Reviewed: May 20th 2023
Released: June 28th, 2018
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Format: Audiobook narrated by Emma Powell
India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who’ll accept her – an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he’s ill.
Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won’t tell India why any old one won’t do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London’s best streets. So when she reads about an American outlaw known as the Dark Rider arriving in England, she suspects Mr. Glass is the fugitive. When danger comes to their door, she’s certain of it. But if she notifies the authorities, she’ll find herself unemployed and homeless again – and she will have betrayed the man who saved her life.
Helen’s thoughts: 4/5
An enjoyable victorian gaslamp fantasy. When her father dies, India finds herself homeless and betrayed by the man she thought loved her. Cast out from her home and her beloved father’s shop, India must find a place to live and work. A chance encounter when she returns to give her ex-fiancee a piece of her mind, sets her on a path she would never have suspected.
This is quite a slow and gentle story, maybe because the narration in a polite, gentile english accent helps it on its way. There isn’t much fantasy or magic in this first book of the series and the romance is slow burn too. Having read other books by this author, all well written, I’ll probably go on to book two, as there is much promise in the relationship building between India and the mysterious American, Matt. Though with noone knowledgeable about magic, it will be interesting how that develops.
Worth perservering, as the characters hook you, but hoping for a faster pace in book two.
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If you enjoy fantasy books then you will love my epic fantasy Sentinal series or the Romantic Fantasy SoulMist series. As a new threat against Remargaren is discovered, only one man can wake the ancient guards who can protect them, only he doesn’t know how. Start the adventure and stay for the journey. Sign up to my newsletter and download a free novella called Sentinals Stirring and get notified when my next books are published.
Helen Garraway 