Lusus Naturae: A Lord Carlston Story

Lady Helen #1.5

by Alison Goodman

This novella is from Lord Carlston’s perspective and starts at the point in The Dark Days Club when he and Lady Helen meet for the first time.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Paranormal, Historical, Short Stories, Novella

50 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Alison is the author of seven novels so far including the award winning Dark Days Club trilogy (aka as the Lady Helen trilogy) and EON and EONA, a New York Times Bestselling fantasy duology. Her upcoming novel --The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies-- is book 1 in a new series, and will be published in the USA, UK and Australia at the end of May 2023.

Alison lives in Australia and has recently completed her PhD, so can now call herself Dr Al.

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5★

When I read a post in the Librarians' Group that this novella was available online

https://hcau-assets.supadu.com/wp-con...

I snapped it up. I saw Ms Goodman speak at a Georgette Heyer conference a few years ago;

and she was a very engaging speaker.

Unfortunately this is a fragment which makes just about zero sense unless you have read the rest of the books. It is well written though, so if I do pick up the rest of the series I may revise my rating. May. I think every piece of published writing should make sense to the reader, no matter where they pick up a series.

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[Stacee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved getting their first meeting from his side.
Where do I petition for more Lord Carlston POV?

[Amina (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐
The first meeting from Lord Carlston's point of view, interesting event happening that wasn't mentionned in the first book.

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

While waiting not so patiently for book 3 to be published I found this novella. Enjoyable change of point of view where you can once more appreciate Goodman’s writing style and ‘precision’.

[Wing Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

More focused.

This little novella is about Carlson's first meeting with Helen and it's a small little tale that is focused, to the point and doesn't do with all the heavy world building of the first book. It gives us a lot more in the motivations of William which was much needed in the main book.

Solid.

Onward to the next book!

[Darque Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lusus Naturae is such a short novella that it probably doesn’t need a review, but since The Literary Piratesses and I (my phenomenal book group that will be introduced to my blog soon!) love The Dark Days Club (book 1) and The Dark Days Pact (book 2) so much, I decided to post my thoughts on this awesome novella! For those that love Regency London, look no further than this amazing series!

This novella is told from Lord Carlston’s perspective upon meeting Lady Helen in The Dark Days Club. We get a very intriguing perspective of how he views Helen upon first meeting. We also get a glimpse of his doubts toward her ability, and get a little more of his personality than we did in book 1. There is a surprising twist that we learn about, which were unaware of in books 1-2. I feel that the novella was a nice addition to the story line and felt like it stayed true to the books in both writing style, and character traits.

[starryeyedjen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved The Dark Days Club. In fact, I'm preparing for a re-read in anticipation of The Dark Days Pact, which should be in my hands any day now. So, when I saw a short story from Lord Carlston's perspective pop up in my GR feed, I couldn't resist. I had to search it out. And it was lovely, showing a side of Lord Carlston that I knew was there but that we rarely get to see in the first book.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is just two scenes, not quite enough for a novella but they are well written and immediately transport the reader into the setting of the story. Kudos to the author, as I find that many bonus scenes do not manage to match the richness of the original setting and this one dives right in. Was it a four-star novella? Not really, as it is too short, but the writing is so on point that three stars would not be a fair assessment.

[smackabook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read The Dark Days Club, I, along with Helen felt very confused about Lord Carlston's true motives. This short story allows the reader to begin to put together the pieces of the complicated puzzle that is William Stanfield - from his first impression of Lady Helen, to his feelings on the disappearance of Elise, to the revelation about Benchley.

A quick and delightful read!

[Erin Arkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved getting the first meeting between Helen and Carlston from his POV. It was exactly as I expected it to be!

[Arybo ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

🕯NEWTs readathon (August 2018):Defense against the dark arts (read a book with “dark” in the title or the series name)

[mrs.0livia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rien à dire.
(lisez ma critique du premier tome)
J'imagine que je vous savez que je suis folle de cette saga.

[Axelle • letiroiralecture · Rating 4 out of 5]

On dit OUI au pdv de Carlston !!

