Her Own Devices — Shelley Adina

Book two in the bestselling Magnificent Devices steampunk series! Escaped lunatics, lost children, vengeful lords, and love. Really, the situation is becoming quite impossible. Lady Claire Trevelyan, left alone after the Arabian Bubble financial disaster claims home and family, now leads the cleverest group of gamblers and reformed cutpurses in the London underworld. She discovers that the lightning rifle she took from a rival gang contains a unique source of energy -- and its inventor has been locked up in Bedlam by powerful men in order to suppress its very existence. In order for Lady Claire to understand it, she must consult with the mad scientist ... even if it means breaking her out of the most frightening institution in London. Then, in a moment of madness, she becomes engaged to Lord James Selwyn, who knows nothing of her double life. He expects her to be decorative and the perfect hostess to the rich investors interested in his and Andrew Malvern's Kinetick Carbonator. But how can the engagement survive his insistence on withholding the patent for her work? And how can Andrew stand by and watch Claire marry someone she does not love? "This is one of those books that gets it right. Through dialogue, through actions, through carefully described settings, through attitudes and appropriate, non-overdone references, we have a great sense of time and place that's really immersive and fun." -- Fangs for the Fantasy: The latest in urban fantasy from a social justice perspective