A Lady's Handbook to Gadgets and Guile - Angela Bell

Lady Margaret Kingsley is a wealthy young lady who could easily stay at home and be looked after in comfort. But she is a determined person who does not want to be defined or defeated by the fact that she is a wheelchair user with serious health struggles. Her own physical abilities may be limited, but she is a gifted and valuable member of the Daughters of Genius Society, a secret team of single ladies who 'gallivant about London solving crimes'. While the others are out and about however, Margaret prefers to stay behind the scenes. Her skills are in invention, not investigation. Or so she believes. But then Margaret begins to notice that inventions made by ordinary people, people who in many cases really need the monies their ideas should be earning for them, are being fraudulently attributed to the invention empire of Alvan T Harrison. 

Meanwhile Charles Noble laid aside his concert pianist career to care for his family after his father's stroke. He takes a leave of absence from his job with the kindly trio of Bailey, Barton, and Westland  to take up the temporary role of event coordinator for Alvan Harrison, preparing for a huge event to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Harrison's business empire. But he is distracted by a alluring young lady in a very interestingly adapted mechanical chair... and by the unsettling things which begin happening in his new employer's factory. 

Margaret and Charles are going to have to work together to solve the mystery, and step well outside their respective comfort zones to do so, but Charles is convinced that Margaret's prime suspect, Alvan Harrison himself, is innocent of the serious offences which Margaret is equally sure he's guilty of. 'Rusted cogs!' as Margaret says, 'that was going to make working together rather complicated.'

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, A Lady's Guide to Marvels and Misadventure, and if anything, this next volume is even better than the first. The plot is cleverly structured with plenty of twists and turns, while not being too complicated to keep up with. Both leading characters are interesting, complex, believable and appealing.  I felt invested in both of them right away. I also really like the fact that this author creates peripheral and supporting characters who are properly described and have some depth and quality, and who are interesting in their own right. No 'padding' and 'bit parts' here!

It's a gift to write people as well as this author does, and she manages to write their respective struggles with their own health issues and family pressures utterly convincingly and without any awkwardness. Margaret's physical limitations aren't glossed over, and her frustrations about her disability are significant in the portrayal of her character, but although they are part of who she is and how she works, and her chair is a masterpiece of mechanical wizardry, it is Margaret herself who shines through. I loved that when Charles first sees her (and is immediately attracted by her beauty and elegance!) it is Margaret he sees, and he only later notices her wheels. And when he does, he isn't at all bothered by them. Similarly, Charles' own more emotional struggles are well portrayed and feel real, and never slide into mawkishness. He, like Maggie, is a whole person, not a token 'emotionally-troubled' character. And, in Maggie, it is wonderful to have a book with a heroine who deals daily with disability and the physical and emotional struggles that brings, while we the readers are entirely engaged with who she is, including and not in spite of her disability, and how she and Charles will solve the mystery - and when she will realise he loves her, and she him.  

I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good mystery, a gentle 'he falls first' love story, an historical English setting (there's a very well constructed sense of time and place in this novel), and a little bit of steampunk-esque mechanical magic sprinkled throughout. 

As an aside, there are loads of cleverly dropped references to other books, films or TV shows, which it becomes fun to spot. In my reading notes I jotted down references from Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, While You Were Sleeping, Babe (The Sheep-Pig), Charlotte's Web, MacGyver, Little Women, Oliver Twist, Beauty and the Beast  (I love 'Lumiere's Fine Dining'!) and Pride and Prejudice! Not to mention one of Mark Twain's lesser well known books. All perfectly inserted, some more obviously than others, so as never to jar or to look as though they'd been forced into their places in this highly enjoyable story, but little 'nods' which felt a little like finding sparkly bits of treasure as I read. I wonder if there are others which I missed? I'm pretty sure there are.

I can't wait for book three...!

Edited to add in that there is excellent information at the back of the book about the characters in this series. Each of the members of The Daughters of Genius Society are inspired by real life women. Lady Margaret Kingsley is inspired by Margaret E Knight (1838-1914), who was a self-taught engineer and a prolific inventor who created her first invention at the age of twelve after witnessing a factory accident. Her invention was a safety mechanism to prevent the same thing happening again. One of her inventions was stolen by a Mr Annan, but Miss Knight did not just sit back and take this, she took Annan to court, winning her case and receiving the patent to her design.

NOTE: I read a pre-publication version supplied by the publisher. No review was required. All comments and opinions above are entirely my own.

