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?  

“It’s another element I love about these books; from Claire to Gloria to Alice to Lizzie and Maggie to Lady Dunsmuir, the women in this series generally like and respect each other. Other women are not required to be lesser—weaker, more cowardly, less intelligent—in order for Claire to be awesome. She is not an exceptional woman, she is an awesome woman among awesome women.” —Fangs for the Fantasy, on A Lady of Integrity