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Magnificent Devices #5-6
Magnificent Devices: The Mopsies Duology, #5-6
This two-book set contains the “Mopsies Twin Set”—A Lady of Resources and A Lady of Spirit, an edition of over 140,000 words.
You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family … or can you?
Under normal circumstances, sixteen-year-old twins Maggie and Lizzie would be delighted to meet their long-lost relatives and be reunited with those who had believed them dead, but when are the Mopsies’ circumstances ever to be considered normal? They are joyfully ready to embrace family and welcome them into the loyal circle that the Lady of Devices, Claire Trevelyan, has created from a formerly ragtag lot of alley mice.
But the more time the Mopsies spend in Lizzie’s father’s castle in the Cotswolds and then their grandparents’ clifftop mansion in Cornwall, the more they realize that the events surrounding their mothers’ deaths are more mysterious—and dangerous—than anyone alive suspects. Worse, the events of the past are still reaching out to trigger the dangers of the present, and only a lady of resources and a lady of spirit may stand between the people they love … and certain death.
You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family … or can you?
Under normal circumstances, sixteen-year-old twins Maggie and Lizzie would be delighted to meet their long-lost relatives and be reunited with those who had believed them dead, but when are the Mopsies’ circumstances ever to be considered normal? They are joyfully ready to embrace family and welcome them into the loyal circle that the Lady of Devices, Claire Trevelyan, has created from a formerly ragtag lot of alley mice.
But the more time the Mopsies spend in Lizzie’s father’s castle in the Cotswolds and then their grandparents’ clifftop mansion in Cornwall, the more they realize that the events surrounding their mothers’ deaths are more mysterious—and dangerous—than anyone alive suspects. Worse, the events of the past are still reaching out to trigger the dangers of the present, and only a lady of resources and a lady of spirit may stand between the people they love … and certain death.
522 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 18, 2014
68 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Shelley Adina
91 books628 followersShelley Adina is the author of 24 novels published by Harlequin, Warner, and Hachette, and a dozen more published by Moonshell Books, Inc., her own independent press. She writes steampunk and contemporary romance as Shelley Adina, and as Adina Senft, writes Amish women’s fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania, where she teaches as adjunct faculty. She won RWA’s RITA Award® in 2005, and was a finalist in 2006. When she’s not writing, Shelley is usually quilting, sewing historical costumes, or hanging out in the garden with her flock of rescued chickens.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 20, 2017
I love these books! This is one of the best series I have encountered. Books 5 and 6 are just as exciting and engrossing as the first four books. I am already planning on moving on to the next two books in the series.
A Lady of Resources (Book 5) (5 stars)
This book features Lizzie, the Mopsy who was so difficult to deal with at first. Five years after the events in Brilliant Devices Lady Claire Trevelyan is about to graduate from the University of Bavaria and Lizzie and her sister Maggie are finishing up the fifth form at the Lycee des Jeunes Filles in Munich. Intimidated by the prospect of going out into society in two years, Lizzie is suffering from something of an inferiority complex with regard to her social skills despite her years of training at the Lycee and is considering going to finishing school.
At her graduation, Lizzy wins an award of five hundred guineas funded by industrialist Charles Seacombe, which, she thinks, will allow her to pay her own way to finishing school if necessary.
She has already seen this Seacombe character at Lady Claire’s graduation and thought there was something off about him, but her gratitude for the award overcomes her worries about him, and when he has his son Claude invite her to visit them in England during the summer. Lizzy agitates until they are allowed to go.
While they are at Seacombe’s castle, Charles Seacombe tells Lizzy that she is his long-lost daughter and that Maggie is actually her cousin of almost the same age whom he and his wife adopted after the death of Maggie’s mother, Lizzy’s mother’s sister, in childbirth. Immensely grateful to have her own family at long last, Lizzy agrees to stay with Seacombe at least long enough to play hostess for a gathering of scientists he is planning on hosting at his castle after Lady Claire’s party leaves before joining them for the rest of the summer.
When her friends have left and her new-found half-brother Claude has gone to the seashore with his friends, Lizzy visits her (also newly discovered) cousin Evan who is doing scientific work for her father and agrees to take part in his dream-imaging experiments. She also visits the top of the tower where there is supposedly a famous telescope, despite her father’s prohibitions on doing so, only to discover that the telescope is not a telescope at all, but a huge cannon. But it is not until she actually takes part in the dream-imaging experiment that she discovers just how nefarious her father’s real plans actually are.
