Shelley Adina
Acorn

Acorn

Author:
Series: Magnificent Devices, Book 17
Genre: Steampunk

Flying and love. Which is the greater risk?

To outsiders, Lewis Protheroe is private secretary to Lady Claire and Sir Andrew Malvern, the most famous inventors in steampunk London. But to insiders, Lewis is a financial wizard and the owner of the Gaius Club, where the hottest bets this month are on the races at the Kennington Oval. Lewis and Snouts can’t resist the chance to go. The races are illegal, of course. But there is enough money in the purse to attract daring inventors of personal flying machines from all over the country. As long as they don’t get caught…

Lady Philomena Noakes has been driven to the Oval by pride and despair. Women are not allowed to compete, of course, but women aren’t allowed to do very much in a Blood family, except be married off to the highest bidder. If she can just fool everyone long enough to show what she can do with her dilapidated flying machine, winning the purse could change everything.

And perhaps two lonely people might discover that flying and love are the two things in the world that involve the greatest risk.

More info →
The Professor Wore Prussian Blue

The Professor Wore Prussian Blue

Family. Gold. Both precious. Both all too easy to lose …

Daisy and Frederica Linden, having finally found their beloved father, Professor Rudolph Linden, are on the last leg of the journey they began so long ago. The only thing now in their way is the notorious gang of air pirates who haunt the archipelago between Port Townsend and Victoria. Corporal Kent of the Royal Canadian Airborne Police gallantly offers to escort their conveyance in an official airship, hoping against hope that Freddie will fly with him and give him an answer to a very important question.

But Professor Linden’s sense of propriety dictates that Daisy’s fiancé William Barnicott and their ward Davey Fletcher should become the corporal’s crew. They gravely underestimate the pirates’ abilities and are barely clear of the mainland when they are shot down. It is up to the Lindens to locate the pirate hideout among the islands and mount a rescue. But when Davey goes missing, will they find him in time … or is it the pirates who should fear one intrepid small boy?

More info →
The Lady’s Triumph

The Lady’s Triumph

Only one thing could be worse than Napoleon’s invasion of England…

After their daring adventures behind enemy lines in France, Loveday Penhale and Celeste Blanchard cannot settle into everyday life at home. Has the Tinkering Prince forgotten them entirely? What of the prize he promised? Then, with the flourish of a royal messenger’s hand, their lives are changed. Not only have they won the prize, they are to join the Prince’s Own Engineers in London!

They must overcome many a stone in the path, however—leave all they love, find a suitable house, and worst of all, cope with a chaperone—before they can take their rightful places among the most intelligent and forward-thinking minds in the kingdom. Their goal? To develop an airborne fleet that will end Napoleon’s dreams of conquering England forever.

But the saboteur who has been plaguing their efforts for months has not yet been caught. And along with battling for acceptance among the engineers, tiptoeing closer to falling in love, and receiving invitations to Almack’s, they must discover the traitor’s identity … before the Prince Regent steps forward to command the fleet and finds himself playing right into Napoleon’s hands.

More info →
Buy from Barnes and Noble
Buy from Amazon Kindle
The Emperor’s Aeronaut

The Emperor’s Aeronaut

Napoleon is determined to conquer the world with his steam-powered weapons. Nothing in England can stop him … except two young lady inventors. "Witty and whimsical." —Booklist

In 1819, France is surrounded by armies. With Russia in the north, the Karlsruhe Confederacy in the east, and a pirate kingdom in the south, Napoleon cannot break out, nor can the English Navy seem to break in. Europe teeters on the edge of a sword. Whichever side rules the air will win.

Celeste Blanchard, daughter of the Emperor’s disgraced Air Minister, is running out of time to develop an air ship that can carry his armies to England and restore her mother to glory. But on a daring and desperate test flight, she is blown off course … and washes up, half drowned, on the shores of Cornwall, in the heart of enemy territory.

Loveday Penhale, cosseted daughter of gentry, has her own inventions to build, even as pressure mounts to behave like a proper young lady and seek a husband instead of a design for a high-pressure steam engine. But when Arthur Trevelyan, heir to the neighboring estate, Gwynn Place, asks for her help in rescuing an unconscious young woman on the beach, Loveday discovers an aeronaut and an inventor as skilled as she is. Between them, a friendship blossoms, and Loveday wonders if they might even pull off the impossible and invent an air ship that will catch the eye of the Tinkering Prince Regent, who has offered a prize to anyone who can help England break the impasse. Celeste’s loyalties are torn in two. If she is caught working secretly for France, she will lose her friend, the love of an honorable man—and her life. But if Napoleon learns she has betrayed him, she will be executed on sight.

Can friendship prevail in the face of war? Or is there a third solution—one where everything hinges on the bravery and daring of a Cornish debutante and the Emperor’s aeronaut?

More info →
The Prince’s Pilot

The Prince’s Pilot

Napoleon’s invasion of England is hidden in the clouds…

It is 1819, and Cornwall is agog at the daring of the two young lady aeronauts who, earlier in the summer, flew nearly to France and back in their homemade air ship. Much more is riding on Loveday Penhale and Celeste Blanchard’s new and improved vessel—they plan to win the Tinkering Prince’s prize, offered to anyone who can help England win the war against Napoleon.

To their dismay, they must take two local gentlemen aloft to report on the ship’s capabilities. While Captain Trevelyan and Emory Thorndyke are welcome in drawing room and ballroom, their presence on the air ship proves disastrous. Wildly off course, Loveday barely manages to bring the vessel down safely—in France! Now it is up to the gentlemen to keep the newly designed ship hidden while Loveday and Celeste secure supplies for its repair from Celeste’s former home, l’Ecole des Aéronautes in far-off Paris.

But much has changed since Celeste left the capital, and enemies lurk in its very walls. With her famous aeronaut mother dead in suspicious circumstances, and the flight school closed, there is only one thing to do—make up a story about her absence and approach Napoleon himself. He promptly makes Celeste his Chief Air Minister, and commands her to plan the invasion of England by air. Can she and Loveday stay alive in this nest of vipers long enough to help their stranded friends? Before they are unmasked as spies—and before their beautiful air ship is captured and used to attack England?

More info →
Buy from Barnes and Noble Nook
Buy from Barnes and Noble
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Amazon