Review - A Study in Ashes (The Baskerville Affair #3) by Emma Jane Holloway

Title: A Study in Ashes

Author: Emma Jane Holloway

Series: 3rd (A Study in Silks, A Study in Darkness

Pages: 662

Published: December 31st 2013 by Del Rey

ISBN:  9780345537201

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

Description: As part of her devil’s bargain with the industrial steam barons, Evelina Cooper is finally enrolled in the Ladies’ College of London. However, she’s attending as the Gold King’s pet magician, in handcuffs and forbidden contact with even her closest relation, the detective Sherlock Holmes.  Not even Niccolo, the dashing pirate captain, and his sentient airship can save her. But Evelina’s problems are only part of a larger war. The Baskerville Affair is finally coming to light, and the rebels are making their move to wrest power from the barons and restore it to Queen Victoria. Missing heirs and nightmare hounds are the order of the day—or at least that’s what Dr. Watson is telling the press. But their plans are doomed unless Evelina escapes to unite her magic with the rebels’ machines—and even then her powers aren’t what they used to be. A sorcerer has awakened a dark hunger in Evelina’s soul, and only he can keep her from end angering them all. The only problem is…he’s dead. 

First Line: "You are not welcome here," said the man in the quietly understated brown suit.

I Give This ...

I saw this through to the end and I must say I'm very proud of myself on this one.   It's out of my comfort zone, but it attracted my attention from the start.  Steampunk is hard for me and with no guarantee that I would like it, this was a stretch.  And with each book being hefty, this one comes in at just over 650 pages, they are time consuming as well.  

I was greatly impressed with how the characters grew in this final book.  There were definite possibilities of a love triangle in the series beginning.  But, each character followed their were they should (ok maybe not Tobias) and didn't sway.  I was pleased that even Tobias didn't always think with his head, I think he could have been happy in the end with Alice.  And really, I think Nick and Evelina are perfect for each other.  I think my favorite couple was Imogen and Bucky.  Bucky went above and beyond to prove his love for Imogen.

The events were honestly like reading about a chess match and that's were I struggled with this book.  At this many pages, you can bet there were a lot of moves.  I wasn't sure we would ever get to the final showdown.  I also seriously wondered if this story would have some sort of happy ending.  Our Gold King seemed to have all the pieces.  In the end, it all came down to Evelina and the power she could wield.  It's no wonder that she was frightened of it though.

I was completely satisfied with how this ended.  There's room for a spin off series, and I might read it just because I found it intriguing.