My Week in Review 7/21/18-7/28/18

This week found me in new territory.  Of course I have heard of this genre - it was all the rage a while back - and if I remember correctly I tried to read a book when it was so popular.  It just did not do it for me.  Not being a quitter, I thought I'd give it another go.  :)

This weeks theme: Steam Punk

Wolves and Daggers by Melanie Karsak - 4 Stars ****

Who's afraid of the big, bad werewolf?

When London's brightest tinkers and alchemists come up missing, Red Cape Society Agent Clemeny Louvel is on the case.

To help Clemeny get the problem in hand, Queen Victoria assigns her a temporary partner--a werewolf with a knightly history and a tendency to be far too flirtatious for either of their good. Can she trust him to help her chase down the monsters they're hunting?

Curiouser and Curiouser by Melanie Karsak - 4 Stars ****

To save the Hatter, Alice must work with the one man she despises so much that she might still love him.

Alice thought she'd turned over a new leaf. No more working for Jabberwocky. No more making deals with the ruthless Queen of Hearts. No more hanging around The Mushroom with tinkers, tarts, scoundrels, and thieves in London's criminal underbelly. But she'd been bonkers to dream.

Hatter's reckless behavior leads Alice back to the one person she never wanted to see again, Caterpillar. Pulled into Caterpillar's mad schemes, Alice must steal a very big diamond from a very royal lady. The heist is no problem for this Bandersnatch. But protecting her heart from the man she once loved? Impossible.

Sometimes love is mad.

Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster - 4 Stars ****

Honoria Todd has more secrets than most people and she's hiding them in Whitechapel. Blade is the master of the rookeries and agrees to protect her, but at what price?

Most people avoid the dreaded Whitechapel district. For Honoria Todd, it's the last safe haven as she hides from the Blue Blood aristocracy that rules London through power and fear.

Blade rules the rookeries-no one dares cross him. It's been said he faced down the Echelon's army single–handedly, that ever since being infected by the blood–craving he's been quicker, stronger, and almost immortal.

When Honoria shows up at his door, his tenuous control comes close to snapping. She's so...innocent. He doesn't see her backbone of steel-or that she could be the very salvation he's been seeking.

Prince of Hearts by Margaret Foxe - 3 Stars ***

London: 1896. Airships rule the skies, and automatons run the tracks at Ascot. Since the Great Exhibition of 1851, Her Majesty’s Empire has been powered by the Steam Revolution and Welding science. It is a time of glorious innovation and dangerous civil unrest.

But Miss Aline Finch, prim, plain career girl, has more important things on her mind than the state of the Empire. After her employer, the handsome but insufferable criminologist, Professor Romanov, hares off for parts unknown in a slightly-illegal dirigible, stranding her in France, she has finally had enough. In a fit of pique, she decides to marry her long-time and very proper suitor, quitting Romanov for good.

The last thing the Professor expects to come home to is his secretary’s mutiny. Finch’s timing couldn’t be any more inconvenient, for a serial murderer from Romanov’s past has set his sights on her. Romanov must keep her close if he has any chance of protecting her life - and the dangerous secrets the murderer threatens to expose. For the Professor is much, much more than he seems, and the secrets that he keeps are centuries old - and hidden deep in his heart.

When the Professor discovers Finch is to wed, however, he is forced to confront the truth of the matter: he doesn’t just want his secretary back to protect her. He wants her in his bed. Forever.

Aline fights Romanov’s seduction, but she’s no match for her own unruly desires, or the truth of her own heart. But when the Professor’s true identity is exposed, destroying the very foundations of Aline’s conception of reality, will the Professor lose her forever? Or will the murderer succeed in his evil plot to destroy them both before they can find their happy ending?

The Earl of Brass by Kara Jorgensen - 3 Stars ***

Eilian Sorrell is no stranger to cheating death, but when a dirigible accident costs him his arm, he fears his days of adventuring are over. As the eldest son of the Earl of Dorset, Lord Sorrell knows he will face a bleak future among London's aristocracy unless he can escape. On a quest to return to his old life, Lord Sorrell commissions a prosthetic arm, but the craftsman isn’t quite what he expected.

Fenice Brothers Prosthetics is in trouble. Hadley’s brother is dead, and she is forced to pick up the pieces and finish what he started. When clients begin turning her away, she fears she will fail until she crosses paths with the enigmatic Lord Sorrell. In exchange for a new arm, he offers her a chance at adventure in the deserts of Palestine.

Beneath the Negev’s sand lies something far more precious than potsherds or bones. A long lost crystal city has been found that could change Eilian and Hadley’s world forever, but they aren’t the only ones who know its secrets. Will they make it out alive or will they, too, be buried beneath the desert sands?

That wraps Steam Punk.  Though I did enjoy these reads, I'm not quite sure this genre is one that will keep me coming back for more - but they are good for a change of pace.  :)

I hope you see something you'd like to read.

As always, thank you for stopping by.

~Michelle