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Magnificent Devices #7-8
Magnificent Devices Books, #7-8
This two-book set contains the adventures of Lady Claire Trevelyan in A Lady of Integrity and A Gentleman of Means, an edition of approximately 150,000 words.
London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.
Lady Claire Trevelyan and renowned scientist Andrew Malvern are looking forward to domestic felicity in London when they are surprised by an unexpected visitor. A desperate and fugitive Alice Chalmers seeks their help—her ship has been seized in the Duchy of Venice and worse, her navigator Jake has been thrown into the dreaded underwater prison from which no one ever escapes. Even the innocent.
Claire doesn’t hesitate to pull up ropes, at considerable personal cost. But she doesn’t count on the Mopsies stowing away, or the trouble that they will provoke there. Nor does she expect the krakens, or Gloria Meriwether-Astor, or the deadly trouble that will follow them home to England, putting them all in peril. In fact, the decisions of the heart do not sit well at all with the gentlemen in her life, who had every reason to believe she planned to settle down at last—and Claire finds herself without a career, a fiancé, or the confidence in her own abilities that has carried her this far. Will her loyalty to others mean that love must take second place, or will true friendship and brave hearts prevail in the end?
“An immensely fun series with some excellent anti-sexist messages, a wonderful main character (one of my favourites in the genre) and a great sense of Victorian style and language that’s both fun and beautiful to read.” —Fangs for the Fantasy: The latest in urban fantasy from a social justice perspective
London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.
Lady Claire Trevelyan and renowned scientist Andrew Malvern are looking forward to domestic felicity in London when they are surprised by an unexpected visitor. A desperate and fugitive Alice Chalmers seeks their help—her ship has been seized in the Duchy of Venice and worse, her navigator Jake has been thrown into the dreaded underwater prison from which no one ever escapes. Even the innocent.
Claire doesn’t hesitate to pull up ropes, at considerable personal cost. But she doesn’t count on the Mopsies stowing away, or the trouble that they will provoke there. Nor does she expect the krakens, or Gloria Meriwether-Astor, or the deadly trouble that will follow them home to England, putting them all in peril. In fact, the decisions of the heart do not sit well at all with the gentlemen in her life, who had every reason to believe she planned to settle down at last—and Claire finds herself without a career, a fiancé, or the confidence in her own abilities that has carried her this far. Will her loyalty to others mean that love must take second place, or will true friendship and brave hearts prevail in the end?
“An immensely fun series with some excellent anti-sexist messages, a wonderful main character (one of my favourites in the genre) and a great sense of Victorian style and language that’s both fun and beautiful to read.” —Fangs for the Fantasy: The latest in urban fantasy from a social justice perspective
- GenresSteampunk
517 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 19, 2017
49 people are currently reading
17 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 18, 2017
I love these books! This is one of the best series I have encountered.
One of the best things about them is that the issues Claire and the other young ladies in her flock face regarding how they are treated by the men in their lives are very realistic and relevant to the other aspects of what they are doing. And that real problems caused by their desires to arrange their lives as freely as any man are addressed seriously and honestly.
A Lady of Integrity – (Book 7) – 5 stars
Alice Chalmers turns up at Carrick House, Claire’s house in London asking for help in retrieving Jake from the underwater prisons in Venice where he has been unjustly detained after Alice was unable to pay an exorbitant import fee on the cargo she was carrying to Byzantium.
In this alternative history, Venice has been redesigned so that most of the city is mounted on a mechanism that allows its neighborhoods to be rearranged periodically so that no outside enemy will ever know where the strategically important parts of the city are at any given time. The gears and other moving parts of this mechanism are underwater beneath the city and must constantly be cleaned and repaired, and this has become the job of the city’s convicts. With few locals voluntarily getting into trouble with the law to be sentenced to this job for the remainder of their lives, the city has taken to preying on visitors from other countries to fill the dangerous jobs.
Claire, of course, is convinced she has to go immediately to Venice to rescue Jake. In an effort to keep Claire out of danger, Andrew Malvern convinces her to try to get Lady Dunsmuir and the Queen involved in a diplomatic solution, which fails spectacularly. However, in her note explaining the outcome of her inquiries, Her Majesty mentions that the Dunsmuirs will send what is needed immediately.
What the Dunsmuirs send is Tigg and Captain Hollys. They accompany Claire, Andrew, Alice, and the Mopsies, who refuse to be left behind, on the expedition to rescue Jake.
