Steam Guardians Books in Order

Steam Guardians is Mary Wine's steampunk wing, though the flavor is closer to romantic fantasy with airships, crystals, and secret societies than to pure clockwork adventure. The series imagines a Victorian world split between what respectable society pretends to value and what it secretly fears.

At the center are the Illuminists, a hidden order tied to science, power, and ancient knowledge, and their enemies, the Helikeians. In A Lady Can Never Be Too Curious, Janette Aston's need to know more pulls her straight into that world, where Darius Lawley is supposed to stop intruders, not want one. In A Captain and a Corset, Sophia Stevenson becomes valuable against her will after a crystal changes her life, and Captain Bion Donkova is the man tasked with training and protecting her.

The series works best if you like the idea of intelligent women being told to stay in their place and refusing. Janette's curiosity is treated as dangerous. Sophia's new abilities make her a target. Both books use romance to push against a society that wants women ornamental and manageable.

There is a lot happening around the couples too. Expect air travel, kidnappings, hidden rooms, strange technology, and enemies who believe power should belong to the right bloodlines. The steampunk setting gives the books a more heightened feel than Wine's Highland romances, but the emotional pattern is familiar: danger first, trust later, love after that.

If you are curious about Mary Wine outside the medieval and Highland shelves, Steam Guardians is a fun detour. Read A Lady Can Never Be Too Curious first, then A Captain and a Corset.