Reviewer: Holly
The Lady in the Coppergate Tower by Nancy Campbell Allen
Narrator: Elizabeth Knowelden
Series: Steampunk Proper Romance #3
Also in this series: Beauty and the Clockwork Beast, Kiss of the Spindle
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible Escape
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler » No « Hide Spoiler
Content Warning: View Spoiler » Violence, Abuse, Kidnapping, Child Abduction, « Hide Spoiler
Genres: Fantasy, Steampunk, Fairytale
Pages: 368
Length: 9 hours and 32 minutes
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
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Series Rating:

Hazel Hughes has spent her life believing she is a Medium—someone who can talk to ghosts. But as of yet, that skill has remained frustratingly elusive. She is also suffering from a reoccurring childhood dream of someone who looks almost exactly like Hazel, but this dream version of herself is slowly going mad.

Sam MacInnes is a talented surgeon who runs in the highest social circles thanks to his family’s position and history. When Sam hires Hazel to assist him with his medical practice, he is immediately drawn to her intelligence, wit, and beauty.

Their potential relationship is derailed one evening when a mysterious count arrives in London and reveals to Hazel the truth about her past: she was abducted at birth and her twin sister has fallen dangerously ill.

Hazel agrees to travel to Romania with Count Petrescu in order to save her sister, and Sam insists on accompanying her. The count has secrets, though, and the journey grows more sinister with every mile that draws Hazel closer to her homeland. Even as her feelings for Sam become deeper and more complicated, she fears she might not survive the quest to save her sister with her heart intact, not to mention her life. She must learn to draw on gifts she doesn’t know she has if they are going to ever return home again.   Hazel and Sam must fight their way past dark magic, clockwork beasts, and their own insecurities as they try to reach her sister in the impenetrable Coppergate Tower before time runs out.

The Lady in the Coppergate Tower is the third book in Nancy Campbell Allen’s Steampunk Proper Romance series, which is a mesh of fairytale and steampunk. I call these books “Steampunk Lite”. Though there are Steampunk elements, they’re very lightly drawn. We first meet Hazel and Sam in book one, Beauty and the Clockwork Beast. Although not necessary to read in order, I do believe you understand more about them and their motivations if you read the other books first.

Hazel Hughes comes from a long line of Mediums. Her mother is convinced she has the same power, but her first real attempt to summon spirits ends in a complete disaster (Beauty and the Clockwork Beast). Now she works as Sam’s surgery assistant. She’s had a crush on him for ages, but they run in different social circles and she knows they can never be. When a mysterious man turns up and claims to be her uncle, she’s shocked. Even more so when he tells her she was actually abducted at birth, and she has a twin sister who is slowly going mad. The Count believes Hazel may be the key to saving her twin. She agrees to travel to Romania with him to help her sister, and Sam joins them. As they travel in a submersible, strange things happen that make her question everything..her uncle, her sister and her relationship with Sam.

I was very interested in Hazel and Sam after the previous two books. In keeping with the series, this is a Rapunzel retelling. Though the fairytale elements were light, I enjoyed it. Hazel’s journey across the ocean, as well as her personal journey, was fun and interesting. I did struggle a bit with the book in the middle, as it was rather slow. But the early parts and last quarter or so really worked for me.

Nancy Campbell Allen was a great find for me this year. I’m looking forward to the next book.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Steampunk Proper Romance