Mar 30, 2012

The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles #1)by Kady Cross

The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles, #1)

The Girl in the Steel Corset
Author:  Kady Cross
Publisher:  Harlequin Teen 
Publication Date:  May 24th 2011

From Goodreads:

In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one except the "thing" inside her.
When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back.  And wins.  But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full grown man with one punch....
Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them.  The orphaned duke taker her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits.  Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.
Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons.  Finley thinks she can help and finally be part of something, finally fit in.
But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides.  At least Finley knows who side she's on, even if it seems no one believes her.

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The Girl in the Steel Corset is my first steampunk novel, I picked a winner.  What I figured out after finishing this effin kick ass book is that I like the Victorian Era and kick ass female characters.

Yeah, I'm sure you got by now that I love The Girl in the Steel Corset.  I'm going to be pretty clear and state right off the bat that the main reason I love this book is because of the strong female characters.  O'and there is also a villian called The Machinist, rogue machines called automatons and a bad boy i'm crushing on called Jack Dandy.

Griffin is a duke and he has a posse, this posse consist of Sam, Jasper, Emily and then later Finley joins them.  All these characters are special, they all have some unique gift (i.e. power).  For instance Griffin can jump to another realm and speak to his dead parents, Sam is part machine and is really freakishly strong, Emily is super smart, and Jasper is fast like you blink and you can miss him fast.  Finley also has something unique about her, she is two different people.  One side of her is a normal girl, but when need be another part of her comes out and that side can kick some serious ass.  They come together to try to stop the Machinist, who is turning the automatons into killers.  The plot is action packed and intense.  The intensity climbs higher and higher at a good pace. Never once did I feel that things were going slow.  The action tapered off to allow the readers to really get to know the characters, and for me that is the only reason for the action to simmer down.  I really dislike books that are over descriptive and I really worried that the steampunk aspect of The Girl in the Steel Corset would make it that, but Ms. Cross really gave the bare minimum of description so we can picture these machines and inventions that are part of steampunk.

The Girl in the Steel Corset also has its' share of romance, as well.  Now I hate love triangles and there is one in this novel but I will say that with great characters it's all good.  The triangle involves Griffin, Finley and Jack Dandy.  Jack Dandy is  my fictional boyfriend. Seriously! He doesn't play a HUGE part in The Girl in the Steel Corset, but I'm hoping he will with the sequel.  Jack Dandy is a crime lord (yeah, I like bad boys) with a heart of gold. <--I actually don't know if that's true, but it fits my image of him.   He's not all that bad, guys.  He's awesome, infact.

I really did enjoy The Girl in the Steel Corset.  The writing was great, the characters awesome. Not only did I find my fictional boyfriend but I also wanted to go out there and kick some ass.  I am so looking forward to reading the next book in the series, The Girl in the Clockwork Collar.

Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars
(4.5 but of course Goodreads doesn't allow halves.)


2 comments:

  1. I'm reading this one right now and it's pretty good! I loooove Griffin. :) This is my first Steampunk book, too, if you don't count the Infernal Devices books. It's different, but different is good. :)

    BTW, your title for the post claims this is the 2nd book in the series! Just FYI. :) Have fun reading the next one!

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    Replies
    1. It is different. I need to start on the Infernal Devices series. Thanks for the heads up about the title...fixed it. :)

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