Her Sky Cowboy

Contemporary romance author Ciotta’s first steampunk series blasts off with this exhilarating riff on bodice-ripping romance, hurling 20th-century technology into an alternate Victorian England. Spunky airship mechanic Amelia Darcy is smitten with an obsession for flight and a longtime yen for Tucker Gentry, the Sky Cowboy, an American penny-dreadful antihero of “notorious and scandalous reputation.” After Amelia’s father blows himself and the family fortune to smithereens while attempting to travel to the moon, Amelia abandons her tizzied mother, leaps upon her homemade kitecycle, and tears off to win a hefty scientific prize. She promptly crashes into an encounter with Tucker. The two pursue an airborne quest for Leonardo da Vinci’s fabled ornithopter while fending off sky pirates employed by dastardly and lascivious Lord Bingham, cavorting through a hectic skytown pubcrawl, and putting lovemaking at the top of Amelia’s “must-do-or-die” list. With Darcy twins Jules and Simon poised for their own adventures, Ciotta (the Cupcake Club books) has the start of a delectable series. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management. (Nov.)