After their involvement in the Janus Affair, our dynamic duo finds themselves on a simple mission to the Americas. The Office of Peculiar Occurrences thinks this little trip will keep their agents out of trouble. What? Do they even know our Braun and Books? They meet up with two American agents who work for the Office of Supernatural and Metaphysical. This creates some tension for the couple. As you remember, the two shared a rather heated kiss.

With a series of aerial and nautical disasters and  suspected foul play, the foursome, find themselves looking at none other than the king of electricity, Thomas Edison. Morris and Ballantine really know how to spin a yarn, weaving in electric machines and gadgets that made my geeky side giddy. The danger and suspense is intensified by a new threat known as the Maestro and I found myself looking for excuses to listen.

The banter and developing romance between Books and Braun is filled with tension, a little miscommunication and mistakes. Braun has some competition for Books' affection and I loved how it made her painfully aware of her own feelings. It was fun seeing her discombobulated. It all notched up my enjoyment keeping me in suspense with missed moments and Books’ attempts at clarifying his feelings. It was awkward and cute. Oh lord I wanted to lock them in the secret rooms of the library!

From the adventure and danger of the case to the relationship developments Dawn’s Early Light was a fantastic addition to the series and I cannot wait to dive into, The Diamond Conspiracy the next audio.

Fans of snark, wit, steampunk and crime mysteries will enjoy the antics that occur in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series.

 

  This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and somehow the review I intended to write got buried among other matters. Since now the authors are asking for reviews, I decided to write mine.

"Dawn's Early Light" is the third book in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, written by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. Since this is the third novel, I have to assume that anyone interested in this book is quite possibly a reader of the first two ones, "Phoenix Rising" and "The Janus Affair". And, is that is the case, well, this review won't be very useful, because, frankly, if you're looking for book three of a series after reading books one and two, you're already hooked. You're probably hooked on the steampunk atmosphere, the sexy protagonist couple, the fun they have, the perilous adventures they embark in.

And your question is: Does "Dawn's Early Light" deliver more of the same?

My answer: Yes it does. In spades.

"Dawn's Early Light" follows the two protagonists of the series, Eliza D. Braun and Wellington Books, in their exile to the United States after the hairy Janus Affair. Once there, the fearless duo will undertake the task of helping their American counterparts of the O.S.M. (Office of the Supernatural and the Metaphysical). It is here that the fun begins: these are field agent "Wild" Bill Wheatly and librarian Felicity Lovelace. Books and Braun will see themselves reflected in the American couple, sometimes to their chagrin. Wheatly is the counterpart to Eliza, while Felicity is clearly equivalent to Wellington. Using them as counterbalance, Books and Braun will have to reassess their feelings for each other... ops, no spoilers! The fact that the American agents are visually based on Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day added an extra degree of fun to me while reading.

Ah, but in typical Ministry fashion, there's much more. The two main secondary actors in this play are none other than arch-enemies Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, placed on different fields of the game. One can only guess that fans of either won't be very happy when they reach the end of the book, but I for one just love it when real life characters are thrown into the fantasy landscape of my favourite books.

In the side of the villains, we meet again the lovely and deadly Comtessa del Morte, albeit she's rather the star of her own subplot that develops in parallel to the main action. A subplot that would be too revealing... suffice to say she's following orders from the evil mastermind, the Maestro. Ah, Ballantine and Morris also revealed the Maestro is visually based on Nathan Fillion, which is just much funnier. By the way, I did guess the true identity of the Maestro: somewhere along the novel the gaslight lit up, and voilà, yes, there he was. A masterful stroke that helps develop the bad guys as much as the good ones. You'll have to read the book if you want to know what it is, I'm afraid.

Besides all that, we are also presented with a short but powerful cast of new characters who only make brief appearances. I can only hope these new characters will star in their own short "Tales of the Ministry" that Ballantine, Morris and their collaborators produce, because they are too good to think otherwise.

And, to finish the book, again a bittersweet ending and several mysterious premises for the next one, which I can only hope will be "next ones". In summary, I have enjoyed the series so far: I find it fun and fast and I never get bored. I love the characters and Morris and Ballantine have managed to accrue a fanbase who really care about Books and Braun (and want to see them happy, I'd add). And in particular, I have found "Dawn's Early Light" to be possibly the best of the three books, possibly because to the usual overall frantic action and sometimes awkward relationship between Books and Braun, now they have had a new layer added to them. To me, this new depth they've thus acquired makes "Dawn's Early Light" a winner.

And it's oh so fun!

I liked this book a little better than the other in this series for two reasons:

1. Someone finally told Eliza to lose her holier-than-thou attitude and stop treating Wellington like a peon.

2. Wellington's car (James Bond meets Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)

This is true revolutionary steampunk. Turning the typical steampunk notions of quiet, meek heroines, and dashing male brawn delightfully upon its head The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Series now carries the action across the Atlantic. Agents Books and Braun sent from Britain after a nasty series of events in the Janus Affair assist their newly formed American counterparts in deducing a series of strange disappearances off the Carolina coast. Tossed into the mix are contemporary rivals Thomas Edison, and Nikolai Tesla. Also included (and this alone deserves five stars in my opinion) is the ongoing series of strong kick-ass female characters who save the day.
The one problem with this series is that it is so compulsively readable there's quite a length of time to wait for the next one, and Dawn's Early Light is no exception.

Another exciting adventure for Books and Braun.

This book started off a little slow. There are a lot of Interludes (some that move the overarching plot forward more than others) and for a good chunk of the book it's not so much a story about the adventures of Books and Braun as it is a story of Books and Felicity and Braun and Bill. But in the later half of the book the story catches it's stride and Wellington and Eliza are back to being the duo I've come to love. There is also a wonderful set up for the next book(s?) and a fantastic cliffhanger.

I don't think I liked this book as much as the last, but there is defiantly enough I love about these stories to make it my favorite steampunk series

And another proper read, waiting for part four. One more series I'm stuck in, really clever ...

Another excellent Ministry book. Loved that it was set in America.

Such a great sequel, I had lots of fun while reading and hardly can wait for no. 4.