The Spritiglass Charade by Colleen Gleason

Format: Advance Reader's Copy, softcover
Pages: 354
Series: Stoker and Holmes (#2) 
Previous Book: The Clockwork Scarab
Source: LybraryThing Early Reviewers Giveaway
Genres: Science Fiction, Steampunk, Young Adult Fiction.
Publisher: Chronicle Books 
Publication date: October 7th, 2014

I asked and received this book through the LybraryThing Early Reviewers program for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Chronicles Books for the book.


The candle flames burned straight and steady. Silence reigned. As the stillness went on, I felt a prickle of anticipation instead of my normal impatience.

First impressions

The second book in the Stoker and Holmes series, this book went beyond what I was expecting. In the first book, we meet Mina Holmes, niece of the famous detective, and Evaline Stoker, sister of Bram and as it turns out a vampire slayer. Set in a parallel Victorian Steampunk London, the duo sets to solve yet another mystery, once again asked by Princess Alix. The young Willa Ashton has become obsessed with mediums and paranormal events, in search of her lost brother. But is it really a paranormal thing going on or is someone taking advantage of sweet, naïve Miss Ashton?

Final thoughts

I was under impressed with the first book, to say the least; it felt to me that the author was trying to reach way too many tropes and in doing so, they were not fullfilled and the characters weren't develop to their full potential. 

In this second installment all the main characters get time to grow on the reader and this is a great thing, particularly since the chapters jump from one girl to the other one. I'm still having a bit of a hard time with the steam punk gimmicks, but I think even if they weren't there I would quite enjoy the mystery part.

In this book, while still very analytical, Mina Holmes is not only "logical" and we get to see another side of her. While I could do without the 2 love interests for her, and another 2 (it seems) for Evaline, their interactions with the boys are quite entertaining and luckily the main arc does not revolve around them getting "weak in the knees". Actually that is something I have to applaud in this series: the main characters are strong, intelligent women and most of their interactions are with other similar female characters. They are the ones finding the answers and saving the day!

Now, the mystery, I will admit I did not see who the culprit was, and that is nice,specially when you are having a detective side of the story. It really bothers me when the whole thing is extremely obvious from the beginning. And what is more, the author gave a final twist at the end that makes me really want to get the third book!

I flew through the book during the holidays and so I would recommended for Steampunk fans and for people looking for a fast, fun read.

The Clockwork Scarab: A Stocker & Holmes novel by Colleen Gleason

Why, I ask of you young ladies, is it the female race who must sit still and take pains to be slender and pretty, all the while taking care to have nary a relevant thought in their heads? 

Why I read this book

I asked for a copy of this book with at the Early Reviewers from LybraryThing. I won the book in August 2013 but sadly I did not receive it until March of 2014. When I finally got to reading it I had almost forgotten what the premise was but I still wanted to give it a chance.

What the book is about

A steampunk novel taking place in Victorian London where Evaline Stocker (sister of Bram Stocker) and Mina Holmes (niece of Sherlock Holmes) are introduced to each other in order to investigate a series of suicides that might not be so.

First impressions

While I was reading the book, I kept having the feeling that the author wanted to lure way to many publics by adding a lot to the mix: vampires, time travelling, Sherlock Holmes, steampunk...and at certain points it get tiring mostly because I didn't feel that a lot of this was adding to the story. It felt to me that the intention was to plant seeds for the series, but in my case since some of the things mentioned felt underdeveloped I do not feel like reading the next to come. Even on of the heroines in the story agreed with me:

The rest of London would never believe it of their staid, gear-ridden, mechanized world. Vampires. Demons. Supernatural instruments supposedly belonging to an Egyptian goddess…and now time travel?

Final thoughts 
 
While I did not love the book, I think there is something there worth reading. First of all, the characters are well written both female and male. I liked the voices that Mina and Evaline were given, although I will mention that after a while the thing Mina does, analyzing every new comer, felt overused, like we needed to be reminded about the fact that she was related to Holmes and that she wanted to be like him. But in general the 2 girls felt like very proper Victorian girls in the way they were depicted while at the same time feeling like they had substance and enough ground of their own.

Another good point for me was that, while basing herself in the real London 1889, Gleason made her additions to this new London in a way that they flowed seamlessly. I did not stop in the middle of the sentence to say: well, this makes no sense!, and this is always a good thing in my book. However I've come to accept that Steampunk is not for me...particularly when every single gadget had names like Mr Morris brighten device for a lamp (I might be exaggerating, but this was not enticing for me).

One thing I have to say though…maybe it was called liked that back in 1889…but Syrian language? Unlike Farsi (or Persian) in Iran and Turkish in Turkey there is no Syrian language…maybe it is a typo an they meant Syriac? I don’t know, but this type of things bother me.

This book felt right in the middle for me, the balance between good points and bad points was about 50%, leaning toward positive marks for a well researched base on Victorian London and a good amount of imagination from the author, since I can honestly said, background of the story felt quite different from my usual reads. Hence a 3 out of 5.