Her Own Devices

A Steampunk Adventure Novel

By: Shelley Adina

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham

Escaped lunatics, lost children, vengeful lords, and love. Really, the situation is becoming quite impossible. Seventeen-year-old Lady Claire Trevelyan, left alone after the Arabian bubble financial disaster claims home and family, now leads the cleverest gang in the London underworld. Between outwitting a rival gang, inventing a device that will net her and her scientist employer worldwide fame, and keeping her mother from marrying her off, she can almost forget that a powerful lord wants to get closer… and if he succeeds, can destroy it all with a single word…

©2011 Shelley Adina Bates (P)2013 Shelley Adina Bates

Great Story, Halting Narration

Any additional comments?

The narrator has an odd speaking cadence and frequently pauses awkwardly, cutting sentences in half. It felt a bit like a bad William Shatner impression.

Amazing writing and telling!

I have never felt so strongly about a book/series to make a comment. This is my first and I am an avid Audible reader/listener. Good fun, strong characters along with a vivid storyline make this series a winner! Own the whole series - you can't go wrong.

Wonderful adventure series

Love these books. Claire is a gutsy woman of her time. I have quickly become to care about Claire and all her charges, including Rosie. I love the Steampunk world that is easy to enter and lovely to be a part of. Willy is a special character introduced in the first book and I love that he’s found his home in this book.

should be 5 but...

Any additional comments?

it was great. I thought it was going to be the steampunk version of Mean Girls but it was delightful. My only complaint is the brevity of the book. The author could have easily drawn out the book and I find it baffling that none of the other street gangs didn't bother her. but still a good solid read/listen.

Like Survivors Guilt... Explitives! #$%@#$%!

If you could sum up Her Own Devices in three words, what would they be?

Frustrating and Impressive

What did you like best about this story?

Human Will for Continuous Improvement

Have you listened to any of Fiona Hardingham’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. This is broader.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Steampunk and Reality betwixt and between...

Any additional comments?

It bears repeating... Sufferage and its many meanings...

It's like survivors guilt in one breath. I feel, as often I do, that I must suffer the incorporation of others misfortunes, because I have not personnaly experienced them. I feel that I must pay for whiteness, for anglo-ness, and for the every ounce of me that has strived and succeeded for everything that I have acquired as a woman, when so many, past and present do not have even the slightest bit of my opportunity, because I am a white, anglo, 21st century female. It all sucks. I hate what people suffer today and certainly what people have suffered, in my stead, previously so that I might break the cycle and break the ceiling.

If I provide no bit of anything, I would like to say that I, as do many, take a female's rights and role in society for granted at times. I'm not a staunch feminist, because I believe that the only way to kill the infestation of stupidity is to constantly widdle away at its incessant nature. Through cultural changes and sufferage (look that up if you don't get it...), I will succeed in denting, if not cracking, if not breaking the ceiling above me. Hah! I am indeed a wit!

We go along and make plans and have dreams and nearly succeed as well as any male. Not so long ago, certainly, even in the last 50 years, we would not have had that opportunity. In a time not so far away, our parents would have had much more hold over our dreams and ambitions, overwritten, even then, by our "husbands" perception of our role(s) in society. Being a woman of science, of STEM, of programming and any type of accomplishment for which I endeavor, regardless of the glass ceiling that still exists, I can say firmly that this was a frustrating listen.

At least Lady Claire has or determines the methods of determining her own future. At least, though I wouldn't have a man help me in my plights... at least Andrew is sensible enough to understand and appreciate Lady Claire in her entirety. Otherwise, I might have thrown my particular device through a window in complete and absolute frustration with Lady St. Ives and James. "Propriety" makes asses out of all of us.