Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross



Title/Author: The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles #1) by Kady Cross
Publisher/Date published: Harlequin Teen, May 24th 2011
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "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 takes 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 a 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 whose side she's on, even if it seems no one believes her."

I should really be studying for my big exam tomorrow, but let's face it, I'd rather be blogging/reading. Or be doing anything else except studying. Really. Even cleaning. And I HATE cleaning.

Anyway, let's talk about this book. The only other encounter I've had with Steampunk didn't work so well for me. I was confused by the whole thing and kept thinking: wait, what?? I'd heard good things about this one, but I still didn't have a lot of high hopes for it.

And boy, was I wrong! I really enjoyed this book, after getting used to the whole setting of Steampunk. It's completely different from what I'm used to, but I loved how it was handled here. I actually understood what was happening and it sounded logical and well yeah, it worked for me.

Finley Jayne is a likeable main character and I loved the two sides of her that competed for domination. I enjoyed seeing how she tried to integrate them and learned to control her darker side when it surfaced. I think both sides of her were well-rounded characters.
And OMG, Griffin! He sounds absolutely swoonworthy! Though I did think he sounded slightly older than he actually was, which bothered me sometimes, but maybe it's also the reason I adored him so much.

Love triangles aren't really my thing, though in this case it seemed more like Finley's different sides were having trouble agreeing on who to like. I did appreciate that the triangle was there while Finley hadn't made a definite choice yet, so it didn't feel like she was cheating on either guy. Jack Dandy didn't really do much for me, but I can understand his appeal.

So, all in all, this was a pleasant surprise, though I think I'll just stick to this series and not dive into Steampunk any further, I don't think it's my genre.
My rating: 3,5 stars

1 comment:

  1. This one definitely sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out.

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