The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

* * * 1/2

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.



Simply put…I loved The Girl in the Steel Corset.  The very first chapter pulled me in with an action packed fight scene and a bad ass heroine.  As we have mentioned many times before, the Bibliojunkies LOVE strong heroines.   So needless to say, it didn’t take me long to fall head over heels for Finley Jane. 

The characters are what make this book so enjoyable.  So many of the characters were strong and likeable – Griffin, Emily, Jasper and Jack Dandy.  They weren’t perfect but neither did they have any major flaws.  They were simply human….well, except for that whole super power thing.  My personal favorite was Jack Dandy - a shady crime lord with a cockney accent that seems to disappear when he becomes emotional.  He was just so naughty and so likeable at the same time.  He definitely tickled that bad boy attraction so many girls have. I can't wait to see if we find out what his story is in Book #2.  My least favorite characters were Cordelia and Sam.  Cordelia was just bossy and rude.   I wanted to scream “Hey lady! Stop reading minds without permission!”  And then Sam.  He was just so whiny and annoying.  I wanted to smack some sense into him.  But since he is partly made of metal I probably would have just hurt my hand in the process.  Even though I didn’t care for their characters (and really, we can’t expect to like every character in a book) there is a reason they are written the way they are.  They and their personalities contribute significantly to the story.

The only complaint I have is that there were times when I felt that certain events were glossed over.  I felt like I was expected to just accept certain scenarios without any explanation.  But the story itself was fun and moved quickly.  Add that to lots of action and great characters and I was able to forget the very few things I didn’t like.

If you are looking for a fast paced steam punk fantasy, I highly recommend The Girl in the Steel Corset.  I enjoyed it immensely.



Nat