This book was so much fun.

It’s only short, I ripped through it in a day, and when I bought it I didn’t realise that it was meant perhaps for a young adult readership. I just liked the premise for the book: a girl with a clockwork heart must race against time to rescue her parents from the mad inventor who saved her life, a man on trial for killing many people in the process of creating and testing her replacement heart.

The book is a steampunk adventure, with loads of humour, drama and excitement. Penny Farthing, the girl with the clockwork heart, along with her best friend Violet, are great heroines, with gorgeous clothes, indomitable spirits and a love of adventure, a loyalty to their friends. Joined by Penny’s twin Nic, who is also Violets boyfriend, and a foppish, daring friend Sebastian, they embark on adventure. Into this mix, the military man who might not be all he seems, Marcus, who Penny can’t bring herself to trust, but can’t seem to stay away from… It’s a romp of a book, with delightful inventions and twists in the plot on every page. Good fun.