Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

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

By Kady Cross

Steampunk/Young Adult

Find it on Goodreads!

I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did, I am not a fan of Young Adult books. At all. They usually consist of teenage girls whinging about how they are different and don't fit in and blah blah blah, if I wanted to listen about that, I wold just speak to my little sister! But what creeps me out most about YA? The 200 year old vampire getting together with a 16 year old girl, it is like a dirty old man's wet dream! Annnnnnyway moving on to The Girl in the Steel Corset I did like it, it had none of the usual elements (as listed above!) that inspire me to throw the book across the room, jump up and down on it and then toast marshmallows over it.

If you have read The Strange Case of Finley Jayne then you will be familiar with Finley Jayne, and recognise Griffin King, Duke of Greythorn, the main characters in this book. Griffin taks Finley in when she is fleeing (quite literally) from another job and almost runs her over. She soon discovers that Griff leads a band of Misfits each with their own extraordinairy powers, Sam with his amazing strength and healling abilities, Emily a genuis with machines, Jasper the quickest man in the West, and then Grfiin himself who has power over the Aether. Is this a place where Finley can fit in, she also has strange and frightening powers and bad case of split personality disorder! But they have bigger threats to face when the discover that a mad man named The Machinist is plotting against the Queen and they may be the only people able to stop him.

I really liked the world the Kady Cross has created, steampunk is such a fascinating genre and can incorporate many strange and wonderful things, and this book was full of strange and wonderful things. Like the steel corset in the title, although it wasn't in it that often it was a great invention, a bullet proof corset, and of course it made a very eye catching title.

Although this book was mostly staged around Griff and Finley, what was great about this book was that the other characters in the grop weren't just ignored or just given token appearences, Sam, Emily and Jasper, were all given time and had their own insecurities and strengths; you got to know them well. I think the whole group had a great dynamic which I hope she improves on in the next book. There was also a little romance in this book, or atleast some potential romance, but in the form of not one but two emerging love triangles! Sam-Emily-Jasper and Griff-Finley-Jack Dandy, I am not a massive fan of love triangles so I am hoping that it won't be dragged out too long, although it probably will!

The only thing that I thought was weak was that The Machinist plot, I knew exactly who he was and what he was plannning early on in the book and couldn't understand why they didn't catch on as well. It was still fun to read along as there were soem good action scenes but it was frustrating when it was so damn obvious!

This was a good fun read, it was entertaining and I enjoyed the steampunk aspects of the book as well as the characters, I will definately be reading the next one when it comes out!

Favourite Quotes

...Griffin King could hurt her, as well, and he hadn't. Instead of using force or violence against her, he used patience and understanding. She had no defense against that.

~

For a moment she thought to remind him that showing off his naked skin to a young woman was highly improper, but then another part of her told her to keep her mouth shut and enjoy the view, so that was what she did.