Good morning, everyone! Last week, I spotlighted the spring 2023 releases I'm most excited about, and today I'm back with a review of one of those new releases: Dark Clouds, book 2 in Miss Dark's Apparitions, a spinoff of Suzannah Rowntree's fabulous historical fantasy mystery series, Miss Sharp's Monsters. The Miss Dark series follows Miss Molly Dark, a young lady-turned-con-artist with the ability to see ghostly "imprints." Book One saw Miss Dark roped into a scheme to defraud monstrous royalty of a fortune by impersonating a long-lost princess; now our heroine has found herself a member of a group of thieves and schemers attempting to use their talents to set right some of the wrongs in the world — in this case, by stealing a cursed diamond to return to its rightful owners. The book just released yesterday, March 23, and is available on Kindle and possibly elsewhere. But I managed to score an ARC, so if you're on the fence about picking it up, I have five reasons why you absolutely should.

You Should Definitely Read Dark Clouds If . . .

1. You're a Leverage fan who occasionally thinks the show would be even better if it involved some literal monsters, not just figurative ones. Rowntree bills Dark Clouds as "perfect for fans of Leverage and The Parasol Protectorate," and the first half of that description couldn't be more accurate. Reading this feels very much like watching an episode of the show, from the grand heist to set right a wrong committed by those too powerful to be prosecuted by normal means to the schemes and twists involved in carrying out that heist. Let me tell you, it's an absolute delight. Of course, even if you're not a Leverage fan, if you enjoy a good heist and a plot driven by clever characters fully exercising their cleverness, you'll still love this. Plus, the antagonist of this book — Vandergriff, an American "prosthete" (read: gaslamp-era cyborg) multi-millionaire who tracks down jewel thieves as a hobby — is simply excellent, with just the right blend of rough charm, casual menace, and keen wit to make him a formidable, but intriguing, opponent and a very interesting change of pace from Rowntree's usual antagonists in this world.
   
2. You know that it's the team (and their dynamics) that makes the heist. It's the characters that make or break a book, and that's never more true than when it comes to a heist story. I can think of multiple books where an excellent concept and thrilling scheme fell flat because the characters and the dynamics between them just weren't working. The key, of course, is that the team has to be a team — yes, they have their differences in opinion and agenda as well as skill set, they have clashes of personality and motive. But when the chips are down and the heat is on, they're working together, and they know and understand each other well enough to do that. And yes, maybe you have an edge or two of potential betrayal, just for spice, but in order for the reader to care, in order to get maximum impact when the potential traitor makes their choice, you have to have that strong team dynamic. Rowntree knows this, and she clearly gives plenty of care to developing both the characters and their dynamics, especially now that they really are starting to work as a properly intentional team, rather than the more tentative alliances in Tall and Dark.
3. You want to see more of our favorite Grand Disaster Duke. As already stated, all the characters get some magnificent development in this story, but I particularly want to call out Vasily here. He continues to be a mess, caught between the monster that he's been and the person who he could be, between the self-serving lifestyle he still tries to maintain and a reluctant attachment to the other members of the crew. He's growing, but reluctantly — partially because he's surrounded by people who aren't taken in by his act. And, of course, his interactions with Miss Molly Dark are an absolute delight. He's coming around to caring very much for her, I daresay, even if he sometimes has an unusual way of showing it, and I don't think he entirely wants to admit just how far it goes. Plus, having a rival/nemesis in the form of the aforementioned Vandergriff makes for some very interesting dynamics and interactions.
4. You love sibling and family dynamics. Dark Clouds takes place in London, Molly's home . . . and the home of her sisters, who she loves and would very much like to keep far away from any schemes, heists, and similar. You can probably guess about how well that goes. But it was a delight to see Molly interacting with her sisters, to see how much she cares about them and they care for her. And as for the interactions between the sisters and Molly's new friends, well . . . let's just say that they make for some of my favorite chapters in the book.
5. You enjoy stories about the tension between different cultures. Not solely about, mind you — this is a heist adventure. But it's also set in England during the Victorian Era, when the British Empire was at its height, and the cursed diamond at the story's center is part of the rather ill-gotten spoils of conquest. And retrieving that diamond requires one of the team, Nijam, to come to terms with a heritage that she's spent most of her life despising. Rowntree handles these elements of the plot well, using them to deepen the story without drowning it and providing a read that's enjoyable in the moment and gives you something to chew on later.

Tall and Dark came out just this past weekend — have you read it yet? Are you going to read it? If you're a fellow Miss Sharp fan, how excited are you to return to this world? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!