian period with some paranormal aspects.



Book blurb from Quick's site:

Financially straitened and on the path to spinsterhood, Venetia Milton thought her stay at the remote, ramshackle Arcane House would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engineer her own ravishment. She was there to photograph the artifacts collected by a highly secretive organization, founded two centuries earlier by an alchemist. And the alchemist’s descendant—her employer, Gabriel Jones—has the eyes of a sorcerer...

But despite Venetia’s intent to seduce Mr. Jones and move on, she is shattered upon her return home to read in the press of his violent demise. Using the sizable fee Mr. Jones paid her, Venetia establishes a new life, opening a gallery in London. Of course, posing as a respectable widow makes it easier to do business, so—in a private tribute to her lost, only lover—she assumes the identity of "Mrs. Jones."

Her romantic whim, however, will cause unexpected trouble. For one thing, Mr. Jones is about to stride, living and breathing, back into Venetia’s life. And the two share more than a passionate memory—indeed, they are bonded by a highly unusual sort of vision, one that goes far beyond Venetia’s abilities as a photographer. They also share a terrible threat—for someone has stolen a centuries-old notebook from Arcane House that contains a formula believed to enhance psychic powers of the kind Gabriel and Venetia posses. And the thief wants to know more—even if he must kill the keeper of the Arcane Society’s treasures, or the photographer who catalogues them, to obtain such knowledge...

So as I said, this was my first book by Amanda Quick. I've read JAK as Jayne Castle for her futuristics, but never as JAK or Amanda Quick. Sad, but true. However....this might not have been the best book to start out with. To put it bluntly, I found Second Sight to be rather dull.

It's obvious that there's been a lot of research into Victorian ideas and photography and I liked those aspects of the book. But.......it was the characters that I found rather lackluster. There just isn't much about them that stands out. Venetia is a spinster who wanted a night of passion and works hard to provide for her family. That's her in a nutshell. Gabriel thinks he's an animal and thus not worthy of love. Blah. There's also some suspense, but it really isn't very suspenseful and I never really got the impression the main characters were really in much danger.

So yeah, I finished the book, but it's definitely one of the most average books I've read lately.