A Novel with Thoughts and Ponderings

STEAM & SAUCERY

Author: Cindy Spencer Pape ISBN: 9781426891281 3/2011 PARANORMAL Publisher: CARINA PRESS

Steam & Socery by Cindy Spencer Pape
Sir Merrick Hadrian hunts monsters, both human and supernatural. A Knight of the Order of the Round Table, his use of magick and the technologies of steam power have made him both respected and feared. But his considerable skills are useless in the face of his greatest challenge, guardianship of five unusual children. At a loss, Merrick enlists the aid of a governess. Miss Caroline Bristol is reluctant to work for a bachelor but she needs a position, and these former street children touch her heart. While she tends to break any mechanical device she touches, it never occurs to her that she might be something more than human. All she knows is that Merrick is the most dangerously attractive man she’s ever met—and out of reach for a mere governess. When conspiracy threatens to blur the distinction between humans and monsters, Caroline and Merrick must join forces, and the fate of humanity hinges upon their combined skills of steam and sorcery…

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS: 4 Rose Read

While enjoyable, this book is hard to categorize because of all the elements contained within. It has a romance framework, but not enough romance for your average romance novel. Steampunk is definitely there, in the sense that the plot doesn’t work without steampunk technology. It’s listed first as a fantasy, and that makes the most sense. A great deal of the book is taken up with the management of a group of five children and teens, all with special abilities. The heroine becomes their governess, and the hero is their guardian. We’ve also got werewolves, vampires, and faeries to contend with, along with magic spells, underground clubs, and the Knights of the Round Table.

Still, Spencer Pape manages to blend all these elements into a coherent whole, though there’s not quite enough of any element to completely satisfy. Good thing this is the first in the Gaslight Chronicles series. The second story, a novella called Photographs and Phantoms, is already available.

I look forward to following the careers of the teens in this book, and hope they get tales of their own. The fascinating alternate world Spencer Pape has created deserves additional novels!

Heather Hiestand

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