I received this book in exchange for a review from Netgalley. Thank you so much for chance to read this early!

The Catcher of Souls is an interesting read, somewhat creepy, and very Jack the ripper-esque which is completely up my street. It's set in Victorian London with Viscount Sebastian Blackmore as our MMC and blends a fantasy/supernatural element into a classic gothic mystery.

I will say that this is not necessarily a fast paced read. The book is quite slow, especially at the beginning. It took me quite a while to get into the actual story and become invested in the characters. Saying that though, I did enjoy the dynamic between Sebastian and Abel. I will say though, the slower pace did help to build suspense and not ruin too much of the mystery too early, which of lot of other similar books can do and often become predictable.

I did find the ending of the book to be quite rushed. It seemed to hurry towards the climax almost as if in a hurry to get to the end.

It has obviously been left open for a sequel in the series and given how the book finished, I'll definitely be reading the second. I really want to see how things progress with Sebastian and Abel.

I think this book is more of a fantasy thriller than a historical fiction. I’ve read fantasy historical fictions and I don’t think this is it. I was very intrigued by the fact that this book was inspired by the serial killer Jack the Ripper but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I didn’t mind the writing but it was a bit too suggestive at times. Not for me but I’m sure so many others would enjoy this!

A dark and entertaining Victorian fantasy with a biting edge, this one is a must read for fans of Gothic literature! Thank you to NetGalley and to Victory Editing for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A Gothic mystery with some steam punk like elements, made this book odd and different, in a good way. Sebastian and Abel are quite the pair, very close, with a lot of secrets, and extremely eligible and titled. Along with 2 exceptional women who keep them on their toes, the heroes have to find the villian, Jack the ripper. The book was thrilling, and very differentiated from normal hist murder mysteries, since it incorporated Dorian Grey, JTR and some fantastical elements. It does end with a cliffhanger, I cannot wait to see what's next.

#netgalley #TheCatcherofSouls

For me, a mixed bag. 3.5 stars.

The concept is great - people with supernatural powers live (mostly) quietly in Victorian England, unknown amongst the general population. The Home Office considers them a threat, dedicating a special branch to investigating and eliminating them. But when Jack the Ripper emerges on the scene, seemingly targeting "unnaturals", Sebastian, one of the Home Office's agents, begins to question his role. It's an engaging idea, and there's great scope here.

I also loved the powers we saw - they're really wonderfully removed from the usual "superhero" tropes that we see.

But I think I would have preferred an original serial killer, rather than co-opting Jack the Ripper. When the plot unravels, you can obviously make the argument that this IS an original serial killer, but when recent historical re-assessments seek to place the victims at the heart of the tale, it's a little frustrating for them to once again be sidelined. It does also raise the question of whether the Ripper in this book will return for his remaining historical victims, which is, I suppose, a decent hook, but there was plenty here to engage with without that. Perhaps just using the Ripper as inspiration would have made more sense.

It just felt a little flat overall - we could probably blame this on me reading it in the final leg of a 24 hour plane journey - and while I'm interested to see more, I don't know how fast I'd run out to pick up the next one.

This book inspired by the tales of the infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper. With a setting in Victorian era London and dripping in dark gothic fantasy vibes, it immediately caught my attention! I enjoyed the slower to start pacing which allowed me to get a real feel for the characters and immersive setting of the story. I really enjoyed the direction it took and was surprised by the ending, never quite catching on to who the true villain was. I’m excited to see where this author takes her storyline in the next book, which has already landed itself on my TBR!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Darkly Enchanting Masterpiece! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

From the moment I picked up The Catcher of Souls by Ruxandra Tarca, I was utterly spellbound! ✨📖 This book is an intoxicating blend of gothic horror, historical mystery, and dark fantasy, transporting readers into the eerie streets of Victorian London—a world teeming with shadowy secrets, supernatural abilities, and a touch of the macabre. 🌙🔮

👑 Meet the Mysterious Viscount 👑
At the heart of the novel is Sebastian Blackmore, Viscount Keswick—a man as dangerous as he is fascinating. 🖤⚗️ By day, he’s an aristocrat with an obsession for poisons; by night, he hunts down those who wield unnatural powers. 🕵️‍♂️☠️ His calculated demeanor and morally gray nature make him irresistibly compelling, keeping you constantly questioning his true motives.

🎨 The Artist Cursed by Fate 🎨
Enter Abel Dunsmore, an artist with a terrifying gift—or perhaps, a curse. 🖌️👁️ His paintings hold power beyond imagination, drawing him into a sinister conspiracy. His uneasy alliance (and deeply complex relationship) with Sebastian is one of the book’s strongest aspects. Friendship? Rivalry? Something more? The tension between them is deliciously palpable! 🔥⚡

🩸 Jack the Ripper Meets the Supernatural 🩸
The story intertwines real history with eerie fiction, thrusting Sebastian and Abel into the heart of the Whitechapel murders. 🚨🔪 The city is haunted by a brutal killer, but are these murders merely human crimes, or is something far darker at play? 😨 The suspense never lets up, making this a gripping page-turner!

