Set in in alternate universe in which the South won the Civil War, this
is a reunion story. Eight years ago, Dario Leonides, of a leading family in Santa
Fe, The Republic of New Texacali, rejected his wife
when he discovered her secret. Ophelia Leonides, left with no resources when
her inventor father dies and his legitimate family refuses to honor his bequest
to her, is forced to approach her estranged husband for help not only for
herself but also for the son of whose birth he is ignorant.
Dario’s anger is unabated, and he is doubtful that he is the father of
the boy Ophelia claims is his. Filled with self-hatred at his inability to
remain indifferent to Ophelia, he is deliberately cruel to her, threatening to
send her away again and to take her son from her. Only when he is within a
breath of losing her forever does he opt for honesty with himself and with his
wife.
I struggled to finish this one. It is well-written, and fans more
devoted to the subgenre than I will doubtless be able to suspend disbelief more
easily. I couldn’t get beyond the heroine being an automaton—even one with
heart and soul. I didn’t like Dario and was bothered by the imbalance of power,
but I could understand his conflict.
She was nothing more than a mechanical
contrivance wrought by human hands, created for no other reason than to tempt
him. He did not doubt it for a minute. Nor did he doubt his religion would deem
her very existence a sin. What was she, after all, but a graven image, a
blatant attempt to ape the Almighty?
Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz
Wealthy suffragette Esme Smith of Swan
River Colony, Australia needs a scoundrel who is willing to work for her and
give voice to her political views in the men’s clubs where she is denied
access. Her uncle believes American Jedediah Reeve with his fancy clothes and
gambler’s skills may be the man she needs for the job. Jed, an inventor and son of a successful
politician, is amused by the misreading of his character, interested in the
situation, and captured by Esme’s beauty, intelligence, and vivacity. But Esme
and Jed must deal with a true scoundrel, one who is a blackmailer as well as a
political enemy before they can achieve their HEA.
I liked this story a lot. The Australian
setting is a bit different, Esme and Jed are endearing characters, and the
political intrigue adds interest. But one snippet alone would have made the
story a winner for me. I grew up listening to stories of my maternal
grandmother, a beautiful woman who would have been not many years younger than
Esme, keeping a hat pin handy to protect herself from unwanted attentions. So I
loved this scene that made me smile as I remembered Mama.
Esme simply descended the stairs dressed in a walking suit of
English tweed, her white frilled collar fixed with a gold pin in the form of a
stylized lion, roaring. Her chestnut brown boots and leather gloves matched the
narrow-brimmed hat she’d perched on her coiled hair. She was aloof, practical
and distantly gracious.
“How sharp are your hat pins?” he asked, following his own line
of thought about possible revenges.
She blinked, then smiled. “I would never be so unsubtle.
Although…” She reached up and slid a pin from the pert hat. “I ordered these
from an American suffragist catalogue called ‘Modern Tools for Modern Women.’
It’s rather like a Swiss Army knife.”
An array of clever gadgets unfolded from the unsharpened end,
including tweezers, scalpel blade and a needle
Far From Broken by JK Coi
Colonel Jasper Carlisle is away from home on a secret assignment for
the War Office when his wife, the beautiful prima ballerina Calliandra, is
captured, tortured, and left for dead. Ironically,
it is Jasper’s work for the War Office that allows him to see that Callie is
cared for by Dr. Helmholz, a miracle worker with prosthetics. Callie is not
grateful. She rages against Jasper for not letting her die and feels only
disgust for the changes in her body.
They were monstrous. She
stretched out her arm, but then drew it back and dug her fist into her churning
belly. She couldn’t imagine standing and moving on the unnatural combination of
iron posts, balls, and gears they’d fitted her with. Oh God. She would never
dance again.
Jasper must deal with soul-crushing guilt and accept that his wife has
been permanently changed psychologically as well as physically by her
experience, and Callie must let go of the rage that fills her before they can
begin to rebuild their life together.
And while Jasper has destroyed Callie’s three of Callie’s torturers,
the one who betrayed him is still out there, still determined to destroy Jasper
and Callie. The War Office’s plans to use the extraordinary strength Callie’s bionic
parts have given her to their advantage in the covert war Britain is engaged in
with France. Jasper must accept Callie as a partner and equal rather than a
weaker mate to be protected.
Coi’s contribution is the darkest in the anthology. Even the ending is
shadowed by the plans the Machiavellian War Office has for the couple. They
will be together at home or at war, but the reader is left with the feeling
that any respite from danger will be brief.
I wasn’t a steampunk virgin before I read A Clockwork Christmas. In fact, I requested the
anthology from the publisher via NetGalley after reading JK Coi’s Iron Seduction and finding it fascinating. But I am an
inexperienced reader of steampunk, and the anthology made me aware of the
variety that exists. All four novellas take place in the 19th
century and have the gadgets, steam technology, eccentric inventors, and
adventure that are characteristic of steampunk, but only Coi’s story is set in
Victorian England. The tone and style of the four selections vary widely. This
variety provides a good introduction since it allows the novice reader to
sample a range. Steampunk will probably never replace European historicals and
romance-women’s fiction hybrids as my favorite subgenres in romance fiction,
but I will be checking out more steampunk romances. I recommend that others new
to the subgenre give it a try. But don’t expect classic Christmas romances from
this anthology. All references to Christmas could have been omitted without
changing the stories significantly.
Have you tried steampunk romance? How adventurous are you in your
reading?
Note: I had every intention of posting this review Friday and following it with another review of a new Christmas read Saturday to complete Happy Christmas Reads Week, but problems with a disc in my neck made typing and posting painful. I have been online only briefly for the past several days. I am better and I plan to post the fifth review Thursday and return to regular Tuesday/Friday posts on Friday.
