A Whisper of Bone

This is the latest full length novel steampunk from Anne Renwick, part of her Elemental Steampunk Tales series. I’ve been a fan of this author since I started reading her several years ago. She is an auto-buy for me.
I love how Anne’s characters are fully fleshed out with their own personal likes, dislikes, flaws, fears and dreams. Her heroine, Charlotte, is unwilling to give up a career to be a subservient wife and mother. She wants to have it all and why not?! She is smart, sassy and assertive. The hero, Ryan, overcomes his natural protectiveness to allow the love of his life to succeed on her own terms but even better than that, they become equal partners in making scientific discoveries. He is dashing, clever and daring.
It’s a book packed with adventure. Charlotte and Ryan have to overcome misunderstandings, many villains (human and animal!), red tape and danger to have their HEA. Can they do it? Yes but not before some adventure, a few disagreements, a spot of break and enter, a couple of thwarted romantic rendezvous, crashing a dirigible and joining a little tea party.
Yes there is a good deal of science in the book. I’m not a scientist but I often found myself reading the scientific parts anyway since they were interesting. I’d urge you not to avoid the book because of the science, I believe you could get away with not reading many of the science parts and still really enjoy the story.
Anne does an excellent job on making this a distinctly steampunk story. Some steampunk books throw in the odd mechanical watch here and there but Anne makes the steampunk an integral part of the story. I loved the mobile incubators!
I particularly enjoyed the appearance of a couple of side characters; the petite Princess Aileen and Glory, who really stole any scenes they were in!
Aside from the romantic scenes (my favourite part) I enjoyed the showdown on the dirigible the most. Since there are a couple of excellently written, detailed sex scenes, it’s not a PG book.
Finally, a big thank you to Anne for including an epilogue. I love hearing how things turn out.
I received this book as an ARC from the author in return for my honest opinion.

I’m a sucker for a second chance, and knowing that that’s what Charlotte and Ryan were (hopefully) getting, made me read this all the faster. I want very badly to say that this is a steampunk twist on a particular movie franchise. But if I name the movie, it will give away all the best secrets about what’s going on. Though I have to admit, I didn’t make the connection until the eleventh hour and an offhand comment about turning this terrible discovery into a park for the tourists to wander through and gape at the unholy marvels. Now, the possibilities that this book has opened are fascinating and I can’t wait to see which of those new roads the author will take us down next.
I received a complimentary advance copy of this book from the author.