Pandora has only been in Manhattan for only a few months but already she has faced sanguine, zombies, ghosts and a goddess. Now she is looking forward to doing something normal, she has a date, albeit with a ghost. Once a month with the full moon the ghost of Civil War soldier Lieutenant Luke Thomas becomes human, well as human as you can get after being dead for over a hundred years.

Pandora had been looking forward to this night all month; it was going to be perfect. But Pandora soon learns that nothing ever turns out as planned when her date is spoilt as event after event leads to an attack of a green eyed monster. Abandoned, attacked and alone, Pandora is finding life ever more dangerous and her love life ever more complicated.

Who knew one strange date would lead Pandora to meet her destiny. As many truths about her new home and her own powers are brought to light, Pandora must stand alone to fight an army of the dead that threats to ruin a perfectly pleasant, if not a little awkward, date, brings immanent danger to her Great-Aunt Celia, and overruns Manhattan, not to mention Spektor, with their rotting corpses.

The Skeleton Key opens the door to hell and brings with it all manner of trouble for our inquisitive yet naive heroine. It is not so easy to save the world when you are still unsure of your own powers. However Pandora faces her greatest challenge yet with courage, intuition and a stylish wardrobe. A gothic love triangle that is fun, fearful, fashionable and full of tea. ( )

The Skeleton Key by Tara Moss is the third Pandora English novel. I have previously read and reviewed (and enjoyed!) the first two books, The Blood Countess and The Spider Goddess. This review has only very minor spoilers for the earlier books.

In the third Pandora English mystery, Pandora is still negotiating her double life as a lowly assistant at a New York fashion magazine with the reality that she has great supernatural powers and responsibilities.

With the full moon set to rise once again, Pandora has a very special date looming. Her beautiful spirit guide, Civil War soldier Lieutenant Luke, will be a flesh-and-blood man, if only for the night, and she hasn't been able to stop thinking about it. But a chance encounter with playboy Jay Rockwell sees that very human attraction start all over again – even though Jay doesn't remember their previous relationship, or the fact that Pandora saved him from a gang of ill-tempered undead supermodels.

Meanwhile, Pandora – with her special skeleton key – is slowly unlocking the mysteries of the haunted mansion where she lives with her great aunt Celia. What sinister experiments did the architect Dr Edmund Barrett conduct there before he died? Where is his laboratory? And what are the strange noises emanating from the basement?

On the centenary of the mysterious fire that supposedly killed Dr Barrett, he returns to the mansion. He has a message for Pandora. But he has brought with him a dark force that threatens to tear apart the delicate balance between the worlds of the dead and living...

It's been more than a year since I read the first two books, so I may be misremembering, but I think The Skeleton Key is a little darker than its predecessors. The gist of it is much the same — Pandora dealing with New York, her fashion job, and weird supernatural things — but I thought the evil supernatural threat was a bit darker and more serious this time around. Saving the world on a larger scale, but still not too heavy a read.

Although the blurb implies a love triangle, I wouldn't say it's the kind of contrived and increasingly irritating love triangle we've come to expect from YA. (Also, this isn't YA. I'd call it "new adult" although I think the first ones were published before that was much of a thing and also my opinion of "new adult" isn't terribly high.) The crux of Pandora's love life, really, is that one guy is a ghost, and the other has no memory of their first date. Really it's more logistical, in both cases, rather than a case of "oh golly, which should I choose?" So I liked that.

Being the third in the series (although not the final, as far as I can tell/hope) is, I think, the reason the climax is rather more dramatic than the earlier books. Pandora's abilities and the trouble she gets into and has to get out of (trouble which, I should emphasise, is never her fault) has been building book by books. I think it was in book two that we learnt that Pandora is a Chosen One and it's brought up a lot in The Skeleton Key and is part of the reason (sort of) for things escalating. But I get the feeling they can escalate more, so I look forward to the next book, whenever that's written (I couldn't easily find any info on Moss's website).

