Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to attend the BookExpo America which, this year, was located in Chicago.  The BEA is like a giant book fair with authors, publishers, agents, and everyone in between.  Many of the publishers give away free books and I was able to snag, oh, about fifty of them.  Right before closing on Thursday I was walking around some of the booths as they cleaned up and saw a cardboard cutout of a handsome man.  Knowing that this was most likely an indicator of romance novels, I paused and started chatting with the publicist. 

The publicist, Chris, recommended their newest novel, out August 2016.  Beauty and the Clockwork Beast is a steampunk proper romance.  A proper romance novel, I learned, is closer to Pride and Prejudice than Fifty Shades of Grey, by a lot.  It means that the most Lucy and Miles, main characters of Beauty, are going to do is kiss.  This is a new concept for me considering most of the novels I read are torrid, sexy, and blush worthy.  The Steampunk genre, according to Google, is “subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery.”

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast is, pretty obviously, based loosely on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.  Lucy Pickett is an exceptionally bright and talented woman.  Miles Blake is handsome, surly, and hiding a terrible secret.  Lucy arrives at Blackwell Manor to care for her ill cousin and becomes the target of a sinister force.  Miles and Lucy team up to figure out who, or what, has decided to eliminate Lucy.  It could be a vampire, a shapeshifter, a ‘ton, or even a regular, normal human being.  Throughout their adventure, Lucy and Miles grow close, and they have the potential to grow closer, if Miles can get past his insecurities and let Lucy see the true him.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen.  It had a thrilling mystery paired with a suspenseful romance and a lovely steampunk twist.  I have never read steampunk before, except some free kindle download I read a while back, and I’ll admit I was a little confused at the beginning of reading.  It took me until page 92 (I counted) to truly get into the book because prior to that I was spending a lot of energy trying to understand all the unfamiliar terminology.

I beg you though, please power through the confusion and get to at least page 92.  That’s when the mystery ramps up and the romance does, too.  Despite there not being any scenes of a sexual nature, there were many moments where my heart skipped a beat and more than one scene that I reread a few times just to keep that feeling going.  Allen writes amazing chemistry between her characters while still making it seem realistic, rather than forcing interactions and feelings. 

I have two complaints about the book, however.  The first is that I think this book would have sufficed being either a vampire/shapeshifter novel or a steampunk novel. Together the whole plot seemed a tad overwhelmed.  The second complaint is that it was over so fast.  I really could have kept reading, and romancing, and swooning over Miles for ages more.

All in all, it was a great read and I would definitely seek out more books by Nancy Campbell Allen.  I might even be persuaded to check out more novels of the steampunk genre, now that I have somewhat of an understanding of the genre as a whole.  When this book comes out in August 2016, I strongly suggest that you check it out. 

4.5/5 stars