💀 Dark, Atmospheric, and Devilishly Addictive 💀
Ruxandra Tarca’s prose is lush and evocative, painting a world that is both beautiful and terrifying. 🌫️🕯️ Every scene drips with Victorian elegance, from the gaslit alleys to the grandeur of high society—yet danger lurks in every shadow. If you love the haunting vibes of The Picture of Dorian Gray or the mystery of Sherlock Holmes, you NEED to read this! 📜🖤

✨ Final Verdict: An absolute must-read for fans of gothic thrillers, morally ambiguous characters, and immersive historical settings. The twists will leave you breathless, the characters will steal your heart, and the eerie atmosphere will linger long after you turn the last page. 📚💫

🔥 5/5 Stars – I’m OBSESSED! 🔥

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book had a lot of potential, but unfortunately it fell a bit flat for me. There are just too many times where it feels like characters are directly telling the reader how they’re feeling, or why something is happening, and it really breaks the immersion for me. I think this would have benefited from a bit more editing to make it more concise, and maybe include a little more showing and a little less telling. Additionally, I’m not fond of the trope where a character is prejudiced against an oppressed group, and only changes their mind because someone they know personally is a part of that group.

I was hooked by the very first line:
"Death comes in many forms. I am one of them."

The Catcher Of Souls by Ruxandra Tarca is the first book in a series, where the story introduces best friends Viscount Sebastian Blackmore and Earl Abel Dunsmore.
Sebastian is a character right up my alley, eccentric and strange in a Victorian London setting where he hunts for so-called 'unnaturals', people who have strange powers. He has a darkness in him which he covers up with his eccentricity and can use to hunt perfectly.
His best friend Abel is a painter who's insanely talented but refuses to paint ever since an incident in his past. Soon a killer who's called Jack the Ripper appears and leaves behind a trail of bodies missing organs...

I fell in love with the atmosphere of an eerie Victorian London Ruxandra calls to life on page, the blending of historical fiction and mystery added with the supernatural gives a new turn on the story of Jack the Ripper and the characters are wonderfully complex and deliciously dark.

I adore Sebastian's own otherness and Abel's twisted talent. Both are charming in their own ways but getting to know them comes with a price.
The victorian setting is vivid, as a reader I could feel the grime and luxury, was furious for how women have to be due to society standards. The blackmailing, mystery and unaliving is written so well I'm sure I will devour the next books as well.

This is perfect for those who enjoy historical fantasy, dark vibes, and all things Jack the Ripper.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for choosing me for an eARC!

I loved this book so much!

The novel takes place in London in 1888, during Jack the Ripper’s bloody hold over the district of Whitechapel.

Sebastian, Viscount Keswick, has a rather unique job for the Home Office. He spends his days concocting potions and ridding the city of “unnaturals”—or individuals with strange powers that work against the Crown.

His friend, Abel, Earl of Wrenbury, longs to be a painter, but he is burdened by a curse that he has kept secret for years. When Sebastian approaches Abel for help regarding his mission and also for help with solving the Whitechapel case, secrets begin to be revealed one by one that threaten to reveal Abel’s curse.

I really enjoyed the unique premise of this book as well as the blend of fact and fiction. The author does take liberties with events surrounding the Ripper murders but does so in a very compelling way to further the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or historical mysteries that take place in the Victorian Era.

The author has confirmed a sequel and I am excited to read it when it comes out!

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love historical mysteries with a touch of the Gothic and the supernatural. The Ripper murders with their tawdry setting, chilling brutality and sinister undertones have spawned a huge collection of conspiracy theories ranging from the involvement of a member of an immediate member of the British royal family to the existence and hand of the supernatural. In ‘The Catcher of Souls’, Ruxandra Tarca does a wonderful job of bringing alive the mood of the time and the murders, crafting a marvellously atmospheric story that evokes the best of Gothic fiction. The book was tightly plotted and fast paced, keeping my interest till the end. The only thing that took away from my complete enjoyment of the book was the fact that I couldn’t really connect with Sebastian and therefore had difficult becoming fully invested in the story.

As a classics fan, as soon as I saw for fans of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Frankenstein I knew I had to read this!

I was pleasantly surprised with how well the author wove in aspects of historical fiction, fantasy, mystery and romance. You can tell that the author researched the Jack the Ripper case well and that every part of this story, including characters names and setting locations, had a purpose. If you are a Jack the Ripper enthusiast, if you enjoy retellings and Victorian London/gothic settings - this could be for you.