[Nidofito · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun little intro

[Mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should have been longer (yes I know what a novella is but you can certainly dream)

[eyes.2c · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord Carlston’s first meeting with Lady Helen from his point of view. A teaser in many ways for what is to come

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5/5 stars*

I highly enjoyed this short story from Lord Carlston's pov, though I did expect a little bit more in terms of the first meeting between him and Lady Helen. Nevertheless, it was quick and very well written novella and I definitely wouldn't mind to read more stories from his point of view in the future. Lusus Naturae made me even more excited about the sequel - The Dark Days Pact, which comes out at the end of this month.

“Don't pray for me, Reverend. Let your prayers be for a girl. Pray that she is everything she needs to be.”
“What girl?”
Carlston stepped out of the chapel and let the door shut behind him. “Lady Helen Wrexhall,” he said softly. “Pray for Lady Helen Wrexhall.”

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't help but feel this is more a novella aimed more towards fans of the series than people curious over the series (like myself). But am intrigued over one or two things so might have to see if I have time to read Dark Days Club

[Rezeda · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 stars,
I did like it, but less than I expected. It seems that I come do dislike to read about the same moments from different POVs, when almost everything is clear from the first account of the scene.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel perfectly comfortable including this in my 2017 reading challenge since Eric Lin and I are going to read Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. COME AT ME GIBBON

[christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

ahh this was awesome! I'm hoping for more in the third book.

[Aoife - Bookish_Babbling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going to mark this up as read, as technically the second half of the novella is Helen's PoV of the same evening which we have already seen in book 1.

I always enjoy getting the other 'leads' PoV in novellas, so 3* for the snippet we got.
I can't help wishing it might have had a smidge more, rather than sharing the same chapter we have already read.
Maybe his PoV of their follow up encounter the next day could have been fun, or his side of the Vauxhaul Garden scenes - whatever about his interactions with Helen on that occasion but to get a birds eye view into his thoughts when dealing with Benchley would have been super interesting.

I did enjoy his intractions with George & Quinn, I love all the dry humour slipped into certain interactions in this series.

The conversation with the Deceiver was also a fun insight to get a better idea of how they work...I have not yet read book 2 so shall wait to see if any of this has a knock on effect on the rest of the series (or if the Count makes a return appearance) but it seems unlikely if only because of something the Deceiver said which would potentially be the only new info for Carlston. However he must not have believed him based off his reactions later in book 1 where he seemed surprised that the Deceivers might work together and indeed by the revelations about Benchley - but that could also be chalked up to willfully ignoring the signs and/or just doubting the Deceivers intentions seeing as sharing information was obviously not something that had been done since the Pact was agreed between the "species".

I am curious about a Grand Reclaimer being a potential counter-ballast to the prophesized/feared Grand Deceiver - hopefully as Helen's training truly gets underway in book2 we learn more about that possibility.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lusus Naturae: A Dark Days Club Novella
Alison Goodman


So this isn’t really a review, it was about fifty pages long and in a different POV of a scene from the first book in the The Dark Days Club.


So this is the meeting between Lord Carlston and Lady Helen, in Lord Carlston’s POV Of when he takes Lady Helen’s mothers portrait, thus leading to the two meeting again and the progress of the story.

It was slightly weird to be in Lord Carlston’s head, but we also got to find out a little more of how he became suspicious of his mentor - from a Deceiver. -

I liked it enough, not enough to give five stars though that is because it’s not ‘new’ content.
Other than that it was enjoyable, and bring on book three The Dark Days Deceit.


4/5*

[Heike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella set in the Dark Days Club series is definitely not a stand alone but a nice read for someone who read the Dark Days Club first. It tells the first encounter of Lord Carlston with Lady Helen from his point of view. Something I would have liked to see throughout the main book, but this is a different story.

This Novella was an easy and quick read that gave a bit more insight into Carlston's thoughts.

[Elise__h · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai sauté sur cette nouvelle dès la fin de ma lecture du premier tome de la série. Même si j'ai adoré avoir le point de vue de Lord Carlston et en savoir plus sur ce qu'il ressentait vis-à-vis de la perte de sa femme Elise, j'aurais voulu en lire plus ! 50 pages c'est beaucoup trop court !

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

how do i get more novella with carlston's pov?

[MAYA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Debating between 2 and 3 stars. So 2.5

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short little snippet was an excellent reminder that I really ought to get back to this series at some point...

[Cam · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5) Carlston 💗

[Fernanda Granzotto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing special you don't have to read this novella if you don't want to, because you're not missing anything from the story and is not even that interesting