Book: The Girl in the Steel Corset
Author: Kady Cross
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN/ASIN: 978-0373210336
RATING: 5 Stars, Fiendishly Bookish Top Eleven of 2011
RELEASE DATE: Out Now!!!
Kady Cross creates a deliciously believable Jules-Verne-worthy-“lite”-Victorian world that’s injected with imaginative steampunk elements, a riveting plot, and cast of characters that can’t help themselves but be endlessly hip. The Girl in the Steel Corset is a stunningly visual and innovative debut festooned with devices of all manner: velocycles, mandroids, steam phaetons, electro-disturbance pistols, automatons, and a mysterious girl who possesses a dangerous duality.
When Finley Jayne finds herself crossing paths with Griffin King, the young Duke of Greythorne on the midnight fog-enshrouded streets of Mayfair, it almost seems as if it’s too coincidental to be true. When Griffin brings her into his circle, he discovers an intriguing intersection between her origins and his own. And as Griffin digs deeper, his suspicions are realized; Finley Jayne is extraordinarily different, and could be an asset to his team.
For the troupe of Greythorne House, Griffin, Sam, Jasper and Emily have been hot on the trail of a mastermind who has the ability to control automatons…programming them to kill…and even enabling them to think on their own. After a deadly attack by an out-of-control metal maniac, and Sam’s near-death experience, Griffin and the team realize exactly how dangerous their nemesis is and what lengths he will go to thwart them. They’ll need more muscle…they’ll have to not underestimate him again…go into battle prepared…and…they’ll need Finley.
As Queen Victoria’s Jubilee approaches, the team suspects that The Machinist is bent disrupting the event, but as they follow the complicated trail of bread crumbs and suss out his master plan, they realize the very fate of the monarchy is in jeopardy. Queen Victoria’s very life is in danger.
The Girl in the Steel Corset was a non-stop adventure that positively drips with hipster chic and bleeds style all over the pages. It’s endlessly cool-veritable steampunk candy that has to be gobbled up. It’s great character relationships reminds me of Clary, Jace, Simon, Alec and Isabelle in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series-each with their own internal conflicts, romantic ties, and a strong connection to each other through thick and thin.
Cross’s characters have that same sort of camaraderie and readers will find them hard to forget-and best of all…Cross has woven a delicious love triangle between Griffin, Finley and Jack Dandy, the sinister criminal from the wrong side of the tracks (Whitechapel) that will have some girls swooning.
Jack Dandy is an enigma in himself. Who is he really when he lapses from his common street brogue…or when he looks at Finley with both lust and careful calculation? Personally I am very, very, interested in Jack Dandy as a character and how Cross will approach this unresolved issue for Finley. Who will she end up choosing?
Everything that Kady Cross has devised for The Girl in the Steel Corset is endlessly cool, full of espionage-very au courant. I am completely hooked and I am DYING to read the sequel. Cross has opened the door to a new adventure at the end…when the team gets ready to take off to America to rescue Jasper Renn. I can totally envision what they will encounter either on the wild streets of New York, or in the wicked badlands of the West. I am already licking my chops in anticipation!
I highly recommend starting with The Strange Case of Finley Jayne, Cross’s prequel to the series and then moving onto The Girl in the Steel Corset. Fans of Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfeld, Cherie Priest, and Chris Wooding will love this new debut series!
A Fiendishly Bookish Review (and one grumpy cat)
Fiendishly Bookish Top Eleven of 2011
Book: The Map of Time
Monday, June 27, 2011 at 12:55PM 