The Roman Holiday Rule - Andra Loy

Oh how much I LOVED this book! It's worth a whole galaxy of stars!

I loved the humour, wit and competition. I loved the random 'not quite movie' quotes. I loved the comments on fonts! I absolutely loved it all and it's my favourite fiction read of the year to date.

There's a little nod to P.S. I Love You in this story of Lexi Walker, who embarks on the Italian adventure which she and her artist mother had planned for so many years - but which her mother dies before making. Setting off with a carefully constructed itinerary and four sealed letters from her mother, it's not long before her carefully planned trip starts to unravel - yet with touches of her mother's artwork mysteriously appearing in unexpected ways. 

Rashly, on the long trans-Atlantic flight to Italy, Lexi challenged architect Mark Russo, the man in the seat alongside her, to a photography challenge: whoever captures the heart of Italy in five days wins. Following her mother's letters, and her photographic challenge around Rome, Lexi runs into Mark time and again - sometimes literally. They both have reservations about romance, especially holiday romance, but can the magic - the heart - of Italy weave its way to their own hearts?

As already mentioned, there is SO much to love in this story. As well as being genuinely hilarious in several places (Lexi re-telling at dinner with Mark's family the story of what happened by the Trevi Fountain without giving away that it involved Mark and herself is laugh-out-loud funny and one of the best written scenes in the book), there is a lot of gentle depth here. You could see it as just a brilliantly written, clever, witty read, but it's so much more. Between the nods to Star Wars, Sense and Sensibility et al, there is plenty of quiet wisdom you might not expect. This is a perfect holiday/vacation read. Light yet with depth enough to give some points to ponder, entertaining, funny in a way which keeps the reader chuckling frequently, easy to read either in a good solid reading session (perhaps under an olive tree in Italy with a nice cool drink to hand?) or in mini-bites - picking it up and putting it down between on-tour activities.

Astoundingly, this is the debut published novel from author Andra Loy, whose earlier unpublished work has clearly honed her outstanding storytelling skills. The Roman Holiday Rule reads like a book from an author with a long-established track record. She is an amazing find for Haven, and her name has gone straight onto my must-read authors list.

NOTE: I read a pre-publication version supplied by the publisher. No review was required. All comments and opinions above are entirely my own.

A Love Once Lost - Jennie Goutet

I'm in somewhat of a conundrum with this second chance at love novel. I found myself greatly enjoying the author's skillful portrayal of 1700's Europe. She sets an enveloping scene of the place and the people, with interesting historical details about clothes styles and buildings woven into the fabric of her story. The characters are well described and I particularly loved Mr Bridwell with his eccentricities and his sometimes awkward consideration of his daughters. I also enjoyed meeting Amy's sisters, and look forward to getting to know them better in future books. Creative and vivacious Marianne reminds me of her namesake from Sense and Sensibility, and I look forward to finding out her future happy ending, and how she reaches it. 

And that, in a way, leads to why this book is for me a little bit disappointing in terms of the romantic leads. Amy, rather than having the appeal of the reserved Eleanor in the above mentioned classic, for me came across rather frustratingly at the start of this book, and James not much better. Perhaps partly because at that point I'd not really had a chance to get to know either of them. Of course I understand why the story begins as it does though. Then we meet Isabel. Although grasping and entirely self-obsessed, I ended up feeling rather sorry for her as I read. I wasn't very impressed by James' reasons for wooing her, especially as they were so obviously unsuited as to be heading to not simply an unloving but nonetheless contented and workable union, but rather towards what was very likely to be a hostile, unfaithful and actively unpleasant one. 

It's unusual for me to read a romance where I found the romances of those who AREN'T the leads more interesting, such as Morry and Miss Bainesworth and even Francis and Bertie! I don't dislike Amy or James, but I just didn't find myself as invested in them and their path to their happy ending as I expected as I read. The latter section works well overall however, although the twist about James' aunt felt superflouous and I felt the story would have been better without it, but perhaps I am weird! 

To summarise, I really enjoyed this novel's sense of place and time, which is richly described and thus absorbing. It's been interesting to find out what life was like in and around the Belgian town of Spa in the eighteenth century. The author is skilled at blending real historical facts, people and places with the fictional elements. Reading A Love Once Lost is almost like climbing into a time capsule for an evening! So despite a few snags along the way, I like the Bridwell family and am keen to read on in order to discover the stories of Hannah and Marianne.

NOTE: I read a pre-publication version supplied by the publisher. No review was required. All comments and opinions above are entirely my own.