One last romp through London - and beyond - with the Hadrians.

“The Gaslight Chronicles” are finally brought to a close in Cindy Spencer Pape's Ether and Elephants.

Note: Dragons & Dirigibles is the seventh story of the Gaslight Chronicles series. While the stories work well as stand-alones, there are inherent spoilers, especially where the romances are involved.

Who's to say a lady in trousers would be a bad influence?

Betrayal, human cargo and the Chinese underworld all converge on Black Heath Manor in Cindy Spencer Pape's Dragons & Dirigibles.

Note: Dragons & Dirigibles is the seventh story of the Gaslight Chronicles series. While the stories work well as stand-alones, there are inherent spoilers, especially where the romances are involved.

Family isn't always about blood

A mother's love for her child sends her on a dangerous mission in Cindy Spencer Pape's 'Ashes and Alchemy.'

Note: Ashes & Alchemy is the sixth story of the Gaslight Chronicles series. While the stories work well as stand-alones, there are inherent spoilers, especially where the romances are involved.

A photographer's camera shows a bit more

A shadowy presence, and a string of deaths, may doom a young lady's portrait studio in Cindy Spencer Pape's second 'Gaslight Chronicles' story, 'Photographs and Phantoms.'

Note: 'Photographs and Phantoms' is the second story of the Gaslight Chronicles series. While the stories work well as stand-alones, there are inherent spoilers, especially where the romances are involved.

Steam, romance and the supernatural intertwined

Sir Merrick Hadrian's life is turned upside-down by five talented orphans - and the governess he hires to care for them - in Cindy Spencer Pape's first Gaslight Chronicles story "Steam & Sorcery."

It's hard to be a governess. Never mind the children; even when they're spoiled brats there's usually something to work with. No, Miss Caroline Bristol's problem has been with the master of the house. Specifically, when she (rather firmly) refuses their advances, she generally finds herself tossed out of the household. Thankfully Sir Hadrian, while certainly the most attractive of Miss Bristol's employers, seems completely oblivious to her.

Perhaps that's because Merrick has his hands full. Besides the fact that he found this group of street urchins while breaking up a den of Vampyres, there's some magickal-ness to them as well. The oldest is obviously a Knight, and the girl has a way with mechanicals that seems almost magickal as well. Out of an obligation to children of Knights, whether acknowledged or not, he takes young Thomas in, and along comes the rest.

But even the household of a lord isn't perfectly safe. In fact, in searching out the origins of the vampyres Merrick encountered, he and Caroline must seek out London's seedy underbelly. And with Jamie's visions warning them that death is in their future, it will take all of their talents combined to come out whole.

Cindy Spencer Pape creates a world rich with European traditions interwoven with a London that never was. Steampunk elements are little more than window dressing in this story, but even as such, they add to the rich descriptions of the era and the talents of the characters. Steam & Sorcery is one of the better 'Steampunk Romance' novels out there, written by someone who understands that the fantasy element and characters are at least as important as the more...steamy scenes.

Highs: It's wonderful how Pape starts out with generic character types (street urchins, attractive governess, Lord of the manor) and fleshes them out into characters that the reader really cares about

Lows: As much as I love Merrick and Caroline, I wish there was more to do with the kids

Verdict: A very well-written 'Steampunk Romance' that never quite falls into the traps of more poorly-written romances

Further Reading: 'Photographs and Phantoms', Soulless

It takes a village - or a circus - to raise a child

It's an old-fashioned Scottish witch-burning in Cindy Spencer Pape's 5th Gaslight Chronicles story, Cards and Caravans.

Note: Cards and Caravans is the fifth story of the Gaslight Chronicles series. While the stories work well as stand-alones, there are inherient spoilers, especially where the romances are involved.

Imagine the air quality if we still used coal in cities today!

The year is 1859 and the Crown has more to worry about than usual in Cindy Spencer Pape's fourth story of The Gaslight Chronicles, Moonlight & Mechanicals.

Note: Moonlight & Mechanicals is the fourth story of in The Gaslight Chronicles series.