Reflections

This lighthearted, briskly paced, YA steampunk is set in an intricately imagined multilevel floating dirigible that serves as a finishing school for young ladies being prepared for undercover intelligence work, and I enjoyed this second entry in the series even more than the first. The story takes place a few years earlier but  in the same alternate Victorian era  as the author’s Parasol Protectorate books and part of its fun is glimpses of characters from the other series--including free-spirited vampire Lord Akledama.

There’s detailed steampunk world building, from mechanical servants who clank along tracks to grubby sooties who do the hard, hot work to keep the school afloat. The humor sometimes verges on silly and there isn’t a lot of character development, but  Sophronoia and friends are lively company and a joy to spend time with.