The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Finley Jayne is not your average Victorian era ladies maid, no matter how much she wants to be. Normal servant girls don’t fight back. They don’t have the ability to nearly kill fully grown men. But Finley does, because there’s something dark and scary inside of her that makes her capable of serious violence when threatened. Finley is sure there’s something wrong with her, and she knows she can’t keep living this way, since her erratic behavior keeps costing her jobs. On the run from a nearly deadly mishap, Finley meets Griffin King, a young duke who recognizes Finley as someone like him, someone with a special ability. He takes her in even though all his friends are less trusting of this dangerous stranger. They’re too preoccupied with investigating The Machinist, the criminal mastermind behind a series of deadly automaton incidents, and they’re worried Finley will only get in the way. But Finley’s determined to help out, and now she’s part of this, for better or worse.

The Girl in the Steel Corset is a fantastically imaginative and thrilling steampunk novel. Readers will be drawn in from the very first page by Finley’s unique character and situation and will be reeled in further by Cross’s wonderful worldbuilding. Her development of the unique features of her alternate Victorian setting was so smoothly integrated into the story, and her descriptions were incredibly rich. I loved getting to know all the peculiarities of Cross’s Victorian England, from automatons and people with robotic limbs to a type of evolution. Cross really does so much so well with this book: her characters are three dimensional and interesting, the plot is clever and well structured, and the pacing is superb. If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that there definitely wasn’t as much romance as I expected; The Girl in the Steel Corset is rather chaste when it comes to anything romantic, even though there are a couple of love triangles. Despite that, I have to say that I absolutely enjoyed The Girl in the Steel Corset and I can’t wait for Finley Jayne’s next adventure.

The Girl in the Steel Corset is sure to be enjoyed by fans of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle, and The Season by Sarah MacLean.

Rating: 4.5

Review copy from NetGalley