Wayward Souls Review — Is It Worth Reading?

Updated on October 9, 2026

Verdict: An atmospheric, folklore-soaked gothic mystery with a well-loved central partnership and a scene-stealing supporting cast, held back by a slow, crowded middle and a sapphic romance that stays quieter than its marketing suggests.

Best for: Readers who have finished Strange Beasts and want more of Sam and Hel, who come for monster-hunting, Irish folklore and a twisty investigation, and who can live with a closed-door romance that takes its time.

Heat level: ★★☆☆☆ (1.5/5 — closed door; romance.io assigns no steam level)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.8/5 — a 4.04 Goodreads average across 633 ratings, with pacing and plot clutter as the recurring complaints)

Tropes: Slow burn, detective partnership, gothic monster-hunting, Irish folklore and Samhain, legacy daughters, secret-keeping heroine, reluctant ally, secret societies, single POV, series continuation.

Wayward Souls by Susan J. Morris is the second Harker & Moriarty novel, published in March 2026 by Hodderscape in the UK and Bindery Books in the US — a sapphic gothic fantasy and historical mystery that sends Samantha Harker, daughter of the man who killed Dracula, and Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of the criminal mastermind, into an Ireland where the veil is thinning, the monsters are organising and the Royal Society has assigned a Van Helsing to watch their every move.

It holds a 4.04 average across 633 Goodreads ratings — a clear step up from the 3.83 that Strange Beasts sits at across more than 4,000 — plus a Library Journal notice, a Parade review and two audiobook editions. The reviews are warmer than book one’s and they are also more specific about what drags. Both of those are worth understanding before you start.

What Is Wayward Souls About?

Wayward Souls is a gaslamp fantasy mystery first and a sapphic romance second. It borrows its cast from the literary canon — the Harkers and Van Helsings of Dracula, the Moriartys of Sherlock Holmes — and sets them in the early 1900s, in a world where monsters are real and a Royal Society exists to manage them. The Irish setting brings its politics: the supernatural uprising is aimed at Unionists.

Sam Harker is the book’s only point of view. She can slip into the minds of monsters, which makes her useful to the Society and dangerous in its eyes, and what she lacks is trust — from her employers, from Jakob Van Helsing, who has sworn to kill her at the first sign of corruption, and at times from Hel, because Sam keeps secrets. Hel, meanwhile, is running out of time to prove her father exists before his crimes are pinned on her. Staying inside Sam’s head gives the book intimacy and suspense, and it costs Hel and Van Helsing some of the page time readers wanted for them.

What Makes This Sapphic Gothic Mystery Work

The Irish setting and folklore: The most consistently praised element across Goodreads and the blogs. Readers call the Celtic mythology well researched and the Samhain countdown ideal for spooky-season reading.
The partnership: Sam and Hel’s working relationship is what keeps readers invested, and StoryGraph readers back it up — 82% call the characters lovable and 74% say the character development is strong.
Jakob Van Helsing: The unexpected winner of the sequel. Several reviewers name him as their favourite development, and at least one admits he stole the book from the romance.
The twists: The late reveal about Sam’s grandfather gets singled out as a genuine shock, and several readers call the final stretch the best part of the book.
The supporting cast: Heathcliff the rat is singled out by name by multiple reviewers.

Book Synopsis

Sam Harker and Hel Moriarty solved the Paris case, and it has bought them almost nothing. The Royal Society still does not trust a woman who can enter the minds of monsters, and it trusts the daughter of Professor Moriarty even less. So when two of its field agents vanish in Ireland six days before Samhain, the pair are sent to find them — with Jakob Van Helsing attached as a minder whose instructions, where Sam is concerned, are simple and final.

Ireland is not quiet. Across its cities and its wilder country, monsters are moving against the Unionists, and the old stories about what walks when the veil thins are starting to look less like stories. Sam and Hel follow the missing agents’ trail through secret societies, hidden doors and creatures that do not behave as the Society’s files say they should, while the calendar runs down towards the one night of the year when the dead are closest.

The pressure is personal as well as professional. Hel needs to prove her father is real before she is made to answer for everything he has done. Sam is carrying secrets of her own, and the more she keeps from Hel, the harder it becomes to trust the one person who has always backed her. With Van Helsing watching for the smallest sign that she has gone too far, Sam has to decide how much of herself to risk to finish the case — and whether the partnership that survived Paris can survive what she is not saying.

