This week's novel is A Spark Unseen, YA historical fiction with some steam punk by Sharon Cameron. It's the sequel to The Dark Unwinding, which I talked about a few weeks ago. I actually listened to the audio book of this one, because I just now realized I could do that.
Katherine has been running her uncle's estate for a few years when men sneak into the house in the night to kidnap her uncle, who is wanted by both the British and French governments because he knows how to build a torpedo that could give whoever controls it a dominant navy. Her uncle's delicate constitution means Katherine refuses to hand him over to anyone, so they fake her uncle's death and escape to Paris to hide and search for Lane, Katherine's main squeeze who ran off to be a spy at the end of the last book. Of course, it turns out that running off to France when the French are after them doesn't make them any more safe.
The change in setting means this novel is a lot less Gothic than its predecessor. That's a bummer, because it was very well done in the last novel. I suspect that this one might fit into a different genre like "Political Intrigue in Paris Novels", but if that's a thing, then I'm not familiar with it. It's kind of a spy novel, but instead of Katherine being a spy, everyone around her might be and everyone's a suspect.
It still has great characters. I especially liked Henri, the wealthy French guy who sees right through everything Katherine does and acts as her interpreter for most of her search for Lane, helping her find her boyfriend while flirting up a storm at the same time. There's also Mrs. Hardcastle, the busybody English neighbor, who used to be besties with Katherine's evil aunt. The supporting characters are all given moments of surprising depth that are just as great as the first novel. They were almost all new characters, and I still loved all of them.
***
Next week: Mr. Fox, literary fairy tales by Helen Oyeyemi.
No comments:
Post a Comment