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DEBUT Bell's debut novel turns The Nutcracker into a Christian-fiction romance set in 1860 London. Her once adventurous spirit broken by betrayal, Clara Stanton finds herself battling the rumors that her ex-fiancé has spread about her family. With a grandfather who creates strange automatons, a mother who rescues wild animals, and an eccentric uncle, Clara has her work cut out for her. When Grandfather Drosselmeyer takes off via flying owl, leaving a trail of clues across the continent, his mysterious apprentice Arthur, Clara, her mother, and a menagerie of animals follow. Suspicion and acrimony abound, as Arthur refuses to reveal his last name. He views himself as little more than a faulty spare part, but his unique skills may save the day. Wound tighter than her grandfather's automaton due to Victorian societal expectations, Clara slowly begins to see the wonder and adventure around her. VERDICT Full of whimsy and laugh-out-loud adventure, Bell's novel will appeal to readers who like period romances with zany characters and surprising depth, similar to those from Mimi Matthews and Carolyn Miller. She is an up-and-coming author to watch.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Clara Marie Stanton is doing everything she can to keep people from thinking her lovably quirky family should be put in a lunatic asylum, as her ex-fiancé suggests. So, it certainly makes Clara’s task that more difficult when her clockmaker grandfather C .E. Drosselmeyer, is spotted flying over London in a mechanical owl. This turns out to be the start of a scavenger hunt her beloved grandfather has concocted for Clara’s amusement, but Clara becomes even less amused when she discovers she will need the help of her grandfather’s new apprentice, the maddeningly enigmatic and annoyingly cheerful Arthur (actually Theodore) to successfully follow her grandfather's clues. Bell’s delightfully entertaining debut is a thing of whimsy and wonder itself. From the novel’s engagingly eccentric cast of characters that includes Clara’s mother, who rivals Dr. Dolittle with her cute menagerie of four-legged friends, to a madcap plot that sends the protagonists careening around Victorian Europe dodging danger and searching for cleverly hidden clues, Bell successfully marries faith-based historical romance with an inventive, Jules Verne–like story line.