Review: Great beginning to an exciting new series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 21, 2014
When Sensibility Grey’s father dies, he leaves her to fend off the creditors. She manages to retain just a few of his things. One of them being his journal.That journal lands Sensibility in a world of trouble. Someone wants what’s in those pages, and they follow her as she travels to San Francisco to live with her Uncle Corbin.Once her ship docks in San Francisco, Sensibility can’t help but notice no one is around. It’s 1848 and the gold rush is happening. Every man has rushed to strike it rich, leaving very few in the town.It appears that Sensibility is left at the docks. Her Uncle never arrives. She knows it’s not wise for a young lady to be alone. All kinds of bad things can happen. So when a stranger attacks her from behind and drags her into an empty shack, she fears the worse. Turns out, though she doesn’t trust the stranger, she needs her. There are some pretty bad men outside, looking for her. They have her uncle and now they want her. Or rather, they want his journal, and they are prepared to do whatever it takes to get it.The first thing that jumped out at me in this book was the descriptive writing. I visualized the empty sea port and the dusty, abandoned looking town. I could almost smell the brine of the salt water and feel the dry heat burning down on me. And I could almost hear the silence.Sensibility is true to her name. She may be a bit naive, but she’s smart and confident, and doesn’t tend to panic. Well, except for a few times, and I didn’t blame her for those. I would have too.The author gave me some bad guys to loathe, and a couple of characters that I wasn’t too sure about. One claimed to be working for the government, but something about her didn’t sit well with me. She was too secretive and too pushy.The other was a lawyer. Enough said. Just kidding. At first, I wasn’t too sure about him, then I decided he was a good guy. Then I thought, nope, he’s a bad guy. Then I just kept reading to find out.There were humorous scenes and witty dialogue to ease the suspense now and then. I thank the author for the break as this was such a tangled web of intrigue, suspense, and adventure. Quite lively.As this is a pre-steam novel there were’nt too many nifty creations. Sensibility tinkered with a couple and I believe any new creations of hers would be even more amazing than her father’s.  She has a knack for it. There was one near the end that was quite scary.  The author got really creative with what’s used to power the machines. It added a bit of a supernatural element to the read and I could see where it might have repercussions if it wound up in the wrong hands.If you enjoyed the old television series Wild, Wild West or watched the movie starring Will Smith you’ll visualize this adventure as it plays out.You don’t have to be a steam punk fan to enjoy Steam and Sensibility and I highly recommend you give it a try.I received this book for my honest review.