Review : The Gilded Scarab (Lancaster Luck #1) by Anna Butler
(Second Edition)
When Captain Rafe Lancaster is invalided out of the Britannic Imperium’s Aero Corps after crashing his aerofighter during the Second Boer War, his eyesight is damaged permanently, and his career as a fighter pilot is over. Returning to London in late November 1899, he’s lost the skies he loved, has no place in a society ruled by an elite oligarchy of powerful Houses, and is hard up, homeless, and in desperate need of a new direction in life.
Everything changes when he buys a coffeehouse near the Britannic Imperium Museum in Bloomsbury, the haunt of Aegyptologists. For the first time in years, Rafe is free to be himself. In a city powered by luminiferous aether and phlogiston, and where powerful men use House assassins to target their rivals, Rafe must navigate dangerous politics, deal with a jealous and possessive ex-lover, learn to make the best coffee in London, and fend off murder and kidnap attempts before he can find happiness with the man he loves.
Review:
Dear Anna Butler,
There had been many many times over the last years when your book (I should say this trilogy since it is, thank goodness, complete) showed up in my Amazon recommendations and I kept passing it over. This edition states 2019 and the blurb says second edition and I believe it was originally published in 2017 but I could be wrong on that. I am not sure why I ignored these books, but likely possibility was that I at some point decided that steampunk was not really my cup of tea.
My reading group picked the first book as this month’s buddy read and I could not ignore it any longer. I really should have read it much earlier because overall I enjoyed it quite a bit and mostly because of the main character.
We have here an AU British Empire with London and I am assuming other cities powered by “luminiferous aether and phlogiston” as the blurb says. The British Empire though is not so AU as not to get into multiple wars and try to grab more and more territory and power. The Boer war is also was a thing in this world and this is where Rafe hurt his eyesight significantly enough that he had to come back to civilian life, but luckily still be able to live a normal civilian life.
I really, really liked Rafe. I thought he was a brave and decent, and (very important to me) smart man. Rafe does not want to get involved in House politics (there are Houses in this Britain, some more influential than others and the Houses fight for the influence and not all the time peacefully).
Even though I have not read the second or third books, I know that the love storyline is prominent in all of them, but adventure, politics and some suspense also feature prominently. I guess I just want to warn pure romance readers that this is not quite that? Again, the romance is very important, but to me it started in a more real way than in many other romance books. SPOILER.
Spoiler: Show
No, I won’t tell you what fun and games begin. I thought in the second half the story really picked up steam. I liked that the other guy showed that he really wanted to court Rafe and eventually have a relationship with him. I liked that Rafe managed to navigate House politics quite well and I thought the suspense storyline, while not too long, really played into the deepening of the romantic relationship.
I loved them together. The only thing I did not like was the sex. And what I mean by that I just did not like how it was written, but there only two so was not a big deal.
Grade: B/B+
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Thank you for your review, Sirius. While I’ve enjoyed other books by this author, I don’t believe I’ve had the opportunity to read this. I can recommend the author’s Taking Shield series. The first, Gyrfalcon, is currently free to US Kindle readers.
I highly recommend the audiobooks. I discovered these books because Audible played a sample of the second book for me and I loved the narrator. Also, my dad was a fighter pilot, and I thought she got the pilot attitude just right.
Oh man, I love this series! I’ve listened to it so many times I’ve had to place a moratorium on it so it has time to fade from my brain a bit.
@Kareni: Kareni, I’ve looked at the Taking Shield series more than once but haven’t had the nerve to try it The aliens seem so ominous, and the blurbs seem to indicate bad things happen to the heroes. Plus, I can’t really tell if it ultimately has a HFN/HEA. Can you give any reassurance? :)
“I just want to warn pure romance readers that this is not quite that”
That’s true. I enjoyed the novelty of that, though, and the series overall has an HEA. Every once in a while, I’ll do a google search for read-alikes, but I’ve never found anything comparable.
@Kareni: Thanks . I believe someone mentioned those series to me long time ago and I wanted to start, but didn’t . Is the ending good?@Etv13: Thank you, I will try audio.@MaryK: I do wonder if this was the reason ( worry about HEA) that I have not tried those series as well? @MaryK: Right, I was not complaining, I just wanted to let folks know and I definitely plan to continue.
@MaryK and @Sirius ~ I have a memory like a sieve and clearly need to read the Taking Shield series again to fully answer your question. That said, I looked back to see what I had said five years ago when I read the books: “Day of Wrath -the final book in the series went somewhere that I never expected. This was an excellent series, and I’m glad to have read it. I recommend it highly to those who might like military science fiction with a side of romance.” I then took a look at some reviews of the final book; they indicate that it ended on a hopeful note.
@Kareni: Thank you very much!