Audiobook Review – A Lady of Resources (Magnificent Devices, Book 5) by Shelley Adina, Narrated by Fiona Hardingham (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 6 hours and 56 minutes
Publisher: Moonshell Books, Inc.
Release Date: September 15, 2015
ASIN: B015F0B4IQ
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Magnificent Devices series
Source: Borrowed Audiobook through Audible Plus
Rating: 3/5 stars
“You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family…or can you?
Now 16, twins Lizzie and Maggie are educated young ladies who have not been called “the Mopsies” in years – except by their guardian, Lady Claire Trevelyan. With the happy prospect of choosing their own future, the girls can leave their dodgy past behind, and Lizzie can bury her deepest childhood memories where they can do no harm.”
Series Info/Source: This is the fifth book in The Magnificent Devices series. Right now there are 22 books in this series. I borrowed a copy of this audiobook through Audible Plus.
Audiobook Quality (4/5): This audiobook series continues to be pleasant to listen to and I enjoy the narration.
Thoughts: This book jumps us forward in time quite a bit. Maggie and Lizzie are now 16 and trying to decide if they want to go to college or finishing school. Claire is finishing up her studies and ready to embark on a career as a scientist. That is until Lizzie’s past comes back to haunt them all.
This was another decent story in this series. I like these books but I never really love them. I think that the situation never really gets all that dire. Everyone is so nice to each other all the time and even the bad guys aren’t horribly bad. There just isn’t much to propel the story forward for me and the story is never all that exciting.
It was nice to read a story that is mostly from Lizzie’s POV, although we hear from Claire as well. Lizzie was a bit more fun as a character because she is not as absolutely perfect as Claire is.
I am not sure I will continue on with this series since I just don’t find these books all that exciting or entertaining. They are nice and have some good steampunk elements but aren’t great.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this is another decent addition to this solid YA steampunk series. This series is perfectly nice and I have trouble pinpointing why I don’t like it more than I do. There are adventures, steampunk devices, and solid characters but it all feels a bit shallow to me and everyone is so nice to each other that there isn’t much to drive the story forward. It’s just a nice story but not all that exciting or mysterious. I keep saying nice but that word always pops into my mind when I listen to these…I always think “Well that was nice, not very memorable, but nice.”. I don’t plan on continuing the series at this point because I would really rather read something that grabs my attention that I love.
