Romancing the Inventor

This novella serves as an epilogue to the Parasol Protectorate series, providing a much needed happy-ever-after for everyone's favourite snappily dressed inventor, Genevieve Lefoux.If you have read the Parasol Protectorate, this book provides some closure for Genevieve's story, which I must say had been left in an unsatisfying place at the end of the series - this was probably my only gripe with an otherwise brilliant series of books. This novella ties things up nicely.It also has a gloriously crazy-brilliant-“Yay!” scene with Alexia riding to the rescue, brandishing a parasol, on the back of a very wolfy Lord Maccon which is exceptionally satisfying.If you have not read the Parasol Protectorate and enjoy comedy, romance and the occasional treacle tart loving Victorian lady who can show a vampire what-for, I would strongly recommend reading this series first, starting with [b:Soulless 6381205 Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1) Gail Carriger https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1314020848l/6381205.SY75.jpg 6569140]. If you have read the series - well, all I can say is that I am very happy I read this little extra book, it made an already great series even better.

This spin-off novella of the Parasol Protectorate series features (unlike those books) a working-class heroine. As the title indicates, it's a romance story, with the central character falling for Madame Lafoux when she takes up a maid's job at Countess Nadasdy's hive. The story is darker in places than the other related novellas I've read, playing up the menace of the vampires rather than their high-class manners - Lord Akeldama, for instance, is tangentially referred to, but isn't in this one.

Other than the vampires, it's a straightforward romance story without any big shocks, but it's entertaining and the perspective is slightly different from the usual. Part of the fun is seeing how it ties in with the larger series, with various guest characters turning up whose backstories the heroine knows nothing of, but a fan of the other books surely will. The sub-plots spun around the central romance do not distract from it, nor do they feel unfinished as in one of the other novellas I reviewed, and it's a fun, if slight, addition to the universe.