The pacing I thought was great and I felt that the story moved quite quickly, particularly towards the end when the story really started to unravel. I enjoyed the strong female characters and also the nod to early women's rights in this era. I'm a sucker for a romance subplot too so I have to admit that I was heavily invested in those particular storylines and I hope to see more of them as the series continues.

The Jack the Ripper case has interested people for hundreds of years and obviously still continues to do so. It's a huge mystery which leaves a lot to the imagination which makes stories like this so exciting to read.

Thank you NetGalley, Ruxandra and Victory Editing for the opportunity to read this arc.

I loved the Victorian setting of this novel, as well as the supernatural elements that were included. The exploration of obligation and family ties, especially relating to loss, were well-done and subtle while still contributing to the essence of the story. The characters were lovable and dynamic, and I particularly loved how the title played into the story.

Book advertised as "Dorian Gray meets Frankenstein in Jack the Ripper's London" couldn't escape my attention. However, I offer a more precise name dropping description: «Adult Ciel Phantomhive did not make a deal with the devil, but instead became one himself while serving the Queen in hunting down criminals with supernatural abilities. Tasked with resolving the soon to become famous Jack the Ripper case, he enrolled aid from his best friend, a tortured artist Basil Hallward, who possessed an incredible talent for portraits but refused to paint any living beings and seemed to hide a dark secret somewhere in Whitechapel. What shall they do if it turns out that Jack is a big fan of a certain Mary Wollstonecraft-Shelley's literary work?»

I immediately started reading upon receiving a copy and was pleasantly impressed by the elegant writing style and the evident research that went into this work. I thoroughly enjoyed the well-paced plot & organic character development. There was no feeling of rushed action-packing to further the story, and it were the characters driving the plot, rather than having an author whisper behind their back of the next steps to take and words to say. It provided the right amount of detailed descriptions to create a sense of being in a Victorian setting without going overboard and reminding you that it was written 100+ years later. Each character retains the aristocratic status quo of never revealing too much of themselves, while still having their own distinct strong personality. I especially loved the portrayal of women, and am particularly glad Lady Georgiana will make a return as a main character in book 2, but also personally hoping to see more of Lady Christabel, who is probably the most interesting character for me so far.

Additionally, I loved the little hints at the rise in women's rights movement at that point in history, both by the one I didn't know about (Elizabeth Cass) referenced by Anais & Abel's inner thoughts: "was that the fate of all women who lacked the protection of a family or a name? The protection of a man?". It did not read as an outlandish modern feminist idea, it read as the kind of argument that a person from late XIX century would actually have.

I admit, when I saw I was 70% done and yet the plot was no closer to a big culmination, I became wary of the book's pacing as it applied to its low number of pages. I was preparing to be disappointed that there won't be enough pages left to properly end the first part of the story, and that it will rely on a cheap hook to keep readers waiting for the sequel. I am relieved to say that was not (entirely) the case. The pace did indeed pick up after this mark, but it somehow felt organic and not rushed, the urgency made total sense story-wise, and while the resolution was so close, I am not mad at all that "the villain escaped this time" - because we were shown that it made sense for him to escape in the chaos! Ah, the wonders one's writing can achieve when authors SHOW AND DON'T TELL!

That said, it wouldn't be my review if I didn't have some critical remarks, even if they do not diminish the star rating this time:

There were a few occurrences where the characters defining traits/characteristics were brought up in almost the same way in a short span (maybe a few chapters apart). Namely, Anais' "eyes going from green to grey when focusing on an object"; Sebastian's special poison blend (also why was a sleeping drought called poison if it was not actually poisonous?) when used by him & his mother's murder argument used against him by Hyden (at least 5 times). Abel's laments about "missing drawing portraits" & "transferring the very soul of the sitter" hint drops too early on in the story, which uses Dorian Gray as an epithet for itself, were too glaring and did take away a little from the big reveal of this story's own Basil Hallward, if he looked & slept around like Dorian Gray.

Some things were a little repetitive and too on the nose for my liking, as a person who above all values narrative subtlety and being left guessing, especially in mysteries. Such as the way that two women (Christabel & Georgiana) were brought under suspicion in the same manner, by hinting or outright stating their connection to the crime scene or a potential suspect, as well as highlighting their interest in unladylike subjects, i.e. science and anatomy. Likewise, Hyden and Sebastian's father kept being hinted at as the big evil masterminds behind Whitechapel crimes, and with the mysterious "vessel" revealed as a woman it just solidified my personal theory (my bet is on Sebastian's father as the mastermind and his mother being the vessel; unless it turns out to be an entirely new character of course & Christabel is actually involved in the crime and was not just gothic literature-obsessed & morbid 15 yo me)

Similarly to the Dorian Gray-Abel link, it irked me a bit to see Frankenstein as a book mentioned directly in the text as a possible evidence of involvement in the crime, when it has already become apparent that the perpetrator is stealing organs in order to create their own "Frankenstein's monster". I'd have probably not minded if it was mentioned earlier in the story, when Sebastian did not yet know what he was looking for, and it was used as foreshadowing rather than proof of fact.

