Return to Ranfurly Manor: A Review of Dangling and Dangerous by K.M. Krenik

Title: Dangling and Dangerous

Author: K. M. Krenik Publisher: Knox Works ISBN & Price: 9798990629691, $17.57 Buy book here.

Reviewer: Ann Angel

While readers of Danger Lies Within will be pleased to see the return of Lord Robert Ranfurly and Courtney Drake, they’ll also be familiar with the authoritarian PAX regime and this alternate world inhabited by mythical and noble creatures, including a dragon. It can be noted that this magical world continues to echo frightening possibilities in the real world. The novel opens with the resistance team coming together once again to investigate the murders of some young women, all wearing serpent earrings. They’re convinced the earrings hold a major clue. 

Courtney, our heroine, once again demonstrates her independent nature as she embraces her role as children’s governess to Lord Ranfurly’s five-year old twins as they horseback ride through wild forest. Upon their return to the Ranfurly estate, Courtney realizes that her red-haired and independent charge, Elizabeth, hasn’t returned with her. In fact, she’s been kidnapped.

As Courtney helps Lord Ranfurly search for Elizabeth, the romantic bond grows between the two. Meanwhile, Ranfurly’s assistant Sean, who also helps with the search and is assigned to protect Courtney, has dreams of Courtney in spaces that only her deceased husband would know. Both Sean and Robert, it ends up, are also connected as rebels within CAPE, a group working to dismantle PAX.

In the search for his daughter, Lord Ranfurly discovers the serpent earrings found in the ears of the murdered young woman are connected to PAX’s demonic efforts to control the world. He’s convinced the evil fascists are holding his daughter captive, and she may become one of the serpent earring victims.   

While Courtney’s living situation mirrors many classics such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Emma by Jane Austin, this dark romance moves beyond the traditional as it weaves reality with a dystopian future world. Even as the relationship between Courtney and Robert intensifies, the characters must avoid micro-chipping, flying drones that spy on them, and more. They seek refuge in wild forests, aboard airplanes, and in floating cities. Ranfurly’s daughter is being held in a prison in an undersea fortress. The need to find Elizabeth and rescue her takes on new intensity with this knowledge.

While this novel can easily be read as a stand-alone, it’s the second book in a 3-book series and, like the first novel, it’s a page-turner with well-developed characters and intense action.

Even as it’s set in a dystopian future, the novel speculates on a future fascist government that reflects the familiar rhetoric of our contemporary political atmosphere. The novel asks questions we are probably asking ourselves. Would it be possible for current governing powers to micro-chip or spy on every member of their domain? Who do we trust in a politically volatile climate? And how can we defend ourselves against a cruel authoritarian government?

Readers familiar with book one, Danger Lies Within, will find themselves drawn more deeply into the mysteries of Ranfurly Manor and its inhabitants. And new readers will delight in the mystery and love found between the pages of book 2.