Second paragraph of third chapter:

The fox, his tail quivering and his eyes brilliant, tilted his head at an angle precisely calculated to charm.

Steampunk is not always my thing, but this is a good mashup of an alternate technological Victorian England, with also uneasy coexistence with the fey and the Otherworld, while also engaged in colonial oppression in China, all told from the point of view of an orphan girl who goes to spy school. Fun stuff. You can get it here.

This was the SF book that had lingered longest on my unread shelf. Next on that pile is Jani and the Greater Game, by Eric Brown.