Anne Renwick

What do you get when you mix a little Jules Verne with a little romantic suspense and add in some steampunk espionage and a blue frog? Anne Renwick's A Trace of Copper! Although the author wrote a tough act to follow with the first two books the third is a worthy successor, although even less Jules Verne and more romance than the first two. With every Steam-Punk book I read I become more hooked on the genre, even though each of the author’s subsequent books becomes more romance and less romantic suspense, I hope future books see her return to what was so successful in the first book “I’m voluntarily reviewing an Advance Reader Copy of this book.”… (altro)

I think the worst part about this book is that I actually quite liked the characters and the plot for the most part. The mystery of the blue frog was interesting. What sucked though was the romantic complication. It was just so bloody stupid and it made me want to wring their necks. Without that I would've given it 3 stars but it annoyed me too much. Why not just tell her? They could've worked on solving the problem together. Especially since it's a stupid problem. And worse than that - it's her fking speciality. She is literally the expert he needed. I think there probably needed to be more gravity to the issue. Make it a more serious concern to induce tension/suspense, worry. Instead it turned out rather humorous which also would've been okay but fell slightly too short.… (altro)

This was fantastic. I loved the first book in the series and this was just as good. Although fairly different. This one is a lot more action packed and had more Mr and Mrs Smith (the movie) vibes. Olivia is hilarious. She's a total badass hiding under her good looks and airheaded personality. I really loved that she embraced traditional female qualities like cooking and fashion but made it her own. For instance she cooks a mean cream cake through her robotic skills - she programs the robot to follow the recipe - and her corset stays are replaced with lock picks. I really loved her creativity and drive. Katerina was also a pretty strong female character even if she was a lot more brutal in her approach. I loved Wei as well. Her bravery and kindness and joy for life added something special to the story. I liked Elisabeth too although felt she was a bit slow on the uptake.

Ian was amazingly supportive for a man in fiction. Or in life. Just in general - he's a huge proponent of women being allowed to do as they wish and make their mark on the world which frankly was a refreshing change of pace. He likes that Olivia is smart and capable and is proud of her accomplishments in engineering and programming.

The relationship between Olivia and Ian was lighthearted and natural. They did get to the romance pretty quickly but they were also pretending to be married. Plus there relationship progression felt natural. It felt like they got to know one another and respected one another. I loved the flirty banter and scientifc lectures. I will say some of the sex scenes seemed bloody stupid - they're surrounded by enemies but they're getting it on in the lab? Defies belief. But it's about what you expect of romance and romantic suspense books and they were still enjoyable.

I have no idea about the science/steampunk elements but I very much enjoyed reading it. The whole book was really enjoyable and I'll definitely be continuing with the series. 5 stars.… (altro)