The rescue is complicated. Things keep going wrong. They encounter the evil Gerald Meriwether-Astor, who they had believed (hoped) was killed in their last adventure again, this time trying to work up a deal to supply British convicts to the Venetians. And they also meet up with his daughter, Gloria, Claire’s old acquaintance from school, who helped them out during an earlier adventure in the Canadas where she helped save Alice’s father. Once again Gloria agrees to help them with the rescue, only once again things don’t go as planned, and they think Gloria has run out on them, leaving them to find another way to save Jake and Captain Hollys.
A Gentleman of Means – (Book 8) – 5 stars
Things continue to be in an uproar for Claire and her friends. Claire takes up her duties at the Zeppelin Airship Works only to discover that she has no duties worthy of even a Junior Engineer. Her superiors apparently expect her to perform custodial duties (sweeping the floor) and secretarial duties (making tea) and wait twenty years to be assigned duties worthy of her intelligence – as they did in their early years with the company. When she brings this to the attention of Count von Zeppelin, her superiors promptly fire her.
Which, in a way, works to her advantage when they discover that Gloria Meriwether-Astor did not just abandon them in Venice but was instead abducted by the captain of Neptune’s Fancy. Gloria has sent Alice a pigeon (since she didn’t know whether Claire was alive or not) asking for help. And since Claire is now unencumbered by a job, she decides to go to Gloria’s rescue. When Claire reveals this to Andrew, however, he replies that she has chosen the life of adventure over him once too often and breaks their engagement.
When they arrive in London again, Tigg, to his lasting amazement, gets a letter from someone who claims to be his father. Sadly, it turns out that Tom Terwilliger senior is now in the employ of the Familigia Rosa and is in England on a mission of assassination. He expects his one meeting with Tigg in a sleazy bar to be his last.
Before they take Captain Hollys to his estate in Somerset for his health, they make inquiries about Captain Hayes and discover that his home is only a few miles from Hollys Park. From there, they are able to ascertain that Gloria is indeed being held at Haybourne house. So then all they need to do is make plans to rescue her – no easy feat since in the process they find themselves in the crossfire of what almost appear to be three different armies.
One of the best things about them is that the issues Claire and the other young ladies in her flock face regarding how they are treated by the men in their lives are very realistic and relevant to the other aspects of what they are doing. And that real problems caused by their desires to arrange their lives as freely as any man are addressed seriously and honestly.
A Lady of Integrity – (Book 7) – 5 stars
Alice Chalmers turns up at Carrick House, Claire’s house in London asking for help in retrieving Jake from the underwater prisons in Venice where he has been unjustly detained after Alice was unable to pay an exorbitant import fee on the cargo she was carrying to Byzantium.
In this alternative history, Venice has been redesigned so that most of the city is mounted on a mechanism that allows its neighborhoods to be rearranged periodically so that no outside enemy will ever know where the strategically important parts of the city are at any given time. The gears and other moving parts of this mechanism are underwater beneath the city and must constantly be cleaned and repaired, and this has become the job of the city’s convicts. With few locals voluntarily getting into trouble with the law to be sentenced to this job for the remainder of their lives, the city has taken to preying on visitors from other countries to fill the dangerous jobs.
Claire, of course, is convinced she has to go immediately to Venice to rescue Jake. In an effort to keep Claire out of danger, Andrew Malvern convinces her to try to get Lady Dunsmuir and the Queen involved in a diplomatic solution, which fails spectacularly. However, in her note explaining the outcome of her inquiries, Her Majesty mentions that the Dunsmuirs will send what is needed immediately.
What the Dunsmuirs send is Tigg and Captain Hollys. They accompany Claire, Andrew, Alice, and the Mopsies, who refuse to be left behind, on the expedition to rescue Jake.
The rescue is complicated. Things keep going wrong. They encounter the evil Gerald Meriwether-Astor, who they had believed (hoped) was killed in their last adventure again, this time trying to work up a deal to supply British convicts to the Venetians. And they also meet up with his daughter, Gloria, Claire’s old acquaintance from school, who helped them out during an earlier adventure in the Canadas where she helped save Alice’s father. Once again Gloria agrees to help them with the rescue, only once again things don’t go as planned, and they think Gloria has run out on them, leaving them to find another way to save Jake and Captain Hollys.
A Gentleman of Means – (Book 8) – 5 stars
Things continue to be in an uproar for Claire and her friends. Claire takes up her duties at the Zeppelin Airship Works only to discover that she has no duties worthy of even a Junior Engineer. Her superiors apparently expect her to perform custodial duties (sweeping the floor) and secretarial duties (making tea) and wait twenty years to be assigned duties worthy of her intelligence – as they did in their early years with the company. When she brings this to the attention of Count von Zeppelin, her superiors promptly fire her.
