Review: Victorian Scoundrel by Stephanie Burkhart

Victorian Scoundrel

The Windsor Diaries, #1
Stephanie Burkhart


Genre: Steampunk/Time Travel/Historical Romance
Publisher: Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc
Date of Publication: June 29, 2011
Number of pages: 230
Word Count: 68,970
Cover Artist: Jennifer Ranieri

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN     Kobo     ARe

It's 2010 and compressed natural gas has taken over form the coal producing steam machines of the Victorian Age. Alice Windsor, Princess of York, follows her mischief-making cousin, Prince Edmund of Wales back to the past and 1851 where Prince Albert is hosting Britain's Great Exhibition.

Alice soon discovers Edmund has struck up a friendship with their great-grandfather, Prince Albert, and his mischief making entails leaving a dinosaur-sized footprint in history. She also meets Grayson Kentfield, Earl Swinton, and the Prime Minister, Sir John Russell. The Prime Minster finds her odd, to say the least.

It's only when Alice falls for the handsome Earl Swinton does she realize the dangers of time travel. How can she give her heart to a man from the past while striving to stop Edmund from changing time with his forward thinking ideas?

When I agreed to read this as part of a Review Tour, I liked the premise of the book and had been looking for a good steampunk romance. Unfortunately, what I really wanted was a modern day steampunk, not an actual Victorian era steampunk. The characters in this book travel back to Victorian England and the book takes place in history. I also made the bitter mistake of reading this while listening to The Immortal Empire by Kate Locke. The two are as different as night and day, even though both can be classified as Steampunk.

I found this to be too dry and fussy for my liking. I struggled to read it, and finally after 2 months and I had only gotten through 3 chapters, I threw in the towel and called it quits.  I really hate to DNF a book, but this one just didn't do it for me. If you like time travel and historical romances, then do give this one a try.