The Inventor, by Morgan Karpiel

      I’m getting addicted to .99cents reads from Amazon. It really stretches my book budget, and The Inventor never disappointed. It introduced me to Steampunk, something I had never heard of before. Just in case you don't know what it is, it's a combination of Victorian setting, with modern science. Think Jules Verne. I bought it the day I was going to take my niece and nephew to the movies. The keyword here is, ‘was’.

      I’m still carless, and decided to take the kids off my mom’s hands for a few hours. Their visiting from upstate New York. I thought the movies would be a great adventure, at least for me. As life would have it, I had that adventure.

     Anyhoo, I borrowed Zio Serpico’s piece of junk to get the kiddies to the movies. I thought, it’s okay, we’re not going far. Well, we’re bumping along, only a couple of blocks from my parents house, and I felt a jerk coming from the rear, then a thud, as suddenly it felt lopsided, and then my nephew says, “Zia (aunt in Italian), a tire just pasted us.”  

      Oh kids and their imagination, I’m tell’n ya. Or I thought when suddenly a tire passes right in front of me. I feel the car slow, with a loud scrapping sound. The tire continued on its course, bouncing along in front of me, going at least 10mph faster. My niece is yelling, “Look Zia, there it goes.”

     "Ya, sweetie I see it," I said with a very sick feeling about all the noise coming from the rear. I look in the mirror, and see sparks flying from under the car. The tire is continuing to move down the street bouncing like a crazed chocolate doughnut on a mission of destruction, missing cars, people, a dog, makes a sudden right into a yard, right up the stoop's front steps, and crashed not just into the screen door, but threw it. Lots of screaming commences from the occupants of the house, which is where my high school prom date's parents live. He’s now in Riker’s for robbery, because of me. So this doesn’t look very good. I can’t stop the car, apparently the brakes failed, ran it up in the yard, and hit a little fountain, at which time water was spraying everywhere, including threw the floor board full of holes.

     The kids were thrilled. The only reason Alphonso’s mother didn’t whack me with a rolling pin, was because there would be witnesses in the form of my two fledgling cops in the backseat, describing everything in great detail to the responding officer, who happens to cutie Officer Javier, who hasn’t called me back since the dog incident. And once again, there is a police report with my name on it. Add it to the collection. I'm just praying Zio Serpico, has his insurance paid up. 

     Oh, but I digress, this is the first time I’ve ever read Steampunk. I didn’t even know what it was until I googled it after reading the reviews. It was a cool read, interesting and intelligent, with the way Ms. Karpiel, blended history with a more modern way of the looking at things. I’m not much of a history buff, but I was enthralled in this short read. I’m a fan now. For once I hit a series right, this is the first book, instead of my usual going backwards.

     Leda, Countess of Caithmore, is dumped by her husband. I can relate to that, accused of being overly fridge. So she looks for a cure in a friendship with a famous inventor, Ian Anderson. Who she hires to build a machine that will prove everyone wrong about her. And she really is a hottie inside and out. But there are some bad guys watching, and wanting to know what the inventor is up too. It adds a lot of suspense to the story. I loved it, and had a hard time putting it down. Leda, was a strong woman during a period where women were seen and most of the time not heard. I’m looking forward to the next one in the series. I think I’m hooked on Steampunk. It was a great read on a afternoon, when I needed a little steampunk, to help out.

I give this a #9, since I finished on the subway on my way to work on Monday.