Review : A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : A Cold Legacy (The Madman's Daughter #3)
Author : Megan Shepherd
Publication Date : January 27th 2015
Publisher : Balzer + Bray
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble


After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.

Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.

With inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman’s Daughter trilogy is about the things we’ll sacrifice to save those we love—even our own humanity.

Personal Thoughts

I'm heartbroken that A Cold Legacy and ultimately The Madman's Daughter trilogy was a complete disappointment to me. I wanted to love it. I really did, even though I disliked the second novel, but by the end, this book just left incredibly frustrated and let down. What started off as a strong beginning ended up in a crumpled mess.

It's so strange to say this now, but I absolutely loved Juliette in the first book. She was a character who really grew throughout that first book. In the second book, she went ahead and basically ruined all of that character development, but I still had some hope that she would win me over again in A Cold Legacy. She didn't. Instead, she regressed back and turned into this extremely unlikeable character who made questionable choices and decisions. I think Megan Shepherd intended for her to be of a heavily flawed anti-heroine, but I wasn't a fan of that unfortunately. It's really hard for me to enjoy a book if I can't root for the main character, so in the end, Juliette's character marred my enjoyment of this series. The thing about Juliette though is that she makes very unfortunate decisions, decisions that utterly selfish and risk the lives of others. And these choices that she makes aren't unknowing. She knows the risks extremely well, but she still proceeds to make these choices. I just had a really hard time understanding her reasoning and logic. I can't say I was invested in the secondary characters either. Neither Montgomery nor Edward piqued my interest. They too annoyed me from time to time, but not as much Juliette did. Perhaps, the only tolerable character for me was Balthazar, who didn't have much of a significant role.

I started off enjoying the plot in A Cold Legacy. It was gruesome and gory, just what I was looking for. The implementation of Frankenstein was also interesting. However, my strong dislike for Juilette was a huge obstacle for me. The more I read, the more annoyed I got and unfortunately, even the plot couldn't make me happy. Then, there's the romance. The extremely cringe-worthy romance. I was disappointed when the second book fully put into the effect the very disturbing love triangle, but by the end, it seemed like the series would calm down with it. The love triangle is weirdly absent from A Cold Legacy, weird because it's never mentioned again and huge events happened between Juliette and Edward in the second book to so casually dismiss in this book. Still, I was glad it was gone. At the same time, the romance was a complete disaster. Juliette and Montgomery end up married in this book and my goodness, what an awful awful couple they made. They kept so many monumental secrets from each other. I just could not understand why they even had to get married in the first place because these two were not ready for any kind of commitment to each other. All that being said, Shepherd has a gorgeous writing style and she is truly creative. Unfortunately, her characters don't sit well with me.

A series that had the potential to be amazing, The Madman's Daughter series instead disappoints, ruined by the characters. I hesitate to recommend this series, but there have been others who have loved it.

Rating

Cover : 3/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 1/5
Writing : 3/5

Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Teen for the e-ARC of A Cold Legacy.