My Review

The world-building is the headline, and it deserves to be. Morris takes the most famous families in Victorian genre fiction, moves them to turn-of-the-century Ireland on the edge of Samhain, and folds real folklore into the monster-hunting in a way readers repeatedly call researched rather than decorative. The premise — a Harker and a Moriarty solving cases together under suspicion from their own employers — is a genuinely good engine for a series.

The second strength is the cast. Sam and Hel are the reason people come back, and the sequel widens the circle well: Jakob Van Helsing gets an arc that a surprising number of reviewers rank above the romance, and the recurring animal companion has a fan club of his own. Sam’s secrets drive the plot as much as the monsters do.

Where it struggles is pacing and clarity, and this is the dominant thread in the critical reviews rather than a stray complaint. Readers at three stars and below describe a slow opening, a middle that stagnates, and action saved for roughly the last tenth. Alongside that sits confusion: too many suspects, too many interlocking histories, and several readers say they re-read passages to work out who was speaking or how a conclusion was reached. One blog also found the antagonists more obvious than in Paris. Parade, otherwise enthusiastic, notes that the single Sam POV takes story away from Hel and Van Helsing. Against all that, StoryGraph’s did-not-finish rate is only 3%, which suggests readers find it slow rather than abandoning it.

One expectation to reset: it is sold on its sapphic chemistry, and it is not really a romance novel. Amazon files it under LGBTQ+ mystery and gaslamp fantasy, romance.io has not assigned it a steam level, and readers describe the relationship as a slow burn that culminates behind a closed door. If romance is what drew you, calibrate; if you came for the case and the monsters, you will be well served.

My honest note: A stronger book than Strange Beasts by the numbers, with a richer setting and a better supporting cast, slowed by a crowded middle. If you need a romance at the centre, this will frustrate you. If you want a gothic mystery with two women you can root for, it is well worth the trip to Ireland.

Element	In Wayward Souls
Central relationship	Samantha Harker & Dr. Helena Moriarty — investigative partners and slow-burn love interests, daughters of Dracula’s killer and Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis
Core tropes	Slow burn, detective partnership, gothic monster-hunting, Irish folklore, secret-keeping heroine, reluctant ally
Setting	Early-1900s Ireland in the days before Samhain, amid supernatural and Unionist unrest
Heat level	1.5/5 — closed door; not rated by romance.io
Series	Harker & Moriarty book 2 — read Strange Beasts first; book 3 unannounced
Content notes	Graphic death, blood and violence; torture, sexism and cursing; minor child abuse, child death and homophobia

How Spicy Is Wayward Souls?

Barely — a 1.5/5. romance.io lists the book but has not assigned it a steam level, which fits how it is catalogued elsewhere: as a mystery and gaslamp fantasy rather than an adult romance. Reader reports settle the question. The central relationship is a slow burn, one blog review describes it as fade-to-black, and a five-star Goodreads reader says outright they have never been sadder about a closed-door scene. The attraction is on the page; the sex is not.

The one thing worth knowing in advance is that the heat sits well below the “electric chemistry” in the pitch, and at least two readers felt the intimate moments were rushed. Beyond that, no reviewer I found flags explicit content of any kind. If you want this register elsewhere, A Master of Djinn keeps its romance behind closed doors in a similar supernatural investigation, and The Mimicking of Known Successes sits even lower.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you enjoyed Strange Beasts and want more of its world, you read gothic mysteries for atmosphere and folklore, you like a slow burn where the partnership matters as much as the kiss, and you enjoy literary mash-ups built from Dracula and Sherlock Holmes.

You may want to skip it if: you have not read book one, you want the romance at the centre and on the page, you lose patience with a slow, crowded middle, or you need an investigation you can follow without turning back a few pages.

In short: a richer, better-liked sequel for series readers, asking patience in the middle and offering a quiet romance in return.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

There is no viral moment around Wayward Souls, and I could not find a BookTok footprint of any size in search. Reddit could not be checked from here, so I can’t tell you whether it is being argued about there. What the book does have is more conventional support than most titles on this site: a Library Journal notice calling it another genre-bending thrill-ride, a Parade review that compares it to Penny Dreadful, blurbs from Sadie Hartmann among others, and a steady climb to 633 Goodreads ratings in six months. It also has two audiobook editions: a UK edition from Hodderscape narrated by Amélie Roch, running 12 hours 7 minutes, and a US edition from Podium Audio narrated by Emily Woo Zeller.

