Angela Bell delivers an incredibly fun and adventurous story with “A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure.”
Trying to escape the shame of her zany and weird family, Clara Stanton fears retribution from her former fiance who is desperate to reveal a family secret Clara desperately wants to keep hidden. Feeling she’s the one member who must keep her family under control and protected, she lives with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
So when her inventive grandfather takes off in a flying owl automaton, leaving behind a clue to a scavenger hunt that will take her across Europe, she must rely on help from her animal-loving mother and her grandfather’s newly hired apprentice Arthur. But can she rely on her mother “behaving,” and trust a man she barely knows to help find Grand and his clues, all while staying safe from impending danger.
A story that is Jules Verne meets Enola Holmes meets Indiana Jones, “A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure” is a delightful story filled with adventure, fun, suspense and thrills. Bell creates characters with pluck and moxie, and she fills the story with a number of great themes, like vulnerability; there is One who precedes us on life’s journey; coming to grips with dependence; overcoming what-ifs (“What-ifs are not acquainted with what-is, and they spread horrid falsehoods about what-will-be, so why bother entertaining them?”); and Let Go and Let God.
She also reminds us that God will be with us, always (“The Lord never promised that life would be safe. But He did promise to be with us always. Whatever the harrowing journey of life may bring, rest assured, you shall never be left to face it alone.”)
Readers will also delight in a fun reference to C.S. Lewis and his Chronicles of Narnia.
“A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure” is due out Feb. 27.
Five stars out of five.
Bethany House Publishers provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.