All of these are, however, but minor remarks and did not diminish my experience or enjoyment of the story whatsoever, so I am very happy to mark this as my first 5 star of the year, and will be looking forward to the next part!

Thank you, Netgalley and Ruxandra Tarca, for this ARC.

I instantly clicked request on Netgalley when it mentioned a Jack The Ripper retelling. So I had high hopes. And oh my gosh, it did not disappoint!

First time that I am reading a book where two men are the main characters. I loved the dual POV! The most handsome bachelors of England. One of them is an assassin who makes poisons to murder the 'unnaturals'. The other has a secret that no one can know about or it will cost his life (and others). Together, they are on the search for the person behind all those gruesome murders in London, The Ripper. Along the way, they get help from an emerald-eyed beauty and a brazen lady.

The writing is exquisite. You instantly get pulled into the story. The different backgrounds and the strong relationships between the characters in this book are beautiful. All is so well-thought! Never a dull moment throughout the story. I sat on the edge of my seat the entire time. The story was gripping and action-packed, and I loved the mystery. The romance was so enthralling. Even the two men made me swoon! There is no spice. The magic happens behind closed doors. ✨️

This book has an open ending, which made me scream cause the last pages were so suspenseful, and I still have so many questions. So, I hope the second book will soon be released. I want to know more about the characters, their relationships, and the murderer. It's just such an intriguing story!

Rating 5/5 ⭐️

The Catcher Of Souls by Ruxandra Tarca is the first book in The Cursed Arts series. We follow an assassin who hunts those who have powers that go against the grain of natural and a painter whose talent goes beyond what is considered normal. When a killer with the moniker “Jack the Ripper” appears and starts a horrific crime spree it is up to both of them to find the killer!

I DEVOURED this!. Ruxandra does such an amazing job blending historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery. The characters were all complex even those who may not have seemed important to the story.

The plot was plotting. I absolutely loved this twist on real life events in history. It was a captivating and dark read luring you into the dark streets of London trying to solve these murders before the killer can take their next victim!

This is perfect for those who enjoy historical fantasy, dark gothic vibes, and a little romance.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Catcher of Souls is the first in a promised trilogy of novels based on the murders committed by the infamous Jack the Ripper during London’s Victorian Era. The story follows best friends Viscount Sebastian Blackmore and Earl Abel Dunsmore. Sebastian is employed by a secret department of the Home Office, for whom he puts ‘unnaturals’ – a group of people that have developed an array of strange powers. Abel is a cursed painter, in love with a society lady that isn’t interested in his affections.

When Jack the Ripper begins to leave unnatural women dead in the streets with their organs missing, Sebastian and Abel team up to find a way to stop the murders. Their task leads them down several dangerous paths, meeting unexpected allies and making surprising enemies along the way.

Tarca does a wonderful job of immersing the reader in Victorian London. The setting is extremely believable, from the gaslit streets to the pitch-black carriages and changing fashions. The prose is well written and full of suspense. The pacing was great for a thriller, and while it did become faster towards the conclusion of the novel, the ending remained satisfying. I admit to not knowing precisely who the culprit was until the very end. I am certainly interested in picking up Tarca’s next installment when it arrives.

The Catcher of Souls is an exciting new take on the classic Jack the Ripper tale. It introduces us to Viscount Sebastian Blackmore and his best friend Earl Abel Dunsmore - one an assassin who goes after "unnaturals" on behalf of the Home Office, the other a gifted painter with secrets to hide - as they become caught up in the mystery killings and the impact on their own lives. It is an excellent depiction of the class differences of Victorian Era London, and it is clear that the author did significant historical research for the series. Overall I enjoyed the book, however I struggled with the heavy handed exposition and characters who felt two-dimensional for much of the story. That said, the book picks up significantly in both pace and quality as it goes along, and I will certainly continue with the series when book 2 comes out.

3/3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the eARC to review.

I really enjoyed the historical aspects woven into the plot. This novel blends historical fiction with thriller and horror elements, creating a gripping and fascinating read. The mystery unfolds with well-executed plot twists and suspense that keeps you hooked. I highly recommend this book.

This was a very unique and interesting twist on the classic Jack the Ripper tale. I really liked the fantasy element of including the victims being 'unnaturals' as the reason they were targeted. Sebastian goes through some pretty serious character development, which makes him a likeable and understandable character. I also really liked the stark contrast between the rich and poor and the way the author highlights this inequality through their attitudes to the murders. I really appreciated the element of mystery in the ending. Overall, a really solid read!