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    A Spark Unseen
    A Spark Unseen
    A Spark Unseen
    Audiobook10 hours

    A Spark Unseen

    Written by Sharon Cameron

    Narrated by Fiona Hardingham

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The thrilling sequel to Sharon Cameron's blockbuster gothic steampunk romance, The Dark Unwinding, will captivate listeners anew with mystery and intrigue aplenty.

    When Katharine Tulman wakes in the middle of the night and accidentally foils a kidnapping attempt on her uncle, she realizes Stranwyne Keep is no longer safe for Uncle Tully and his genius inventions. She flees to Paris, where she hopes to remain undetected and also find the mysterious and handsome Lane, who is suspected to be dead. But the search for Lane is not easy, and Katharine soon finds herself embroiled in a labyrinth of political intrigue. And with unexpected enemies and allies at every turn, Katharine will have to figure out whom she can trust — if anyone — to protect her uncle from danger once and for all.

    Filled with deadly twists, whispering romance, and heart-stopping suspense, this sequel to The Dark Unwinding whisks listeners off on another thrilling adventure.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScholastic
    Release dateOct 1, 2013
    ISBN9780545643672

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    Reviews for A Spark Unseen

    4.5/5

    154 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      It's a very good book. It keeps you interested from beginning to end!! I absolutely love the way the characters are portrayed. Just when you think you've figured it out there's a little monkey wrench or two thrown in, in order to keep you guessing and eager to turn the next page all the way through till the end. One of my favorite things about this series is the way Uncle Tully's illness is explained. There's no doubting his genius or the fact that his family loves him very much. I'm pleased at the way she discusses and goes into just enough detail on how abominably horrible asylums were at that time. Yet, she still manages to impress upon readers the magnitude of devotion and work his niece goes to to keep Uncle Tully out of an asylum as well as keeping his inventions out of the wrong hands.
    • 4/5
      Katherine finds herself responsible for her uncle again and in the interests of keeping him safe spirits him to France. She has a second motive in going there - find her lost Lane. There's plenty of intrigue and drama in this second novel, and it stands nicely on its own, even though it is a sequel to "The Dark Unwinding".
    • 5/5
      I rather liked this. I was actually surprised about a couple of the plot elements. Some were inevitable predictable, but still delightful. Great narrator as well. Overall I was pleased with the story arc, I found it intriguing and somewhat suspenseful. Trying to listen at work resulted is very little productivity as I found myself froze in rapt attention waiting to find out what happened next. Last two hours were very well done.
    • 4/5
      In the second book of this series, Katharine takes off to Paris with Uncle Tully to hide him from both governments that are trying to use him and, secretly, to search for Lane whom she has been told is dead. Although I loved the change in location, I missed Stranwyne Keep. I did love seeing Katharine embracing her role and never giving up on what she believes. It's a very enchanting series and I am so curious to see where the story goes from here if more books are planned. Does anyone know if there will be a third book?
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars. Not as good as the first one but still enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      VOYA Rating: 4Q 4P Highly Recommended This book is a sequel to A Dark Unwinding. Katherine Tulman has promised her uncle that she will keep him safe and has to go to great lengths to make it happen. England is on the brink of war with France and both sides want her uncle’s genius to develop weapons. After a kidnapping attempt and two death, Katherine decides her uncle would be safer in France than in England. Katherine has not stopped believing that Lane Moreau is still alive and her secondary mission is to try to find Lane or his body.What a great sequel! I think this book could be a stand alone book, but I agree with the Kirkus review that readers will enjoy it more if they are familiar with the characters and their back story. This is a Victorian, steampunk, mystery, romance and adventure story. Uncle Tully is a genius inventor, but shows many autistic tendencies – although that is never explicitly stated. The reader may gain some sympathy and understanding of eccentric behavior and what it was like in the past and how we view it today. The writing is very well done. The characters are interesting. There is some violence throughout the story, but nothing that would concern me with high school students. Even though this book is set in an alternate reality, the descriptions of court life within the aristocracy seem very realistic.I think that this would be a good book for a history teacher to know about to recommend to students. I think that during units on war, students could read this fiction book and understand how economic factors play into war and the development of weapons. It could be very thought provoking if approached from that perspective. It’s a good title to add to a steampunk collection. The cover art is beautiful and may tempt some readers into picking the series up. It was a very enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: In this sequel to A Dark Unwinding, Katharine is still trying to protect her uncle from those who would use his genius to make weapons. After someone tries to kill him she knows she must find the one person who has always looked out for her uncle, Lane.Opening Sentence: I opened my eyes, the air in my bedchamber pulsing with the kind of silence that only comes in the wake of sound- a sound that never should have been there.The Review:After reading The Dark Unwinding I was very inpatient for a second book to come out. I wanted to know what would become of everyone now that someone had tried to use Uncle Tully’s inventions for war rather for the fun that he had created them for. Unfortunately for Katherine and Uncle Tully, their troubles are far from over. People on both the English side and French side want to use Uncle Tully now and will do anything to get to him, even if it means kidnapping. It is up to Katherine to make sure that no one can continue to use her uncle no matter what that entails.I truly like Katherine, she is so brave. Many women in her position would give up and let the government take her uncle away, but not Katherine. Instead she decides to go to Paris to find Lane, the one man who was always there for her uncle and the one man she had found herself in love with before he left. Katherine’s trip to Paris is a dangerous one, if she is caught by the English government she could be accused of treason and would lose everything that she holds dear. Also, she doesn’t know what the French are up to and whether they will hurt her. Then when she gets to Paris she has no idea where to look for Lane. Here again some people may have given up when their only lead seems like a dead end, but Katherine would not give up and believe he was dead like she was told. Even when she is followed and watched and was almost attacked she just keeps on going.I love the steampunk in these books and all the clever things that her Uncle Tully creates. He is autistic so most people think there is something wrong with him, but he is a genius. He creates wonderful thing like bells that ring throughout the house without a string connecting them and other wonderful inventions. My favorite invention of his is not in this book but in the first one where he creates a dragon that twines around a tower. What a wonderful mind Uncle Tully must have to create something so magical using science.I recommend this series to those who love steampunk, espionage and danger. Also, I recommend this to both adults and young adults alike. Sharon Cameron’s series is a wonderful tale that draws the reader in and made me want to read it all in one sitting.Notable Scene:“We are finished here,” I told him. “Please call the village committee together and say that I regret to inform them that Mr. Fredrick Tulman is dead.”I shut the door behind Dr. Pruitt and locked it, turning back to gaze at Mary. She was already in motion, smoothing the blanket, arranging my uncle’s hair, liberties he would have never before allowed her.FTC Advisory: Scholastic Press provided me with a copy of A Spark Unseen. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 2/5
      Part of the charm of the first book in this series was the conspiracy among a whole community to keep Katharine's Uncle Tulman safe and able to work. Transporting the action to Paris and introducing a new cast of characters wasn't as interesting as another book set in England would have been, to my mind. I was also impatient with the forces that drove Katharine to Paris in the first place. The obvious solution to the danger presented by French agents would be for the British government to provide protection of the Stranwyne Estate, not to forcibly remove a genius inventor to a situation that would all but kill him. Fences. Guards. I'm sure there were all kinds of shenanigans the British government got up to in the mid-nineteenth century, but surely publicity and legal redress should have been the first response to Wickersham's threat to press-gang Uncle Tully? It was so artificial; obviously just a plot point to make it "necessary" for Katharine to flee to Paris. I also found the character of Mrs. Hardcastle irritating in the extreme--the idea that it's okay for a bunch of gawking women to watch the neglect and verbal abuse heaped on a child because they "enjoy folly?" Bleaaach.
    • 4/5
      This is the second book in The Dark Unwinding. I haven’t heard anything about there being a third book in this series. This book was a very fun read. I didn’t like it quite as much as The Dark Unwinding, but it was still very entertaining.Katharine wakes up in the middle of the night to find intruders in her house who are attempting to kidnap her genius uncle. Even though the kidnappers are foiled, Katharine realizes that Stranwyne Keep is no longer safe for Uncle Tully. She devises a plan for her and Uncle Tully to flee to Paris to hide. She also hopes that while in Paris she will be able to hunt down Lane, who disappeared from her life at the end of the last book. However, when she gets to Paris she finds herself embroiled in dangerous politics and intrigue that is deadly to those she loves.I actually like the first book in this series a bit better, I enjoyed watching Katharine unravel the mysteries of Stranwyne Keep and watching her and Lane forge a tentative romance. This book is much more focused on intrigue and politics than the first book and Lane isn’t in much of the story.Katharine has grown a lot and is a formidable young woman. She sees the necessity of hiding her Uncle quickly and puts a plan in motion to do just that. While there she tries to navigate society politics in a way that doesn’t mar her good name too much. She also is dodging spies from both France and Britain in an effort to keep her Uncle’s marvelous inventions from being turned into instruments of war.Katharine is fending for herself much of the story and fairly alone, however she does have her talkative and boisterous maid Mary at her side. Mary adds some humor and is a welcome addition to the story.Lane is absent for much of the book and Katharine tries desperately to find out what happened to him after he fled Stranwyne Keep.We do see some of Uncle Tilly’s wonderful devices, but not as many as in the previous book. I missed visiting his workshop and the descriptions of all of the wonders there that we saw in the first book. There is a little of that here, but there is much more focus on all the politics.The book is well written and easy to read. The characters are engaging. The mystery unfolds nicely and is well paced. Everything is pretty much tied up at the end of this book, so I am not sure whether or not there will be future books about Katharine and Lane.Overall this was an excellent sequel to The Dark Unwinding. The plot and mystery are well done and the characters are engaging. I was a bit disappointed that we were taken away from the dark mysterious wonders of Stranwyne Keep and that so much of the story focuses on spies, intrigue, and politics….but I guess that is where the story took the author. This book ties up the plotlines started in The Dark Unwinding very nicely. If there are future books in this series I will definitely read them. This whole series is highly recommended to those who love historical fantasy with a steampunk twist to it.
    • 4/5
      The Dark Unwinding enchanted and delighted me, so, upon the news that there would in fact be a sequel, I was thrilled, even though such surprise sequels generally result in angry Twitter rants. Of course, sequels to books that were closed enough that you didn't know there would be one can be a tricky business. Though I didn't enjoy A Spark Unseen as much as its predecessor, I'm still happy to have read it and would, if a third pops up, read that one too without a doubt.In The Dark Unwinding, I fell in love with the characters that call Stranwyne Keep home, and they are just as wonderful in A Spark Unseen. Katherine Tulman very much takes center stage this time, because Lane's missing and Uncle Tully is incapacitated because reasons for much of the book. Though I did miss them, Katherine is a magnificent heroine. She's incredibly strong emotionally and intellectually, and I completely love her for the way she stands up to people. Also, she may be the inheritor of an estate, but she doesn't think herself better than anyone else because of an accident of birth and fortune. At one point, her maid, Mary, rings a bell for her to come and she does, shocking a visitor, but that's the sort of person Katherine is.One of the highlights of A Spark Unseen turns out to be Mrs. Hardcastle. Initially, she's this nosy, untrustworthy busybody. Over the course of the book, though, she begins showing hidden depths. I mention this fairly minor character to highlight an aspect of Cameron's characterization that I love: people are not dismissed as stereotypes. Uncle Tully could have been dismissed, as he is by many, as a nutcase, but he's respected and loved by the people of Stranwyne Keep. He's brilliant if you stand by to see that, and I like the way Cameron gives depth even to more minor characters.Now, I do warn that a very minor spoiler is ahead, so you can duck out now if you wish. One of the big plot points is that Lane, Katherine's love interest, has been gone for a year and a half, and is now presumed dead. Katherine heads to Paris to search for him, and, inevitably finds him. A heroine finding her love interest alive in this sort of book is to me not a spoiler, but whatever. Anyway, my very favorite part of the book is when Katherine takes Lane to task for not contacting her and for trying to push her away for her own good. She monologues at him for a couple of pages, and it is a thing of beauty. More heroines need to act this way when their boys start making decisions for them. You tell him, girl!However, much as I love the characters, I did struggle a bit with A Spark Unseen. I feel like the plot of The Dark Unwinding was more character-focused with an almost magical realism feel to Uncle Tully's toys. A Spark Unseen goes much more heavy on the historical and the political. Sadly, I'm not as interested in the political machinations as I am in the interactions of the colorful cast. For readers who are more plot-focused, I'm sure A Spark Unseen will be your favorite of the two novels. There are also some intriguing twists for those who like those best.Though not my favorite of the series, A Spark Unseen does contain the magic that made The Dark Unwinding a favorite. As ever, I eagerly anticipate whatever Sharon Cameron writes next.