Though I liked the premise and setting, after reading the first few pages I decided the ensemble cast was not to my literary tastes.

This is a strange book for me - I found the premise of the book interesting, but on execution of it was incredibly annoying. However, I did finish it, mostly to see how it ended.

So - This book wants to be so many things, but doesn't really succeed at any of them. The Victorian London thing might have been interesting, but the author over romanced it. Besides the headmistress (Rebecca) and Alexi, the other four watchers won't really part anything, mostly place holders for the concept of the book. Poor Jane, was kept as a poor Irish Washerwomen who was happy with her lot in life and didn't even connect with the other five. As for Percy, the girl - she is a Mary Sue - wishy-washy, always needing protecting, and she fell in love with the professor (Alexi) way to quickly. It seemed a few days later, they were married. And that isn't even the weird part - The author equated the Virgin Mary with the myth of Persephone, and the juxtaposition really didn't work.

The author tried (bless her heart) to add a bit about women's rights and eliteism of the English Society to this story, but it doesn't really work because it doesn't fit in well with the setting of a very Victorian London.

The plot doesn't really make a whole lot of sense (possibly I stopped caring to pay attention), and things resolve nicely and everyone goes on their original life. The big bad in this story didn't really make sense. That isn't to say there isn't good stuff, the idea of the book is interesting, but between the bad writing and annoying characters, there isn't much to like. ( )