Title: Gunpowder Alchemy (The Gunpowder Chronicles #1)
Author: Jeannie Lin
Publisher: InterMix (Penguin)
Release Date: November 18, 2014
Acquired Via: NetGalley
In 1842, the gunpowder might of China’s Qing Dynasty fell to Britain’s steam engines. Furious, the Emperor ordered the death of his engineers—and killed China’s best chance of fighting back...
Since her father’s execution eight years ago, Jin Soling kept her family from falling into poverty. But her meager savings are running out, leaving her with no choice but to sell the last of her father’s possessions—her last memento of him.
Only, while attempting to find a buyer, Soling is caught and brought before the Crown Prince. Unlike his father, the Emperor, the Prince knows that the only chance of expelling the English invaders is to once again unite China’s cleverest minds to create fantastic weapons. He also realizes that Soling is the one person who could convince her father’s former allies—many who have turned rebel—to once again work for the Empire. He promises to restore her family name if she’ll help him in his cause.
But after the betrayal of her family all those years ago, Soling is unsure if she can trust anyone in the Forbidden City—even if her heart is longing to believe in the engineer with a hidden past who was once meant to be her
My Review
Gunpowder Alchemy was an entertaining steampunk adventure. 8 years ago, Soling's father was executed by the emperor when he failed to stop England's invasion of China. Once a prominent family, Soling, her mother, her brother and their like-family nurse are now living in a shack, while Soling's mother is addicted to opium and Soling is a physician's assistant to make ends meet. When the money runs out, Soling decides to pawn one of her father's last possessions and accidentally comes to the attention of the emperor's son. She is asked to participate in the new war against the rebels and, partially, further English invasion. Soling doesn't want to help the government who murdered her father for his service, but she has no choice, and she's drawn to her former betrothed, Chang-wei. What follows next is an adventure through the ports and cities of mid-1800s China while Soling and Chang-wei try to stay alive and stop an empire from falling to war.