Review

This was originally pitched as erotic steampunk, which this book wasn’t erotic. With erotic I expect seriously steamy sensuality, and while both hero and heroine had plenty of enthusiasm in the bedroom and elsewhere, there wasn’t enough sex to really call this erotic.

Set aside my opinion on the technical definition of erotic and this book is good. Steampunk is definitely a growing genre and I always enjoy finding a new series. Similar to other Steampunk series, like Archer and Rosso’s The Ether Chronicles and Cross’s Warden of the Realm series, Dryden has our character engaged in spy work. Only this time our spies are starting out in America. It’s seems America never left the British Empire in Dryden’s Steampunk world. 

This story features my third widow for the month of November. I’m obviously good at picking out widows. But our heroine, Charlotte, is a widow who agrees to a marriage of convenience for the sake of her mission. She’s honor bound to locate the documents her first husband died stealing, and she’s willing to do about anything to make that happen. Even pilot a highly sophisticated air machine (this world doesn’t have air ships yet) called the Gossamer Wing. I liked Charlotte, but found her to be a bit impetuous. This is a trait she doesn’t really grow out of and she tends to take risks that didn’t need taking.

The hero, Dexter, is delicious. He’s a scientist and I love a good geek. The only challenge is there isn’t a lot of growth for Dexter beyond falling in love with Charlotte. He’s got to adjust to acting like an aristocrat when he’d rather be tinkering away at a gadget of some sort. Other than basic internal musings and wrestling with Charlotte’s determination to keep their relationship emotionless, his own development is limited.

Finally the villain, isn’t really a villain. He serves more as a distraction and filler and doesn’t have a profound effect on the character’s growth. Instead he acted as more of a third character and at times I found more growth from the villain then the hero and heroine.

Overall, I wanted really hard to like this book, but there were too many lacking bits in character development. Every time I read another page I wanted more. I did enjoy the Steampunk and the world building.