BWF - Mission Improper - Bec McMaster- 3 Stars

[Olivermagnus]

Mission: Improper is the first book in a spinoff of McMaster's "London Steampunk" series called "London Steampunk: The Blue Blood Conspiracy".

The story picks up three years after the events of "Of Silk and Steam" and follows a newly formed group of detectives and spies as they deal with a new set of problems that have come up after the uprising and revolution that took place in the previous arc.

Caleb Byrnes is a member of the Nighthawks and Ingrid Miller is a verwulfen who was Rosa’s right hand woman and member of the humanist movement. They are the main characters here, but we met both of them as minor characters in previous books.

"Mission Improper" is very action oriented, with both characters having equal footing as far as their investigation goes. I enjoyed seeing that there were repercussions from the events of the previous books, that things weren't perfect after the revolution and restoration of the Queen to power.

Ingrid and Caleb are perfect for readers who like romances between rivals, especially when those rivals are fiery together. They have some steamy moments and are a seamless team once they decide to cooperate with each other.

McMaster is skilled at creating complex world building. She introduces blue bloods, vampires, dhimpir, verwulfen, humans, and mechs (part human, part mechanical). Each character is distinct, and readers are immediately caught up in trying to figure out how they fit together.

I'm not as much of a fan of this series as I was of the London Steampunk series, but I like it enough to pick up the next book of the series, The Mech Who Loved Me