The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross
Hardcover, 336 pages
Expected publication: May 24th 2011 by Harlequin Teen
Source: NetGalley
Summary (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 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.
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My Review:
I’m so glad I finished reading this book! It started a little slow for me and it took like 90 or so pages for me to become interested. This is pretty strange for me. Normally I know within the first 25-50 pages if I am going to like a book or not. Had I gone by my impression after the first 50 pages I probably would have just stopped reading. Not that the beginning of the book was bad or anything, but it just didn’t grab me and immerse me into it’s world. It was just pretty slow. But I decided to keep reading, and boy am I glad that I did. I ended up really, really liking this book! All the slow plot set up really helped to build an awesome steampunk world. (This was my first adventure into the awesome-ness that is steampunk.)
The story just kept getting better and better and I became so intrigued that once I was like 60% done with the book, I could just not put it down. That is what I like to happen when I am reading, so I was very pleasantly surprised.
Finley was a really unique character, and I loved the little love triangle that was going on. Each time the story hinted at romance or jealousy, I would get excited. I really hope to see more of that in the next book.
My favorite part of this story were definitely the machines and the organites. I was fascinated reading and learning about them. I want to read more steampunk right now!
4/5 Gavels.
Laura H.
Oh, this book is going on my wish list! I love the cover and I love the setting. Sounds like a Victorian-era X-Men! 🙂
tfalick
sigh, I have this book…. I tried to read it, but got about 150 pages in, and had to stop. going to pick it up again soon, I hope it was just my mood that made me not like it. because I had such HIGH HOPES for this one.
Andra
I love the sound of this book! I hope that it is amazing!
fourheadjen
Great review! I absolutely agree with you on every point. The unique ideas in this book are amazing!
April Hays
I have this book, but hadn’t gotten around to reading it. I am going to move it up on my tbr list. It sounds very good and I can’t wait to read it. Thanks for your interview and honest opinion…..that way I know to keep reading if for some reason it has the same effect on me in the beginning 😀