By: Seleste DeLaney
Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: April 29, 2013
Format: Ebook, 249pgs
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Series: 2nd in Badlands series; Short Story 0.5 ~ Just a Man, Book 1 ~ Badlands
Recommendation: Oh goodness YES!! Story, strong woman, and action! With amazing little clockwork tools. WOW!
Synopsis:
Inventor Henrietta Mason is retiring from airships and adventuring to return home to Philadelphia. Determined to erase all trails leading to her late father's duplicity, she dismantles his lab and removes all records of the Badlands gold. While in the city, she can't resist the lure of a charity gala but winds up regretting the whole experience. Well, everything except a heart-racing dance with a certain U.S. Marshal.
His career and vengeance on the line, Carson Alexander must prove a connection between Senator Mason and the mafia. He lucked out happening across mason's strikingly beautiful daughter, only to have her slip through his fingers. On a desperate hunt to track her down, he never expects his search to take him into the brutal Badlands.
With a mechanically enhanced enforcer after them, only Carson knows the extent of the danger they face. He'll have to win over Henrietta's trust, and her heart, before it's too late...
Sequel to Badlands.
First Sentence:
Carson growled a curse at the contraption creeping toward him, and the thing cowered like a beaten dog before scuttling back through the door.
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/ My Thoughts and Summary:
Carson had staked his career on the two men behind the mafia and now one's dead and the other's hidden. Left with no clue in Mason's private lab he's stuck...and someone's to pay for a death they were to help prevent. Unwantingly, Carson goes to a gala to raise money for a children's charity program, showing how needed the Marshals are, with hopes of finding some information among the attendees to find the man leading the mafia of nearly unkillable men to lock him away forever. But not what, but who he finds this night and not knowing is attracted to her, as she is to him, and takes them both on an adventure they never expected.
Henrietta Mason is working hard to maintain the status her family had, after being sent away for so long, attending the gala. To reclaim her families social standing, with her father dead and the tarnished history of her own, Henri will need a respectable husband. Will one allow her to be who she is? Maybe Henrietta will find the one thing that will trump the need...Love. There are other things than the gold in the Badlands that are desired, what Henri doesn't know of her father's work could get her killed.
First I have to say, I didn't know if I'd like Henrietta. I left Badlands and Ever's thoughts not much liking Henri. That was Ever's feelings. As soon as I started Clockwork Mafia, I loved Henri. She is completely different than I viewed her through Ever's eyes. WOW! Seleste is talented in turning me a 180 to love Henrietta, and want more with her. And we get to see Ever through Henri's eyes.
I love this world!! We start in the Union, but don't fret we go back to the Badlands in no time. Henrietta is different from Ever, but she has a steel backbone of her own and morals she will stick too. Loved reading Henri and the clockwork world revolving around her. Oh...the things Henri's father created and the monster of a man at the lead - one way or another he will get the clockwork plans and payment.
We get the story through Carson's and Henrietta's eyes. This gives us a whole new view of the mafia we are after being they are from the social life of Philadelphia and not the Badlands. There is also something growing between the two, even though Henri might want it, she needs someone else. Not only does Henrietta make Carson feel for the first time in years, she might have information she isn't aware of and be in danger from a kind Carson has faced once before - and doesn't look forward to facing again.
Quickly the story brings Carson and Henrietta together. And there's CHEMISTRY! I'm drawn to the attraction here. We learn what each of the two's goal is, until they meet.
I feel like we start with a masked Cinderella feel at the gala with a twist of mafia of clockwork enhanced men, danger, and deception. The more I read the more I'm feeling a Firefly feel. (yes, I finally saw the show and movies and this fits that feel.)
You could read this one without reading Badlands, but meeting Ever up front and personal is awesome! There are mentions of the last story that lead to the way things are now, so you will not be completely lost.
I did NOT want to stop reading this one. For several reasons. The story, the action, what each person in the chase wanted, strong woman of different types of strong, and maybe a relationship? And the world! Wow. I want more!
Want to learn more?
I have Teaser Tuesday with Clockworks and Weapons.
Seleste deLaney guest posted about Romancing Rendezvous spots on Dark Hawk.
And I assigned a theme song to the Badlands series in my Just For Fun...Books and Music post.
*I read this book for an honest review from the author.
