Got this Kindle book free, (thank you Bookbub) and immediately upon finishing it I purchased all the rest of the series. We are introduced to Lady Claire as she is attending a "kitchen" chemistry class, and blowing up her experiment. Not at all a docile daughter, she has learned to drive the steam-powered landau, and wants to become an engineer. Her mother, a proper Victorian lady, is, of course, totally aghast at this life plan.

We don't really meet her father, just in passing as he is trying to salvage his company (he champions the gas engines, rather than the current steam power), and he doesn't fare well when his sponsorship fails, along with his company and investments. After his death, when his gun "accidentally" discharges, Claire's family must flee the city. She is supposed to join them at the country home, but can't accept the future her mother would plot for her, so, after her house is torched by unhappy investors of her late father's interests, she decides to stay with a gang of ingenious children/teens that she had the misfortune to encounter while fleeing from her home. They stopped her and stole her landau and possessions, and when she recovered consciousness, she took off to recover everything. The story follows her attempts, and believe me, this girl doesn't take no for an answer and never backs down!

She earns her moniker "Lady of Devices", and finds herself a defacto mother to the youngest in the gang, and an equal, or bettor, than the rest as she helps them acquire housing and funds. She also finds herself quite changed by the experience, and life is no longer so black and white.

I can't wait until I have read the series, and look forward to even more books by Shelly Adina.