School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-This steampunk mystery set in Victorian England follows Meg as she attempts to work out the puzzle of her parents' deaths and the complex web of secrets she discovers in the organization they left behind. Alongside some new friends and a budding romantic interest, the 16-year-old follows the trail of a murderer and a dangerous device that must never be used. With a dose of classical mythology, an exciting quest, and a collection of imaginative inventions, this book will appeal to readers who loved Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic, 2007), Gail Carriger's Etiquette & Espionage (Little, Brown, 2013), or steampunk in general, and they'll be sure to find themselves immersed in Bailey's world of intrigue.-Anna Berger, formerly a Literature Consultant, Piper City, IL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Orphaned and destitute, Meg becomes a live-in maid for a mysteriously absent master. After discovering a secret chamber, Meg sets out to infiltrate an enigmatic society of mechanists and avenge her parents' death. This adventure is fast-paced with notably gentle steampunk elements, but fragile Meg is too fixated on the brooding stable boy to stand out as a noteworthy heroine. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A young woman is drawn into a secret society of inventors in this derivative debut. Meg Whitlock, a merchant's daughter, is forced to take a job as a housemaid when her parents are killed in a fire. The only thing she has left of them is a disguised clockwork key. Through a series of tediously convenient coincidences, she discovers that her family were all members of the Secret Order of Modern Amusmentists, an organization that created clockwork creatures for their own pleasure. The key is the only object that will allow Meg to finish the job her parents started: destroying a time machine built by Lord Rathford, an Amusmentist gone rogue. With the help of handsome stable boy Will and sympathetic Amusmentists Oliver and Lucinda, Meg uses the key to activate a series of automatons that each hold clues to the location of the time machine. Rathford's other opponents have all turned up dead, but even the suspense of Meg's potential demise is not enough to overcome lines like "If I had died in that moment, I wouldn't have noticed, because heaven couldn't have been any more wonderful than the feeling in my heart." True aficionados of steampunk will find this simplistic tale far too tame for their tastes, but readers new to the subgenre may exit the pages with a basic understanding of the convention's quasi-Victorian world in spite of the limp linear plot, clichd prose and stock characterizations. Mediocre. (Steampunk. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
When Meg's parents are killed and her home is destroyed by a strange and horrible fire, Lord Rathford agrees to take her on as a maid quite a fall from her status as a young, well-educated London woman. Her situation is worsened when she is evicted from Rathford's manor for her liaison with Will, the stable tinker. Not coincidentally, her eviction also comes after she discovers that her precious locket is actually a key to a dangerous invention created by a team of creative, if perverse, Amusementists, one of whom is her beloved grandfather, and another is Rathford himself. In an entertaining steampunk fantasy, Bailey creates a complicated puzzle that requires Meg, with Will's and others' help, to unlock each clue by fighting increasingly complex mechanical creatures, all intent upon keeping anyone from activating the final, earth-shattering Amusement. A swashbuckling and clever heroine, a murderer determined to make her his next victim, fantastical beasts and devices, and a budding love affair that defies Victorian conventions only add tension, interest, and excitement to this first title in the Secret Order series.--Bradburn, Frances Copyright 2010 Booklist
