Lady of Devices(Magnificent Devices 1)Publisher: Createspace, 2011Genre: YA Steampunk
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 . . . if they can both stay alive long enough to see that sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . .
Lady Claire Trevelyan is not your typical high society girl. She is smart, kind, but has an unrestrained curiosity toward all things scientific and steampowered. Most of the time her unladylike curiosity gets her into trouble, since most of her experiments tend to blow up. When her father looses all the family money in a bad investment, Claire ends up alone in the streets of London where she meets a band of homeless kids and decides to become their governess. With her wits and knowledge of devices she’ll be known among the gangs of London as the Lady of Devices.
The Lady of Devices is fun, and fast-paced but I felt it was more an introduction to Claire’s world, and her life. The real action doesn’t start until late in the book and just when I was getting really into the story it ends. Hopefully the second book will concentrate more on adventure now that the world and circumstances are all established. Claire is charming, witty and rebellious. She goes against the standards set for girls of her time, but then still clings to the customs of high society. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at Claire’s efforts in training the kids. Telling them not to steal though they’re poor and starving, and urging them to speak and act properly when they won’t ever be accepted into those kinds of circles.
What I wanted to see here were more steampunk contraptions, more of Claire’s experiments, and more of the other characters. Like I said, this is a setting-the-world type of story, but I still was expecting more steampunk things in it. Claire is known for her experiments and curiosity in the scientific, but again there’s very little of this. The romantic interests are there, but not much happens other than she hates one for being too forward, and she ignores the other for associating with the first. Now that the problems are set, the characters introduced, and Claire knows what she wants, I’m very interested to see what happens in the sequel Her Own Devices!
Favorite Quotes:
“They’re not dangerous, if you know their proper operation. Which I do. One’s speed and direction are merely a matter of the correct application of steam. The explosions of the first models are a thing of the past.”
“That’s lucky, knowing how you are about explosions.”
Claire’s good spirits cooled like a fire left too long without fuel. “You heard.”
“The entire school heard. Honestly, dear heart, you’ve got to curb this unhealthy tendency to blow things up.”
~
“I look forward to a rematch,” he said. “Perhaps it was a case of luck, not skill.”
Claire looked him in the eye. How dare he cast aspersions on her ability in her own parlor? “A lady of resources makes her own luck. Do you not agree, Lord James?”
He laughed and tapped the back of the chair with his palm, as if it were the invisible shoulder of a companion. “She does indeed, Miss Trevelyan. She does indeed.”
