Alison McBain's Reviews > Grand Tour

​Like its predecessor The Brass Queen, the second in the series takes off to a humorous start. Author Elizabeth Chatsworth paints a vivid picture of Constance Haltwhistle’s adventures with the dashing and handsome Liberty Trusdale, starting with the question: where is he? She’s waiting for him to show up as her date to the Parisian opera, but he hasn’t yet made an appearance. Perhaps it was his earlier electrocution by lighting or perhaps something else that has caused him to be late, such as getting hurt from Constance’s latest attempt (and failure) at weapons-making.

So begins the next installment of The Brass Queen II. Haltwhistle and Trusdale have an intriguing romantic dance throughout its pages as they battle against both the secrets they keep—Trusdale is an American spy and Haltwhistle is a secret British arms dealer—and the secrets of those who are after them. In a plot that will go all the way up to the king of France and involves generals and a spy named God, attempted kidnappings and foiled murders, flying castles and the British Museum, Trusdale and Haltwhistle might technically be on opposite sides of a game of cat and mouse, but they work together as if nothing will keep them apart.

There are cute descriptive touches and characters throughout the story, such as Constance’s Yorkshire terrier Boo (based on the author’s real-life canine of the same name), cool steampunk inventions, and the madcap adventures the two characters find themselves on. And there are touching similarities between the two characters—Trusdale is still mourning the loss of his brother, and Constance has lost her father, as declared by the British crown. Both of them want to make the world a better place, but they aren’t in agreement about what would make it so.

All in all, this is an interesting reimagining of the Victorian era world via a steampunk lens. I’d recommend this book for lovers of steampunk, ballsy British women, and cross-continental romances.