Title: Dark Horse
Series: The Resurrectionists: Book Two
Author: Kelley York
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 223 Pages
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
At a Glance: York writes a lovely historical romance; I’ve been a long-time fan. Daniel and Theseus’s story is one of building trust and pushing back against one’s own inner struggle.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Daniel Barker’s seizures have made everyday life difficult, and they’re only getting worse. Affording treatment? Not easy when he’s limited in the jobs he can obtain. Body-snatching isn’t his preferred occupation, but with an employer like Henry Glass, he can’t complain. His life is held together by threads, and so the entrance of the charming, extroverted, gorgeous Theseus Blackthorn is the last thing Daniel needs to shake things up…so why can’t he stay away?
Review: Daniel Barker was introduced in Kelley York’s Glass Castles as Henry Glass’s right-hand man in the resurrection business. Things were happening behind the scenes while Henry used all means at his disposal to free Lucas Walker from prison. His ace in the hole was Theseus Blackthorn, a brilliant attorney and the man to whom Daniel is wildly, somewhat inconveniently, attracted. Given the circumstance, this book is best not read as a standalone.
York writes a lovely historical romance; I’ve been a long-time fan. The characters in this series come from various walks of life, and yet their connection extends beyond Henry’s use for them as body snatchers. Introducing Daniel and Theseus to each other was not intended as matchmaking, but where intention was incidental, there’s no doubt attraction was immediate and potent. Their differences—that Daniel is a poor man and Theseus rich, for one—are not insurmountable. What stands in their way is Daniel’s affliction and his willingness to reveal it to Theseus.
Daniel and Theseus’s story is one of building trust and pushing back against one’s own inner struggle. Theseus plays a rather precarious game of green-eyed-monster, poking at Daniel to elicit a response from him when Theseus is insecure about where he stands. I loved the juxtaposition of a lawyer, whose job it is to state his case and argue it plainly, being tongue-tied to the point of acting out in order to get his desired outcomes.
Jasper Rees, a key role player and Lucas’s best friend, has stepped up as a favorite character in the series. His story is deeper than it seems on the surface. He is a puzzle that needs more pieces, and I’m looking forward to his book, which is set up nicely as the next installment. Whether the resurrectionist business will continue to play a role in that as the science of gross anatomy evolves and the men who participated have been affected by the consequences of the business remains to be seen.
You can buy Dark Horse here: