eyes.2c Reviews

Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts (Proper Romance Steampunk #4) by Nancy Campbell Allen        I do enjoy steampunk but must admit I haven't read any for a couple of years. I was unsure if I wanted to get back into this genre, and wondered if I could read this without having a knowledge of the series background. I'm pleased to say this stands alone, so that's that hurdle down. I'm now committed to investigating the series, and a have renewed interest in this genre. I enjoyed Brass Carriages immensely. I loved the courage and vivacity of Emme (Emmeline Castle O’Shea) and the long suffering, dependable and broodingly, focused energy of Oliver (Detective-Inspector Oliver Reed). (Really? Oliver Reed? Mmm! I can see that!)  Emme is a strong advocate for the rights of the shifter community and is working on trying to repeal the Predatory Shifter Extermination Act. An important international conference, The International Shifter Rights Organization is being held...

Ether & Elephants (The Gaslight Chronicles #8 ) by Cindy Spencer Pape  Nell and Tom; sweethearts for ever! One careless hasty step and Tom finds himself married to someone else. Eleanor Hadrian has loved Tom since before she can remember. Now she finds her best friend and true love has betrayed her trust. Nell throws her energies and shattered heart into a teaching career. When her favourite student, a musically gifted blind child is kidnapped its time to call in her very peculiar a family, including Sir Thomas Devere. At the same time other children are going missing. The spectre of the alchemist is raised once again. Nell and Tom must join forces to track down Charlie who may be more important to Tom than he could guess. Along the way they gather up Nell's newly minted fiancé and mathematics teacher, Roger. This time the intrigue stretches to India. Racing to reach those shores before those they are chasing, Nell and Tom catch an airship and meet some interesting folk ...

Of Silk and Steam (London Steampunk #5) by Bec McMaster  Steaming steampunk romance along with a healthy dose of intrigue, the call of justice and dangerous politics! Politically, events are converging and coming to head. The Prince Consort is as dangerous as ever, alliance lines are being drawn between Whitechaple, the humanists and those blue bloods who are seeking change. Lady Aramina, Mina, has been cool and detached, playing a deep game, her   devotion and friendship to the Queen, her involvement in sedition a deep and closely guarded secret. Now, she is faced with the problem of Leo Barrons, the heir to her enemy, the man who assassinated her father. Revenge is seductive, but then so is Barrons. A darkly devastating steampunk romance that grasps you from the first page. This is a world where the costs of love is high, where danger thrums at every turn and there's a kingdom to lose. Love is dangerously alluring, thrilling. Mina is afraid of losing her self and her fr...

Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School #3) by Gail Carriger Sophronia's training at Miss Geraldine's continues. Now she's into lessons on seduction, fans and flirting. As the plots develops we are left in no doubt that there's something very special and unique about Sophronia. (I couldn't help it. I started to play with her name. Fascinating and fun, especially when reflecting on the strengths that Sophronia displays, those qualities that make her such a fabulous character. Sophistry is "a specious argument for displaying ingenuity in reasoning or for deceiving someone." ( Dictionary.com) And if Miss Geraldine's School is not taking Sophronia's natural talent and training her to develop her ingenuity to deceive, then I'll eat my hat! But Aha! you say, what about the  'ronia' part of her name? A Ronin is a Japanese samurai warrior.  According to the Urban dictionary,  a 'roni' is mentioned in a song by by Bobby Brow...

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger Mechanicals and mayhem! Faceless Mechanicals, valves that help travel the aether, dubious finishing schools, vampires and werewolves are all part of this Victorian steam punk spy-in-training romp. Sophronia has been sent to finishing school to try to cure her bad habits including climbing and taking things apart to see how they work. Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality is somewhat more than she expected and certainly her "to be" decorous education takes unexpected twists and turns. A sometimes farcical caper that introduces some excellent characters and exciting possibilities. There is of course the 'mean girl' and a host of others. The sense of mystery is heightened by the fact that the school is a dirigible or several dirigibles, always moving. Entrancing! "What Ho and away!" A NetGalley ARC Curtsies & Conspiracies (Finishing School #2...

Dragons & Dirigibles (The Gaslight Chronicles #7)  by Cindy Spencer Pape The stories surrounding the marvellously rich group of people we know from the Gaslight Chronicles continue to be mined. Melody McKay an airship engineer, pilot and member of the Order of the Round Table, is testing her dirigible's new engine design over the Devonshire coast when either the boiler or generator inexplicably explodes. She crashes into the parklands in front of Black Heath Manor.  Fortunately the damage to her is minor, bruises and a sprained ankle. Her Scottish deerhound Birch (who has his own set of specially designed goggles--how cute and practical!) is fine too. Captain Victor Arrington, the current Earl of Blackwell has returned from his first love, the sea, to take up the lordly reins and care for his niece Emma when his brother, the late Earl, and his sister-in-law are killed in an accident. He and Barnaby, his trusty ex shipmate now butler, are scouring the rocks looking ...

The Forever Engine by Frank Chadwick England in the future, the year 2018. It all started with a coin, sort of. Not just any old coin mind you but a Roman counterfeit coin. Maybe! Jack Fargo, an American History Professor, and an ex Afghanistan War combatant is called to the United Kingdom to help investigate what is happening. He is a man with a talent, 'an ability to connect the dots.' Unfortunately a gigantic explosion of some sort occurs, a temporal-effect wave, and Jack is is flung back to an alternate past of 1888, right into that 'Indiana Jones type' [exploit]. (Jack's word here was somewhat stronger). Flying machines are ironclads and dirigibles. Mars has been visited since the 18770's and is a source of the material liftwood that assists  with flight. Names like Baron Renfrew, Edison and Tesla pop up amongst others.       We have a mysterious attractive spy for the French Commune, Gabrielle Courbiere,  who is so focused on things that she doe...

Ashes & Alchemy (The Gaslight Chronicles)   by Cindy Spencer Pape  Nefarious doings! London, 1850.   Residents must wear masks to protect themselves from the coal smoke that hangs heavily in the air. A product of the devotion to all things steam. It is a cold and bitter night. Police Inspector Sebastian Brown is disturbed by a woman collapsing on his door step. Searching for a doctor who lives near to Sebastian, she has crossed London without a mask, 'tantamount to a death sentence,' braving the frost and fog, and the possibility of vampyres or cutthroats.' Her daughter is deathly ill. Sebastian accompanies the woman, Minerva (Minnie) Shaw, to fetch her daughter, Ivy. What they find is a murdered friend, a room indicating chaotic search, and a missing sick child. Murders and a mysterious illness that has the patient sweating a black soot are just the beginning. The black soot residue appears to be a bacteria capable of taking soot out of the bod...

A Study in Ashes (The Baskerville Affair #3) by Emma Jane Holloway Evelina starts this episode with a bang. Blowing up the University of Camelin chemistry lab no less. Her world had narrowed to the university precincts bound as she is by the Gold King, Jasper Keating. Her price for allowing Nick to escape. All to no avail as he is dead.  Hauled before the University authorities she is for the moment confined to her quarters in the College of London. Who escorts her back to the College? None other than James Moriaty, the Blue King's man of business. We recognize the name for other reasons. Evelina is trapped by Keating, monitored by bracelets that create excruciating pain if she steps beyond her confines. Imogen has been unconscious for a year. Her twin dead sister Anna is involved. A realization that's nightmarish in its unfolding. Her sister Poppy engages Sherlock Holmes to look into Imogen's illness. And those dreadful Steam Barons. War lords run amok. The Scarlet Ba...

A Study in Darkness (The Baskerville Affair #2) by Emma Jane Holloway Baker Street has been bombed! Holmes and Evelina Cooper, his niece, have a narrow escape. Evelina is sure that the detonator is the work of Tobias. Now Evelina is in trouble. She plays into Jasper Keating's hands and ends up working for him.  Keating, the Gold King steam baron, wants her to uncover the truth about what the Blue King, better known as the Coal King, is planning.  However, after insulating herself into the Blue King's domain Evelina discovers that Dr. Magnus has returned from the dead with Seraphina his life like automation, and a cohort of automated ballet dancers. Dr. Magnus is the Blue King's maker and Evelina is forced to work with him. Despite his darkness there is something about Magnus that makes him seem reasonable to Evelina. He is a magician, a mesmerizer.  Repartee between Evelina and Magnus always on the edge of a dangerous and dark sarcasm. Evelina and Nick have become...