A Lady of Spirit (Book 6) (5 stars)
This time Maggie is the featured Lady. After the death of Charles Seacombe, Lizzy and Maggie have been invited to visit their grandparents, the Seacombes, in the seaside town of Penzance. Maggie hopes to learn something of her mother there, but what she learns instead is that her grandparents appear to have nothing but contempt for her. Even though they seem to respect Lizzy well enough, and even Claude, although Claude is not actually a blood relation.
Stung by their rejection, Maggie begins to spend as much time away from them as possible. On the first moonlit night she goes for a walk, and discovering Lizzy and Tigg engaged in a romantic interlude on the cliff overlooking the beach, she wanders down to the beach to discover a cave containing what appears to be a landing quay that seems to have been used more recently than in pirate times. The next day, while on a tour of the Seacombe’s shipping operations, she becomes separated from the rest of the party and is rescued by a young clerk of the company by the name of Michael Polgarth. It turns out that he is the grandson of Polgarth, the poultryman at Gwynn place, Lady Claire’s family’s country estate with whom Maggie is already friendly.
After the Seacombes order Michael Polgarth out of their house, he tells Maggie the real story of her parents. The Seacombes however, tell Lady Claire a completely different story.
The next night the girls decide (to take their minds off the family drama) to check out the connection between some mysterious messages that came to the airship Athena before Lady Claire and Mr. Malvern left for Gwynn Place and a red light that Maggie had seen from the cave earlier.
To their surprise they see a strange iron-and-glass underwater ship come up out of the ocean and unload some sort of contraband cargo in the cave Maggie found earlier. Then Claude, who had left the house in a huff earlier, comes up drunk. The people aboard the submarine, when they discover he is the Seacombes’ heir, take him prisoner to blackmail the Seacombes into helping with their smuggling activities. Maggie goes aboard the submarine to help him and find out what is going on, and Lizzie goes back to send for help.
A Lady of Resources (Book 5) (5 stars)
This book features Lizzie, the Mopsy who was so difficult to deal with at first. Five years after the events in Brilliant Devices Lady Claire Trevelyan is about to graduate from the University of Bavaria and Lizzie and her sister Maggie are finishing up the fifth form at the Lycee des Jeunes Filles in Munich. Intimidated by the prospect of going out into society in two years, Lizzie is suffering from something of an inferiority complex with regard to her social skills despite her years of training at the Lycee and is considering going to finishing school.
At her graduation, Lizzy wins an award of five hundred guineas funded by industrialist Charles Seacombe, which, she thinks, will allow her to pay her own way to finishing school if necessary.
She has already seen this Seacombe character at Lady Claire’s graduation and thought there was something off about him, but her gratitude for the award overcomes her worries about him, and when he has his son Claude invite her to visit them in England during the summer. Lizzy agitates until they are allowed to go.
While they are at Seacombe’s castle, Charles Seacombe tells Lizzy that she is his long-lost daughter and that Maggie is actually her cousin of almost the same age whom he and his wife adopted after the death of Maggie’s mother, Lizzy’s mother’s sister, in childbirth. Immensely grateful to have her own family at long last, Lizzy agrees to stay with Seacombe at least long enough to play hostess for a gathering of scientists he is planning on hosting at his castle after Lady Claire’s party leaves before joining them for the rest of the summer.
When her friends have left and her new-found half-brother Claude has gone to the seashore with his friends, Lizzy visits her (also newly discovered) cousin Evan who is doing scientific work for her father and agrees to take part in his dream-imaging experiments. She also visits the top of the tower where there is supposedly a famous telescope, despite her father’s prohibitions on doing so, only to discover that the telescope is not a telescope at all, but a huge cannon. But it is not until she actually takes part in the dream-imaging experiment that she discovers just how nefarious her father’s real plans actually are.
A Lady of Spirit (Book 6) (5 stars)
This time Maggie is the featured Lady. After the death of Charles Seacombe, Lizzy and Maggie have been invited to visit their grandparents, the Seacombes, in the seaside town of Penzance. Maggie hopes to learn something of her mother there, but what she learns instead is that her grandparents appear to have nothing but contempt for her. Even though they seem to respect Lizzy well enough, and even Claude, although Claude is not actually a blood relation.