I highly recommend this series to fans of not-too-heavy urban fantasy. Although I've said The Skeleton Key is darker than its predecessors, it's still on the lighter side of the urban fantasy genre, in my opinion. It builds on the earlier books more than The Spider Goddess did, so I don't recommend reading it before the others. But all in all, an enjoyable read, particularly in a week when I needed something relaxing to take my mind off business.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. ( )

The third in the Pandora English series, it didn’t quite grab me as much as the first two, but I can’t put my finger on why. However, it was still VERY enjoyable to read. Picking up from when ‘The Spider Goddess’ finishes off Pandora is still trying to understand what exactly her role as ‘The Seventh’ is going to be in the upcoming battle between the dead and living. Everyone in the hidden paranormal world of New York seems to expect her to save the world with her wonderful gifts – but they are all less forthcoming in telling her HOW to do it and what the gifts actually are! Still not knowing what to do hasn’t stopped Pandora from being dragged into an adventure and this book is no different. As with the previous books Pandora learns about more of her powers by accident as she fights to close a door to the realms of the dead without becoming one of them.

I love how Pandora lives in two worlds - the ‘normal’ and the ‘paranormal’ – to her it is just as normal to see ghosts as it is to make coffee for her boss, who she suspects has been turned into a vampire. The characters, even the wacky undead ones, are very believable; as is the concept of a whole suburb called Spektor that no-one in New York has heard of. There are still some mysteries to be solved such as how to save the world, why does her elderly great-aunt look so young and beautiful, and which is best a human boyfriend or a ghost one?
( )

This is the third in the Pandora English and picks up not long after the previous book. Pandora is plunged deeper into the mysteries that make up her life. But there is so much that is not explained and at this rate it will be half dozen books before many of them will be answered. This is one of the frustrations with this book.

However, as much as this is an enjoyable read, it's a bit light on and lacks real depth. It's not a complex story and is easy to read and straight forward. ( )

The third Pandora English novel is just as quirky and fun as the previous books, filled with humour, action and ZOMBIES! The Skeleton Key follows Pandora as she uses the special key to unlock the secrets of her great aunt’s house and the creepy suburb of Spektor. And my, what she finds is definitely creepy!

One of my favourite things about the series is Pandora, because she’s so familiar and relatable, without the ‘endearing’ traits of having low self-esteem or bad coordination. She has to make a conscious effort to be brave, to face her fears, she’s not afraid of new social settings but is understandably nervous, and she worries about things before going to bed each night. But Pandora isn’t whiny, doesn’t expect special treatment and is very much in control of her life. All admirable qualities in a main character! I also love that The Skeleton Key allowed us a glimpse into Pandora’s great-aunt Celia, and we get to see her witchy powers in action.

An increasing source of discomfort for me, as the series goes on, is Pandora’s attitude regarding the two men in her life: the ghostly Lieutenant Luke and the handsome Jay Rockwell, who is blessedly normal. I understand the conflict they cause for Pandora, who craves both the normalcy that Jay provides and the supernatural help that Luke gives her. But I don’t like that she is constantly skipping between the two like a pendulum. She rationalizes going out on a date with one right after the other, and when she’s in their company she completely forgets about the other until she gets home, and then she has a long think about the situation she’s gotten herself into. I think a lot of confusion would be avoided if she stopped seeing both until she cleared her thoughts, but I guess that’s not entertaining to read about.

I really like the supernatural world that has slowly developed over these three books, but there are many more questions to be answered so I’m glad that it looks like there are a few more books to come. As usual, the necromancy/zombie lore used in this book is well researched and doesn’t feel like it has been contrived to fit the story, which is great, and I beginning to really enjoy the unique spin that Moss puts on her supernatural creatures. I also liked the place that the house has in this book – it has been almost like another character in the books, and now with some of its mysteries revealed, the feeling has been compounded.

The Skeleton Key is not to be missed by fans of the Pandora English series, and readers who enjoy paranormal romance with more emphasis on the ‘paranormal’ than ‘romance’ should give the series a try. I am looking forward to following Pandora’s further adventures as the series progresses.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. ( )