A Study in Silks (The Baskerville Affair #1) by Emma Jane Holloway So first we had all things Austen, both on and off stage and in alternate universes. Now, it seems we have the off stage world surrounding Sherlock with a hitherto unknown member of his family, his niece Evelina. We've been bombarded by film and television recently, why not an alternate Victorian era populated by loved figures from yesteryear amidst steampunk paraphernalia and intrigue. As Evelina says towards the end, 'this is a time when steam barons dominate the Empire.' Corporate monopolies and bullying,  political clout, bribery and corruption, the pursuit of alternative fuels, the determination of those who have, to hold at all cost.  Obviously nothing has changed in this alternate world. Even the great Sherlock is threatened. We enter into Evelina's world via her stealthy sojourn in the attics of Lord Bancroft's house where stored belongings, 'made elephantine humps in the dark...

The Friday Society by  Adrienne Kress Three young women, all assistants for men of modernity in the Victorian era. All different--the yin to each other's yan. My interest was certainly piqued from opening scene with Cora Bell who likes explosions! Then fetching her boss Lord White from an opium den was an interesting Sherlock Holmes type touch. Nellie is an assistant to an  illusionist. Michiko ia a samurai trained assistant to a overbearing weapons expert, trying to steer the warrior's path. A footman forces his attentions on Nellie, Cora comes to her assistance and then enroute via a stem engine they come across an unconscious Michikol, and a decapitated body. And this is only the opening scenes. The encore is so much more in this steampunk, action  adventure. Enjoyable! A NetGalley ARC

A Conspiracy of Alchemists (The Chronicles of Light and Shadow #1) by  Leisel Schwarz     Enter into the heady steampunk world of Victorian England and Paris--absinthe drinkers, dens of inequity, and alchemists' accruements. Add to this the faerie world of shadow and light and the Victorian era take on an altogether different hue. The pivotal character is Aviatrix Elle, pilot of a 40 ' dirigible, When meeting a client, Mr. Marsh, an occultist, in an opium den (absinthe cafe) a diamond bracelet attaches itself to her arm. This is the age of reason and for Elle, electromancy can be explained by science but occultism is a different to- be- avoided realm. Attacks in Paris, a foiled kidnapped attempt, and dramatic getaway from a Paris field is followed by other troubles back in England. Her father is kidnapped, the plot is afoot, and occultism comes to the fore.                  ...

Great read! I loved this novel so much I bought the rest of the series! Absolutely enjoyed this foray in the steampunk, paranormal world of the Gaslight Chronicles by Cindy Spencer Pape. In Moonlight & Mechanicals t here’s a dastardly plot afoot! The queen is in danger! On the streets of Wapping animals, and people between the ages of 15 and 30, are disappearing. But it’s Wapping. Who’s going to notice? Well, Wink does. Once more the Knights of the Order are called into action.   Are the circumstances, animals and people missing, linked? This is Wink and Liam’s story. The stories that began with Steam & Sorcery continue. I loved this title so much that I bought the rest of the series!                          A NetGalley ARC

The mind boggles perceiving Reeves (Jeeves of Steven Fry fame) as an automation being charged via his belly button--unlike those German automations! Automation or not, Reeves has lost none of his ‘grey matter’ (as Bertie calls it) due to incarceration in a cupboard in an attic for many years. Bertie Worcester is still the inane upper British class feather brain he’s always been—only more so if that’s at all possible! This is an amusing romp that doesn’t tax the reader’s brain cells, although it may at times strain their credulity. The action is scattered throughout with hapless British sayings and amusing anecdotes and strange automations. For instance, at the Drone’s club, when it is declared that this was an emergency because Reggie has aunt trouble and needed to consult “like the Red Sea, when confronted by Moses holding a note from his mother’s sister, the throng parted,”. Such is the understanding of the gentlemen. I kept visualizing Steven Fry and Hugh Laurie in full flight c...