Miss India Steele is down on her luck. She has recently lost her father, and her fiance has dropped her after taking over her father’s shop in Victorian London. It is in that shop that she meets the mysterious Mr. Matthew Glass while confronting her ex. Mr. Glass employs her to help him find a watchmaker in London who created an absolutely unique pocket watch, and is the only one who can repair it. Miss Steele helps Mr. Glass, meeting his strange bunch of family and friends, while finding herself more and more at odds with her father’s watchmaker friends and guildies. In the meantime, she isn’t sure how she feels about Mr. Glass–is he hiding something sinister about himself? Is he some sort of outlaw? Is he ill? Is she falling for him a little bit? When he flirts with her, is he being sincere? And all the while, the story hints at something more… maybe something a little magical.
I really want to give this one a 3.5 and I’m waffling between the 3 and the 4. I enjoyed it, so I originally went with 4, but I’ve changed it to 3 because it just really isn’t a 4 tbh. Overall, I think the story was cute and playful. The price was right and it has been sitting on my amazon wishlist for a long time now. I was kind of hoping for it to be a little more steampunk and a little heavier on the steamy side of romance (Actually any steaminess would have been nice–the author did a little tease here and there, but no actual steam was to be found either of the punk variety or of the sexy variety *sigh*). I would not classify it as steampunk at all. The protagonist is very plucky and she’s bright and a little brash. Is it a prerequisite in these kind of stories now that all the heroines need to be plucky and brash and intelligent (like librarian intelligent) but innocent and a little silly? I feel like I’ve read this same character a bazillion times. I liked her well enough and several of the other characters, but I didn’t love any of them if that makes sense. I may continue to read the series because it was fun and fast to read.
“It was like comparing chocolate and apples. Both tasted good, yet one was a decadent experience to be savored, and the other something that could be found in every grocer’s cart on every corner. I liked both, but I would always choose chocolate over an apple.”
I don’t know, Miss Steele, sometimes an apple can really hit the spot.
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