This was a fun addition to a favorite steampunkish historical fantasy series. Rafe, coffee shop owner and aeroship pilot, is a great POV character, with his dry humor and independent attitude. Here we see him more than a year on from the end of book 2, settling in to his new role in his House, and his new interactions with family. Ned is still the hidden center of Rafe's world, but as the next season for Ned's archaeological dig in Aegypt approaches, Rafe isn't free to go along. The separation is hard to take, and worse when Ned and a few of his men go off on a side expedition that takes them out of radio contact, and from which they do not return. Rafe is not going to sit around in England when Ned is missing.

This had an entertaining plot, and a warmth to the established couple romance. A few moments were pretty obvious plot-wise. (Rafe should not have been fooled by Nell - that was clearly coming from a mile away.) But it gave us a fun character addition, and in general the plot kept moving along in an interesting way, with some twists and turns. The wrap-up was solid and sweet, and the ending a strong HFN in a society where homophobia is still reigning strong. I reread the first two before this one, and recommend the whole series, read in order.