Review: 4.5 stars for tight, witty, sexy suspense
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 16, 2012
**********A light paranormal / steam-punk / romantic suspense, offset by tension, danger, death.Content: One sex scene, two bloody attack scenes. No typos, no ugly language :-)**********4.5 stars! A fun read, and well written! The characters are likable and the plot held my interest, keeping me guessing as to the suspense (what ARE these butterflies? What is inside the brooch? Who is Henry?).(For those who read book 1, Tish and Criminy get some nice coverage)The story felt fully developed despite its length (a novella). I have not read book 1, but before reading this sequel I did  read the synopsis of book 1 and several reviews of book 1, so I had no trouble following The Mysterious Madam Morpho.The sex did not drive the plot -- kudos for that --  but there is a long, yummy love scene. It's strictly vanilla pudding, but oh so tasty! Even before the love scene, there was rising sexual tension as Henry and Imogen crowded together to hide, and as Henry and Imogen danced, etc.Henry is very clever, sweet, and protective, but not in a suffocating way. His solutions to several problems caught me by surprise. Nice! I am so rarely surprised in romantic suspense.The dialogue is also fairly brilliant. I chuckled several times. This author has a witty way with words. For example, Mr. Murdoch (Henry) describes himself as a "hermetic hermit" (which he certainly is!). Also:*****Imogen: "Please, call me Imogen."Henry:  "Very well, Imogen. And you may continue to call me Mr. Murdoch."**********Imogen: "And you won't go locking me out, or getting all stiff?"Henry: "Can't make any promises regarding that last bit."**********Imogen:  "And we agree, you will shave that infernal beard?"Henry:  (see location 1550 -- more sexy banter, that's all I'm sayin!)******The ending was riveting. No spoilers here, but lots of tension and a solid finish.Weaker bits:Flaw 1: Imogen mentioned her childhood (daddy dearest), the petty, jealous grad students at King's College, and her mistreatment as a female scholar one too many times. It began to stink just a bit of self-pity -- which felt out of character for such a strong woman.Flaw 2:  Imogen is apparently very knowledgeable, clever, and capable, so I could not believe she would needlessly put her life in danger so heedlessly.  So...that one scene was fairly ludicrous, and possibly contrived to bring the H and h together. The heroine totally broke with character here, IMO.At any rate, a great read!! I look forward to more!************