Imogene Hale is a lowly parlourmaid with a soul-crushing secret. Seeking solace, she takes work at a local hive, only to fall desperately in love with the amazing lady inventor the vampires are keeping in the potting shed. Genevieve Lefoux is heartsick, lonely, and French. With culture, class, and the lady herself set against the match, can Imogene and her duster overcome all odds and win Genevieve's heart, or will the vampires suck both of them dry?This is a stand-alone LBGTQ sweet romance set in Gail Carriger's Parasolverse, full of class prejudice, elusive equations, and paranormal creatures taking tea.
Delicate Sensibilities? This story contains women pleasing women and ladies who know what they want and pursue it, sometimes in exquisite detail.
Supernatural Society novellas can be read in any order. ~ Goodreads
Source: e-arc provided by the author in exchange for an honest review
Review:
I’m really enjoying these spinoff novellas set in Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate world featuring some of our favorite side characters and their HEA's.
First off – let me say that you do not have to have read any of Carriger’s prior series to enjoy this novella. While it has great cameos if you have, it stands alone. But if you do enjoy Victorian, paranormal, steampunk and romance give her other books a try as well. She has both adult and YA - all set in the same world.
So back to Romancing the Inventor!
Imogene Hail has never been attracted to men and is tired of the constant push to marry her off to one. She wants to explore her “perverse sexual proclivities” towards women and feels that getting a job at the local vampire hive is the way to do that. Who’s more sexually free than vampires after all?
Once she gets there though, the vampires don’t show much interest in her and she becomes a parlourmaid. Everything is quite dull until the day she brings the enigmatic Madame Genevieve Lefoux tea.
Imogen is immediately smitten by the inventor but Genevieve is gun shy after a romance gone bad and by Imogene’s age and innocence. She feels that Imogene is nursing a hero worship crush and tries not take advantage of that.
This is a very slow burn romance but so, so sweet. Both women are whip smart – Genevieve with her inventions and Imogene with math – and it was fun to watch Genevieve's resistance crumble under Imogen’s relentless pursuit. Occasionally Imogen’s pining from afar dragged on and frustrated me but she really couldn’t do much else considering her social station and precarious situation with the vampires.
When the vampires do finally start to take notice of Imogene all hell breaks loose and the real fun begins. Vampires/werewolves and fun extended cameos with Alexis and Lord Maccon and a few others make Romancing the Inventor a delightful, quick read!
This series was the only one of hers that worked for me so :)
ReplyDeleteI read the adult series and some of the spinoffs and the first of the YA. She has a fun writing style.
DeleteI haven't read any of this series but sounds interesting!
ReplyDeleteYou should give it a try. It's a lot of fun!
Deleteoh this sounds different and fun!!!! I do need to pick this author up and this novella sounds like a great way to try her out.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds fun, and I do enjoy paranormal.
ReplyDeleteOH MY. I have only read Etiquette and Espionage by the author, but I think I might just forgo those books and head straight to this one. It sounds so cool! I do love slow burn romances <3
ReplyDeleteOh I love these! I still need to get this one and it looks like I need to read it. I just enjoy this world. I still need to read her adult series.
ReplyDeleteAhh I do enjoy her books, too. I'm STILL waiting for the audio of the last YA one from my library. Ergs!
ReplyDeleteI love the sound of this one! I still need to read this author's books, but I'm glad you can enjoy this on its own.
ReplyDelete