The Girl in the Steel Corset

I was ALL ready for this book.  A hidden dark side she doesn’t understand?  Steampunk?  Sign me up.  For the first 100 pages I was loving it.  Then came in the Jekyll and Hyde tie ins and I wanted to scream.  Really? So heavy handed.

But I kept going.

And then there was the stupid love triangle in which the bad, bad criminal man becomes a big softy and does no evil.  WHAT.  I saw no criminal-ing from Dandy.  Yet repeatedly we are told what an awful person he is.  *dies inside* why is our main character in love with him?  Oh yeah, because he looks dangerous.

Seriously I cannot even describe how much I hate relationships based off looks.  You don’t have feelings for someone because they are hot.  You may be attracted to them, but falling in love?  No.

Character development was all over the place.  This made sense for Finley’s character as her two personalities were vying for domination, but for someone like Griffen, it made no sense.  He starts out as this really young lord who isn’t real sure of himself, but then immediately becomes this powerhouse of an individual.  Even his physical descriptions change.  Someone does not become broad shouldered and menacing overnight after being described as like a stick the day before.  Just because sexual tension comes into play does not mean that a person’s body should suddenly change.

The steel corset.  I actually rolled my eyes at this one.  I get it.  We are in a Steampunk novel.  I like steam punk.  Besides being bashed over the head with all her random ass leather corsets, I was pretty excited for the corset on the cover of the book.  Until I found out it was armor.

I make corsets.   Let me just say, there is no way this would be effective armor.  Even this Tudor steel corset wouldn’t be as affective as real armor:

Better than nothing, yes.  But zero protection to the heart.   Maybe I am a bit of a feminist, but I get TIRED of fancy protagonists and the eye candy of female superheroes.  Armor is not meant to be pretty.  It is supposed to keep you alive.

Also.  She is going to a BALL.  Why the hell does she need armor?!  Everyone in the book acts like it is the best idea ever!  Again…she is going to a ball.  Not war.

Three stars.  Just because I enjoyed it, though I am not sure why.