Which, in a way, works to her advantage when they discover that Gloria Meriwether-Astor did not just abandon them in Venice but was instead abducted by the captain of Neptune’s Fancy. Gloria has sent Alice a pigeon (since she didn’t know whether Claire was alive or not) asking for help. And since Claire is now unencumbered by a job, she decides to go to Gloria’s rescue. When Claire reveals this to Andrew, however, he replies that she has chosen the life of adventure over him once too often and breaks their engagement.
When they arrive in London again, Tigg, to his lasting amazement, gets a letter from someone who claims to be his father. Sadly, it turns out that Tom Terwilliger senior is now in the employ of the Familigia Rosa and is in England on a mission of assassination. He expects his one meeting with Tigg in a sleazy bar to be his last.
Before they take Captain Hollys to his estate in Somerset for his health, they make inquiries about Captain Hayes and discover that his home is only a few miles from Hollys Park. From there, they are able to ascertain that Gloria is indeed being held at Haybourne house. So then all they need to do is make plans to rescue her – no easy feat since in the process they find themselves in the crossfire of what almost appear to be three different armies.
May 7, 2025
I loved these books in the series. You'll definitely want to read Magnificent devices books 1–4 first. And I highly recommend 5 and 6 also to eliminate any spoilers. But as book 7 features Alice Chalmers and Gloria Merriweather-Astor and book 8 relies heavily on events from the previous book although it is meant to be a spotlight on Tigg, you could perhaps skip 5 and 6 which feature the Mopsies in their own books. (And include lots of reveals!) Heavy on the romance and packed with action, these are a perfect fit for the series as the characters grow up. Especially for Alice fans. Hoping Tigg gets a bit more development in future installments. More please!
May 25, 2020
Clair and Alice's Dangerously Romantic Adventures
Oh my, these two books were awesome! I am a devoted animal lover, and Lizzie's rescue of some awesome creatures touched my heart. Even more so than the rescue of Jake. And I do love the highly emotional navigator, Jake. The horror of Jake and Ian's situation, oh my. The heartbreaking reaction of Andrew to the danger Lady Claire puts herself in. And the heroic loyalty of Alice and Maggie. Alice shined in book 8. I just love Lady Claire and all her flock.
Oh my, these two books were awesome! I am a devoted animal lover, and Lizzie's rescue of some awesome creatures touched my heart. Even more so than the rescue of Jake. And I do love the highly emotional navigator, Jake. The horror of Jake and Ian's situation, oh my. The heartbreaking reaction of Andrew to the danger Lady Claire puts herself in. And the heroic loyalty of Alice and Maggie. Alice shined in book 8. I just love Lady Claire and all her flock.
July 21, 2019
Jake and Gloria
Jake is put in an underwater prison in Venice. Gloria helps Claire,and Andrew rescue him and Ian by commandearing an underwater durigible of her father's. But the rescue turns into a kidnapping for Gloria. She is held captive to lure her father , so he can be captured by the secret service. Claire organizes a rescue for Gloria, but argues with Andrew and he dissolves their engagement. Ian and Alice become close.
Jake is put in an underwater prison in Venice. Gloria helps Claire,and Andrew rescue him and Ian by commandearing an underwater durigible of her father's. But the rescue turns into a kidnapping for Gloria. She is held captive to lure her father , so he can be captured by the secret service. Claire organizes a rescue for Gloria, but argues with Andrew and he dissolves their engagement. Ian and Alice become close.
February 21, 2022
Great fun!
I’m enjoying these books so much, I can’t wait for the next one. The author has an incredible imagination and understanding of human nature, which combined makes for fun and worthy reads.
I’m enjoying these books so much, I can’t wait for the next one. The author has an incredible imagination and understanding of human nature, which combined makes for fun and worthy reads.
June 10, 2023
Magnificent Devices
Really enjoyed reading these two books just as much as the previous ones. Really looking forward to reading the next in the series and highly recommend reading them as they are full of suspense. Great imagination.
Really enjoyed reading these two books just as much as the previous ones. Really looking forward to reading the next in the series and highly recommend reading them as they are full of suspense. Great imagination.
April 14, 2025
good read
The plots in this series are creative and somewhat bizarre as the ladies of consequence band together to battle for an honest and courageous outcome. 👍👍💜
The plots in this series are creative and somewhat bizarre as the ladies of consequence band together to battle for an honest and courageous outcome. 👍👍💜
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews