In fact, you will have to excuse me while I wax poetic all over this review. I need not have worried: Mr Rosen’s book is basically made of awesome and I loved every single second of it. At the same time, I was quite wary as there is this really thin line separating great homage from simple reproduction. Well, I love Steampunk (when done well) and the two aforementioned plays are my favourites by their respective authors so I was super excited to read this. What made us want to read it? Well, it is a Steampunk retelling of Twelfth Night set in Victorian London and with elements of The Importance of Being Earnest so how could we NOT want to read it?Īna: All Men of Genius has been marketed as a Steampunk retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Why did we read this book: Thea was actually the one to first notice the book when we were planning our BEA schedule and bring it to Ana’s attention. How did we get this book: We both got signed review copies at BEA Stand alone or series: It can be read as a stand alone novel as the story is self-contained, but it seems that there is another book set in the same world in the works. She soon realizes that it’s not just keeping her secret until the end of the year faire she has to worry about: it’s surviving that long. She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry.īut keeping the secret of her sex won’t be easy, not with her friend Jack’s constant habit of pulling pranks, and especially not when the duke’s young ward, Cecily, starts to develop feelings for Violet’s alter ego, “Ashton.” Not to mention blackmail, mysterious killer automata, and the way Violet’s pulse quickens whenever the young duke, Ernest (who has a secret past of his own), speaks to her. Violet sees her opportunity when her father departs for America. The school is run by his son, Ernest, who has held to his father’s policy that the small, exclusive college remain male-only.

Violet Adams wants to attend Illyria College, a widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. Inspired by two of the most beloved works by literary masters, All Men of Genius takes place in an alternate Steampunk Victorian London, where science makes the impossible possible.

Genre: Comedy, Steampunk, Speculative Fiction

All Men of Genius by Lev A.C. Rosen