Prefer audio? Listen to Wayward Souls on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The setting, first and most consistently — Irish folklore, Celtic mythology and the Samhain countdown are praised in nearly every positive review, and “atmospheric” is the recurring word. Then the characters: Sam’s growing confidence, the Sam–Hel partnership, and above all Van Helsing, whom several readers call the sequel’s real surprise. Readers also praise the late twist involving Sam’s grandfather and a feminist streak one reviewer says never gets heavy-handed. A notable number say this is better than book one — faster to launch, with a warmer partnership, and the Goodreads numbers agree.

What readers argue about and complain about: Pacing, above everything. Reviewers describe a slow start, a middle that feels like filler, and a book that only really moves in its last stretch; one blog grades everything else highly and marks pacing down to 3/5 because it crawls early on. Clarity is the second theme — too many suspects, too many moving parts, and more than one reader needing to re-read passages to follow the reasoning. Third: the romance. Readers split between those who love the longing and those who find the chemistry underpowered, the conflict manufactured by Sam’s secret-keeping, or the payoff rushed and closed-door. Beyond that, a sequelitis complaint that the book rebuilds tension book one had already spent, and a split on the single POV — immersive to some, limiting to Parade and to readers who wanted more of Hel. The one reader I found calling the writing repetitive is an outlier; others, including a blog that scores the writing 5/5, praise it.

The series question everyone should ask first: read Strange Beasts first. Reviewers are clear that the sequel builds directly on book one, and at least one reader wished they had re-read it first. Book one ended with the romance barely begun and several mysteries left open; Wayward Souls moves the relationship forward and, by readers’ accounts, wraps its central investigation; no reviewer I found calls it a cliffhanger. It does leave the wider series threads open, and as of September 2026 no third book has been announced — the author has only hinted that the adventures are not over. If you dislike waiting on an unfinished series, know that going in.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to read Strange Beasts before Wayward Souls?

Yes. Wayward Souls is Harker & Moriarty book 2, and reviewers recommend reading Strange Beasts first. The sequel builds directly on the relationships and history from Paris.

How spicy is Wayward Souls?

Very low, around 1.5/5. romance.io has not assigned it a steam level, and readers describe a slow-burn romance with a closed-door, fade-to-black intimate scene. There is no explicit content.

Does Wayward Souls end on a cliffhanger?

Not according to readers. The main case resolves and the relationship moves forward, but wider series threads are left open for a future book. No reviewer I found describes the ending as a cliffhanger.

Will there be a third Harker & Moriarty book?

Not announced yet. As of September 2026 there is no title or date for a third book, though the author has hinted that Sam and Hel’s adventures are not over.

Is there a Wayward Souls audiobook?

Yes, two. The UK edition from Hodderscape is narrated by Amélie Roch and runs 12 hours 7 minutes, and the US edition from Podium Audio is narrated by Emily Woo Zeller.

If You Loved Wayward Souls, Read These Next

Readers who come for the supernatural investigation should start with A Master of Djinn, which runs a similar early-1900s case through an alternate Cairo with a sapphic partnership at its centre. If the Sherlock Holmes half of the premise is the draw, The Mimicking of Known Successes reimagines the detective duo as two women with unfinished history. And for another feminist revision of the Dracula canon, Reluctant Immortals hands the story to the women the original sidelined.

For more in this register, browse our best sapphic gothic romance books or the full Book Reviews collection.

The Bottom Line

Wayward Souls is a sequel that widens its world and deepens its cast. The Irish folklore gives it a real sense of place, the Harker–Moriarty partnership remains easy to love, and Van Helsing turns out to be the best new reason to read on. It is also slow in the middle, crowded with suspects and back-story, and much quieter as a romance than its pitch implies. Whether that trade works depends on what you came for — but for readers who enjoyed Strange Beasts and want a gothic mystery first and a love story second, it is the better of the two books. Check Wayward Souls on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Wayward Souls ranks as a well-crafted sapphic gaslamp mystery sequel — atmospheric and warmly cast, slowed by a crowded middle, and best approached for the case and the partnership rather than the romance.