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princess_starr 's review for:
Devices Brightly Shining
by Shelley Adina
The good news: You know how I’ve been clamoring for a spin-off of the Magnificent Devices series featuring Glora Meriweather-Astor given her awesome characterization in the last few books? Well we’re getting that with the next book in the series, Fields of Air. (Hooray!)
Branching the two series, Devices Brightly Shining covers the gap between Claire and Andrew’s wedding in A Gentleman of Means and sets up the plot for Fields of Air, involving Gloria’s power struggle for control of her father’s company and to sever ties with the Spanish Californian colonies. (Insert my pet theory about Lord Selwyn here.) The only problem being that Gloria’s two cousins object to her taking over the board and locking them out, but luckily for Gloria, they’re travelling abroad for the time being and won’t be home in time. Unless, say they just so happened to run into the Flock during their holidays and someone accidentally drops this piece of news.
While I like the hints of seeing where the plot is going to go next in this series, I’m not sure if we really need a full novella to cover the events. Yes, there’s a large chunk of the plot that focus on Alice and Ian’s engagement and Alice’s fears of being confined to be a housewife and lady of her husband’s lands (and dealing with Ian’s family and their dislike of Alice), but this being a full set-up for Book 10 I think takes away a little bit for the next book? (I should note that the preview for Fields of Air is actually the opening chapter to Devices Brightly Shining. I got halfway through the preview chapter and thought “Wait, I’ve read all this already.) I mean, I did enjoy seeing these characters again, and seeing how they’ve managed to uncover yet another plot that they can’t necessarily stop, but it feels like this plugging holes that could have easily been dealt with in the full book.
Sure, there’s fun scenes—like Claire and Co. meeting Queen Victoria (and the near-shock of everyone telling Lizzie and Maggie “So, you know you’re officially out in society now? THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN WHO ARE YOU.”) or Alice dealing with her future nieces and the implications of society, but I don’t know if we need a full story to helped plug in the plot holes for the next book. It’s a cute enough entry, but I don’t know if we really need it overall. I don’t want to pass judgment on Fields of Air too early, but I do hope there’s a grander plot to that book than just being a retread of Devices Brightly Shining for the first half.
Branching the two series, Devices Brightly Shining covers the gap between Claire and Andrew’s wedding in A Gentleman of Means and sets up the plot for Fields of Air, involving Gloria’s power struggle for control of her father’s company and to sever ties with the Spanish Californian colonies. (Insert my pet theory about Lord Selwyn here.) The only problem being that Gloria’s two cousins object to her taking over the board and locking them out, but luckily for Gloria, they’re travelling abroad for the time being and won’t be home in time. Unless, say they just so happened to run into the Flock during their holidays and someone accidentally drops this piece of news.
While I like the hints of seeing where the plot is going to go next in this series, I’m not sure if we really need a full novella to cover the events. Yes, there’s a large chunk of the plot that focus on Alice and Ian’s engagement and Alice’s fears of being confined to be a housewife and lady of her husband’s lands (and dealing with Ian’s family and their dislike of Alice), but this being a full set-up for Book 10 I think takes away a little bit for the next book? (I should note that the preview for Fields of Air is actually the opening chapter to Devices Brightly Shining. I got halfway through the preview chapter and thought “Wait, I’ve read all this already.) I mean, I did enjoy seeing these characters again, and seeing how they’ve managed to uncover yet another plot that they can’t necessarily stop, but it feels like this plugging holes that could have easily been dealt with in the full book.
Sure, there’s fun scenes—like Claire and Co. meeting Queen Victoria (and the near-shock of everyone telling Lizzie and Maggie “So, you know you’re officially out in society now? THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN WHO ARE YOU.”) or Alice dealing with her future nieces and the implications of society, but I don’t know if we need a full story to helped plug in the plot holes for the next book. It’s a cute enough entry, but I don’t know if we really need it overall. I don’t want to pass judgment on Fields of Air too early, but I do hope there’s a grander plot to that book than just being a retread of Devices Brightly Shining for the first half.