The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley is a fascinating, vaguely steampunkish novel set in Victorian England. Thaniel is a clerk who is narrowly saved from a bomb by a mysterious watch. Grace is a scientist, in a society that gives women no space to be anything. Keita Mori is a Japanese watchmaker with some extra knacks. The watch that saves Thaniel leads to him meeting and befriending Mori with Grace eventually falling into their orbit to somewhat disastrous effect. Perhaps the best character of all, a mechanical octopus, functioning on the rules of chance that manages to acquire a personality all his own.
All in all an excellent book that I would recommend to anyone with a taste for intricately worked alternate histories.
