This was a nice story about 17 yo Claire. Even though the world in which she lives is steam powered (airships, trains, etc) she is still constrained by being a woman. And everyone knows a woman's sole purpose is to get married, have kids, and make the menfolk's lives as nice as can be. She was the daughter of a viscount until her father's death (and now the sister to). She goes from having a roof over her head and other comforts to having nothing.
While I liked Claire, I was also annoyed with her for (IMO) her judgmental attitude towards the street children. Yes, she did take them under her wing and was teaching them how to read and write. But, she judged them for stealing (to survive). I thought it was hypocritical considering she was playing on making and selling her "devices" (and those devices I'm sure would not be used for innocuous purposes).

Halloween Bingo- free space

From Amazon's book page:

Lady of Devices: A steampunk adventure novel (Magnificent Devices, Book 1):

London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.

At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire’s talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It’s not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices.

When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . but sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . .

I just finished reading this free e-book, and I must say I was positively surprised. Since I bought my Kindle Touch I have downloaded and started reading so many free books and most of them weren't good enough to finish. This turned out to be among the few that was well worth reading to the end. My main complaint is that the story is a little too short and seems to end sort of in the middle - not quite - there is a resolution of sorts - but it comes rather quickly and feels a bit sudden. Normally, I wouldn't buy the next book when the author leaves the reader hanging, but in this case, I might make an exception. As I mentioned above, there is a sort of ending, even if it's too sudden for my taste.

Claire is a likeable character. As the book progresses we get to know more likable characters, mainly young women. There are of course a few men - one sympathetic and another less so. Time will tell how they will develop. When the story begins Claire belongs to the upper class and is miserable that her mother won't consider letting her go to university. She is passionate about engineering and loves to drive a steam driven car, even though it's not considered 'ladylike'. Soon her circumstances change dramatically. Being a resourceful young woman, she handles her situation well and manages to save herself.

If this sounds like your kind of thing, visit Amazon as soon as you can. The book is still available for free if you hurry.

Fields of Iron: A Steampunk Adventure No...

Gloria’s plans to stop the Californias invading the Texican territories and likely massacring thousands of people – including several innocents in between the two territories, looks to have been scuppered when she narrowly avoided being kidnapped by the California’s ambassador

She can see only one way to stop the war – to appeal to the Viceroy himself. But to even get to the man involves crossing a territory where no woman travels alone – and with her speaking not a word of Spanish. It seems only a marriage of convenience will allow her to make her plea for peace.

I have to say yet again how much I love Gloria Merriwhether-Astor for being one of the most selfless, kind yet non-matyred characters. It has to be stressed that Gloria has no personal stake in the events of this book

Gloria is an extremely wealthy woman. She if the heir to a massive munitions manufactory which is making an absolute fortune selling arms for a brewing war. Gloria has everything to gain from this war going ahead and everything to lose by stopping that war

But she’s a deeply moral person and she absolutely refuses to accept this war going ahead. Considering her father directly responsible for this war and the upcoming massacre of a vast number of people including several innocent tribes – like the Brujas we saw last book and the Navapai who are caught in the middle. Gloria is not only determined to stop this war and cost herself a whole lot of money but she is willing to endure a lot of hardship to make this happen. She has been kidnapped, faced a lot of set packs and physical discomfort and, finally, in this book actually opts to marry a man she doesn’t love or even know very well because it’s the only way she can navigate the incredibly misogynist society of the Californios.

Gloria is a protagonist acting entirely from altruistic motives. And entirely against her own self-interest. And entirely to her own detriment. Yet she isn’t a protagonist who is being dragged into this by fat or destiny or special Chosen One status. Nor does she spend any real time bemoaning her fate or what is happening. She spends some time debating whether she really wants to take a certain step – but it’s only really about which step she takes, not about whether she should keep going forward. No matter how much she sacrifices, she is completely lacking in angst because these are actions she actively chooses; she’s not acting badly done to. She is an active participant here and the choices she makes are her own active decisions

Part of this may stem from her slightly shaky low self worth. Again this is interestingly well done – we have a lot of protagonists in the genre who will sit in a corner and dramatically declare how hideously ugly/awful/terrible they are. Gloria isn’t like that, she merely fails to acknowledge how extraordinary she is: partly because of her extremely terrible father but also because she has been surrounded by the awesome protagonists of this series which she persists in comparing herself too

Gloria is capable, driven, slightly self-depreciating, intelligent, determined, selfless and one of the most unabashedly moral characters in the series and a worthy inheritor of the protagonist status following in the footsteps of so many female characters

And it’s fitting that he is pretty much sole protagonist in this book. We have other important and clearly determined female characters with Alice making another appearance, as well as the interestingly separatist Brujas (who have also been developed to show a level of racial diversity even though none of them are especially major characters) as well as also showing some very shrewed and cunning Californio women. In particular I like one daughter of a high ranking noble who is brilliantly and ruthlessly ambitious and not shy about it. I like this because it has already been established that the Californio culture is extremely misogynist and women are sheltered at best and victimised at worst – yet we still see these women in this culture are capable of drive and determination which many books miss. While also showing treats that, when appearing in women, are nearly always evidence of evil or villainy: ambition and selfishness. I like that she is respected for these and not demonised especially since this book also has the shining pedestal that is Gloria the Selfless

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Gloria Meredith-Astor has inherited an extremely wealth and successful munitions company, one that is set to make a vast profit off a potential future war

And she doesn’t want it – not the munitions and certainly not the war. She is determined to turn her guns into ploughshares and she adamantly will not allow a war to be fought because of the weapons her company created, no matter what erstwhile family members wish.

If she has to hare off across the continent and ambush a train to stop it – then so be it.

This is one of those series that always makes me smile when there’s another book out – and this book is no exception

The series has a semi-shifting protagonist and this time it’s Gloria Merriweather-Astor. Now, I can’t say she’s one of my favourite protagonists, but I’ve always liked the idea of her, as I’ve said before. I like the idea of her because it would have been so easy, so very very very easy, in any other series to make her the villain. I probably wouldn’t have even criticised it if she were because there are so many other excellent and awesome female characters in this series, that having a single vapid/immoral/damn fool cardboard cutout villain would not have ruffled the waters

But that is not this series, that is not what this series does. So, I loved Gloria for that – for turning out to be brave and dedicated and awesome and full of morality and integrity even in the face of extreme pressure when she could just as easily have been a villain. But I am also interested in her because she is very different from the others. To a degree all the other protagonists have been misfits. They’ve not fit in the world they’ve been in – whether it’s Claire’s ambition and sudden poverty or the Mopsies rising from poverty to high society or Alice living among the raiders – they’ve all followed a different path because they haven’t had much choice in the matter. But Gloria has everything going for her – she’s the heiress to a rich, doting father who fully intends her to take over his company (despite him being evil and despite her being female). She has wealth, power, prestige, influence and she is also quite capable of realising any ambition she may have without every doing anything other than what is expected of her. She’s not like any of the other protagonist who must fight for what they want, their career, the life they choose, the family they value – Gloria doesn’t have any hard choices she HAS to make

But she makes them anyway. She makes hard choices because they’re right, because of principle, because of morality perhaps even out of a need to change her family and her business’s legacy: but Gloria’s is ultimately the most unselfish path and that is unexpected.

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