Stung by their rejection, Maggie begins to spend as much time away from them as possible. On the first moonlit night she goes for a walk, and discovering Lizzy and Tigg engaged in a romantic interlude on the cliff overlooking the beach, she wanders down to the beach to discover a cave containing what appears to be a landing quay that seems to have been used more recently than in pirate times. The next day, while on a tour of the Seacombe’s shipping operations, she becomes separated from the rest of the party and is rescued by a young clerk of the company by the name of Michael Polgarth. It turns out that he is the grandson of Polgarth, the poultryman at Gwynn place, Lady Claire’s family’s country estate with whom Maggie is already friendly.
After the Seacombes order Michael Polgarth out of their house, he tells Maggie the real story of her parents. The Seacombes however, tell Lady Claire a completely different story.
The next night the girls decide (to take their minds off the family drama) to check out the connection between some mysterious messages that came to the airship Athena before Lady Claire and Mr. Malvern left for Gwynn Place and a red light that Maggie had seen from the cave earlier.
To their surprise they see a strange iron-and-glass underwater ship come up out of the ocean and unload some sort of contraband cargo in the cave Maggie found earlier. Then Claude, who had left the house in a huff earlier, comes up drunk. The people aboard the submarine, when they discover he is the Seacombes’ heir, take him prisoner to blackmail the Seacombes into helping with their smuggling activities. Maggie goes aboard the submarine to help him and find out what is going on, and Lizzie goes back to send for help.
February 12, 2018
Fun steam punk adventures
Perhaps like the perils of Pearl, there is a death defying problem every chapter that always is resolved to the satisfaction of our heroines. If you can accept those twists of fate and just enjoy the ride, these are fun reads.
Perhaps like the perils of Pearl, there is a death defying problem every chapter that always is resolved to the satisfaction of our heroines. If you can accept those twists of fate and just enjoy the ride, these are fun reads.
Read
March 11, 2017Steampunk, actually the ebook edition but I have no ISBN to create a new edition. Thoroughly enjoyable, with smart female leads who own their lives and have agency.
May 23, 2020
Love the Mopsies
Two of the Ladies kids she took in in book 1 were precocious 10 year old sisters called the Mopsies. Oh those girls were brave, daring, and oh so good at reconnaissance. These little girls saved the life of the Lady in several occasions. I fell in love with them from the beginning in book 1. Books 5 & 6 are about the Mopsies when they are 16 years old. They are about to learn their origins. These two books made me cry so many times. But better to know than always wonder. Loved the ending in book 6. Well worth the tears.
Two of the Ladies kids she took in in book 1 were precocious 10 year old sisters called the Mopsies. Oh those girls were brave, daring, and oh so good at reconnaissance. These little girls saved the life of the Lady in several occasions. I fell in love with them from the beginning in book 1. Books 5 & 6 are about the Mopsies when they are 16 years old. They are about to learn their origins. These two books made me cry so many times. But better to know than always wonder. Loved the ending in book 6. Well worth the tears.
July 17, 2019
Lizzie and Maddie
The twins find out their parentage. Their mothers were sisters, so they are cousins. Lizzies Dad being a sabatour, and had killed her mother and Claudes mother, too. Then he tried to kill the English Prince and Lizzie.
Maddie discovers that the French have underwater ships and intend to attack England and Prussia. Maddie is able to foil their attack with the help of one of the resistors. Andrew finally gets up the nerve to ask Claire to marry him !!!
The twins find out their parentage. Their mothers were sisters, so they are cousins. Lizzies Dad being a sabatour, and had killed her mother and Claudes mother, too. Then he tried to kill the English Prince and Lizzie.
Maddie discovers that the French have underwater ships and intend to attack England and Prussia. Maddie is able to foil their attack with the help of one of the resistors. Andrew finally gets up the nerve to ask Claire to marry him !!!
January 18, 2020
Wonderful series
The embrace of women as being strong and as capable as men, in whatever fields their talents might be, from home making, to engineering, science, medicine, sports, athletics, politics, military or any other field, is key to a greater society. This principle should apply equally to all persons regardless of any particular gender or race.
These books are illustrative of that principle and a joy to read. Very, very highly recommended.
The embrace of women as being strong and as capable as men, in whatever fields their talents might be, from home making, to engineering, science, medicine, sports, athletics, politics, military or any other field, is key to a greater society. This principle should apply equally to all persons regardless of any particular gender or race.
