A Lady's Guide to Marvels and Misadventure by Angela Bell

 

Review: 

    Clara has a lot to do. But first, she needs to coax her mother away from the storefront where she is ardently and poetically protesting the use of animal furs in fashion... while wearing a very real and very much alive ermine around her neck.
 
    It’s honestly no small wonder that society has gobbled up the sinister gossip Clara's ex-fiancé has poisoned the town with, declaring that madness runs in her family.

    Correcting said rumors would be a lot simpler if her grandfather hadn't hired an unknown war veteran with a secretive past on a feeling, if her mother would stop bringing wild critters into their home, and if whimsical inventions didn't flutter around their rafters.

    All Clara needs is for everyone to act normal, and maybe she can put it all to right. Maybe, just maybe, she can protect her family against the scandalous rumors that they seem to care so little about.
 
    If only grandfather would keep his flying machine out of the sky...How is this her life?

    Honestly... loved this book. It was a delightfully fun romp that swept me away from life for several blissful hours. It was perfect.

*Book purchased by myself, no biasis to announce
 
Back Cover: London, England, 1860
    When Clara's ex-fiancé begins to spread rumors that her family suffers from hereditary insanity, it's all she can do to protect them from his desperate schemes, society's prejudice, and a lifetime in an asylum. Then Clara's Grandfather Drosselmeyer brings on an apprentice with a mechanical leg, and all pretense of normalcy takes wing.

    Theodore Kingsley, a shame-chased vagabond haunted by the war, wants a fresh start far from Kingsley Court and the disappointed father who declared him dead. Upon returning to England, Theodore meets clockmaker Drosselmeyer, who hires him as an apprentice, much to Clara's dismay. When Drosselmeyer spontaneously disappears in his secret flying owl machine, he leaves behind a note for Clara, beseeching her to make her dreams of adventure a reality by joining him on a merry scavenger hunt across Europe. Together, Clara and Theodore set off to follow Drosselmeyer's trail of clues, but they will have to stay one step ahead of a villain who wants the flying machine for himself--at any cost.