keira anne with an e

Sydney has been summoned to a mysterious island manor which might just hold the secret to the inheritance of the estate– and the inventions within.

However, Sydney is not the only one competing for the inheritance, and she soon discovers that her competitors may not be the people she believed.

Secrets abound at Blakely House. Unanswered questions fill each dusty room, and nobody seems to hold the key to understanding. Not even the butler, who Sydney thinks just might be a pirate. Can she solve the riddle? Or will she be just another visitor at the mysterious Blakely House?

Disclaimer: as an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks for your support. Find the link here.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 stars)

After reading The Elusive Truth of Lily Temple, I knew that I would need to get to Joanna Davidson Politano’s new book– no questions asked. And, I will say that this one was quite delightful. Very atmospheric, and would make a perfect autumnal read in my opinion, but maybe I’m just being swayed by the cover. Honestly, this is one of my new favorites by this author, and I would definitely recommend this to any readers who are fans of the steampunk/Victorian gothic genre. It was a very enjoyable story.

I felt that our main girl, Sydney, was actually a really strong character. I enjoyed her POV so much, and I felt she was very intelligent, but not unrealistically so. Andre was a fun character, but I did get annoyed with him– especially when it came to believing or trusting our main girl. Anyway, overall, Sydney stole the show (along with Emmett, even though he’s not really a true character, if that makes sense).

I enjoyed their relationship a fair bit, especially the ‘pirate’ parts, because I thought that was quite humorous, and drove the story a little. It wasn’t quite enemies-to-more, but I would say it was close. Maybe distrust-to-more? I don’t know.

Overall, it was the mystery part that really sold me on this story. I loved the way things were revealed. It was really fun and exciting, and as is usual with Joanna Davidson Politano’s stories, I did not see all the twists and turns coming.

Content-wise, it was a very clean Christian historical book. I really appreciated the faith content and conversion that were a really central part of the story. There are some mystery elements that I would say were best suited for adult readers, but it was very clean, overall. If you’ve read any of Joanna Davidson Politano’s books, I think you would really enjoy this one.

All in all, this was a very fun Victorian gothic story, and I was so happy to be able to read and review it! I would highly recommend checking this one out and seeing if you would enjoy it as much as I did! A very fun addition to Christian fiction as a whole!!!

EMOJI REVIEW!

• 🕰 Victorian clockmaker
• ⚙ steampunk feeling
• ⛪ lots of faith content
• 🤫 secrets and mysteries
• 🏰 a really cool old house on an island
• 🏴‍☠ intriguing characters

Thanks so much for reading this review. Have you read this book yet? If so, what did you think of it?