The Secret Reading Room (test site)

Halloween Bingo 2021

For some reason, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the other Gail Carriger books that I have read. It still had the remarkable names, the comedy of manners, the spicy possible romance, and the antics of vampires and werewolves. Those details have always entertained me before, but it felt like I didn’t really understand the reasons for things until very late into the novel. Perhaps I’m just cranky. Perhaps this book suffered in comparison to the completely adorable Miss Buncle’s Book, which I just enjoyed.

Nevertheless, I liked this enough to finish it and to want to read the next installment. Rue’s soul stealing talents are fun, as she can become any supernatural creature by making skin contact with them. When she steals werewolf abilities, the resulting end product is an exposed Rue trying to somehow maintain some modesty. It becomes obvious that Rue simply doesn’t care quite as much as she is expected to.

Lord Akeldama has given his adopted daughter her own dirigible and sent her on a tea mission to India, seemingly to get her out of London and out of trouble. I was every bit as confused as Rue when all her instructions seemed to be missing the important bits and might even be misleading. In my opinion, there was a little too much of this dancing around the issues. Like Lady Maccon and Rue herself, I’m a pretty straightforward person. I would make a rotten spy. I haven’t much patience for this much fiddling around.

Carriger has created a fun world and is having fun playing with her characters in it. I love both Quesnel Le Fou and Percy Tunstell. Their mutual resentment is amusing and I can see either one of them being a match for Rue. Mind you, Percy would have a difficult time of it to break through his pseudo-brother status to catch the young woman’s attention. The only way to find out is to read on.