These books are illustrative of that principle and a joy to read. Very, very highly recommended.
June 22, 2019
This is still such an enthralling series! I love the characters, & every book endears me more to them: the values they live by, the way their lives continue to intertwine, & the adventures they have/endure keeps me riveted to the storylines. Book 6 ends on a cliff-hanger too, so I can't wait to read the next one!
February 17, 2022
Love all the books in the series
The stories Shelley Adina weaves are magnificent themselves. The twist and turns and revelations come as swiftly as the reader can absorb them. All the books are wonderful and entertaining! These are truly satisfying companions to spend a quiet afternoon with.
The stories Shelley Adina weaves are magnificent themselves. The twist and turns and revelations come as swiftly as the reader can absorb them. All the books are wonderful and entertaining! These are truly satisfying companions to spend a quiet afternoon with.
June 29, 2018
A Very Entertaining Reading
I have read six books and have been entertained. The author has
JaSPe
The author has created characters that you miss when you put the books
down. I have two more to go to finish Magnificent Devices
I have read six books and have been entertained. The author has
JaSPe
The author has created characters that you miss when you put the books
down. I have two more to go to finish Magnificent Devices
June 9, 2023
Magnificent Devices
What a great couple of stories. I enjoyed these just as much as the previous ones and highly recommend that you read them as well. Looking forward to the next in the series.
What a great couple of stories. I enjoyed these just as much as the previous ones and highly recommend that you read them as well. Looking forward to the next in the series.
February 21, 2018
Wonderfully written
I love the series. wonderful characters!! the story is amazing can't wait to read the rest of the series. count put them down!
I love the series. wonderful characters!! the story is amazing can't wait to read the rest of the series. count put them down!
October 4, 2019
Brilliant feminist steampunk series!
Great continuation fof the Lady of Sevixea saga. Can't wait to read the next books on this seeies. Highly recommended.
Great continuation fof the Lady of Sevixea saga. Can't wait to read the next books on this seeies. Highly recommended.
January 6, 2020
Charming
I love all the excitement and action in the story
I also enjoy the light romance and love of the flock.
I love all the excitement and action in the story
I also enjoy the light romance and love of the flock.
April 11, 2025
good read
The inventive Steampunk world is as entertaining as the characters in this series, and the Lady has finally agreed to wed, if no calamity gets in the way. 👍👍👍💜
The inventive Steampunk world is as entertaining as the characters in this series, and the Lady has finally agreed to wed, if no calamity gets in the way. 👍👍👍💜
March 13, 2018
The Mopsies Learn Their Origins
Two more rollicking adventures featuring Shelley Adina's group of orphans. I laughed and cried just as much this reading as I did the first time around.
Maggie and Lizzie are almost grown, and they each have lessons to learn about their past. Claire is still with them as their guardian, and Andrew has his role to play.
This is how a series with multiple characters stays fun and exciting. Each tale focuses on a different main character, with other familiar faces rounding out the cast.
Two more rollicking adventures featuring Shelley Adina's group of orphans. I laughed and cried just as much this reading as I did the first time around.
Maggie and Lizzie are almost grown, and they each have lessons to learn about their past. Claire is still with them as their guardian, and Andrew has his role to play.
This is how a series with multiple characters stays fun and exciting. Each tale focuses on a different main character, with other familiar faces rounding out the cast.
December 31, 2014
A fitting continuation of a great series
The Lady of Devices series is a most enjoyable romp set in a fantasy Victorian England. The Magnificent Devices books 5 and 6 twin set is a good continuation of the series and tells the new stories from Lizzie's and Maggie's viewpoints. Well w north reading.
The Lady of Devices series is a most enjoyable romp set in a fantasy Victorian England. The Magnificent Devices books 5 and 6 twin set is a good continuation of the series and tells the new stories from Lizzie's and Maggie's viewpoints. Well w north reading.
June 20, 2015
Fun Series
I love the strength of the created families of heart. I admire the role models of the girls being strong and clever.
I love the strength of the created families of heart. I admire the role models of the girls being strong and clever.
March 4, 2016
Good fun
Another enjoyable book from Shelley Adina. This is a great steam punk series which has plenty of life in it. Looking forward to the next one.
Another enjoyable book from Shelley Adina. This is a great steam punk series which has plenty of life in it. Looking forward to the next one.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews