A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure by Angela Bell (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Title:  A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure

Author:  Angela Bell

Narrated by:  Beverley A. Crick

Publisher: Recorded Books

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 28 minutes

Source: Purchased from Amazon.com.  Thank-you Bethany House and Austenprose for the Review copy of the physical book.

A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure is a historical fantasy novel set in 1860s London.  Clara feels the weight of the world on her shoulders.  Her engagement is broken, and her fiancé has been spreading the rumor that madness runs in her family.  Her family is …eccentric.  When her Grandfather Drosselmeyer sets off on a European trip on his flying owl, he leaves her clues to find him.  She sets off on an adventure around Europe with her mother, and her Grandfather’s apprentice, Mr. Arthur.  Will they be able to find her grandfather before it is too late?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       The adventure, clues, and travel made this a very fun read.

·       Clara’s eccentric mother was a hoot.  She was an animal activist before her time.  There was no creature too small for her care.

·       Mr. Arthur has a sad back story of his own and is really Mr. Theodore Kingsley.  He is a former soldier that struggles with a leg disability and with PTSD.  His family had shunned him because of this.   There was little support for veterans during the Victorian age.

·       Clara and Theodore had wonderful enemies to lovers’ romance.

·       I enjoyed the Christian message in the novel that Clara and Theodore needed to give their worries to the lord and move on with their lives.  The message was a part of the plot, and it was a larger focus in the second half of the novel.

·       This was a wonderful debut novel, and I can’t wait to see what author Angela Bell works on next. 

·       This novel is a clean romance.

·       I loved the steampunk vibe with the automatons that grandfather invented including the giant owl that he flies around Europe on.  He also invents an automaton that hatches from an egg and other neat items.  This leant a fantasy/sci fi element to an otherwise historical fiction novel.

·       The only weakness in the novel to me was the villain.  His back story and actions didn’t quite make sense to me. 

·       I read the first half of this book physically and finished it on audiobook as I had a lot of driving to do for work.  I enjoyed both formats!

Overall, A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventures is a fun, unique adventure and I highly recommend it.