Full review at blog ( )

This is my first Steampunk novel and I like this series so far and will continue to the next one. ( )

I just couldn't put this down. It was fun and exiting and maybe not the most surprising turn of events, but I'm totally ok with that. I just want to read all these stories now. And I like the way they're handling the romance stuff. Very believable (no insta-romance!). I always have a lot less to say when I really like something. This is one of those cases... ( )

I wanted depth and sparkle, I got froth and showmanship; arguably, it's not the book's fault that it wasn't what I wanted, but that doesn't stop me being disappointed.

Oh, it's a lot of fun. It's charming and slick and whizbang (though after a bells-and-whistles action opening, it has a really slow start) but I was dissatisfied with the depth. It just wasn't as deft, or as intricate, or as thorough as I was hoping it would be. Our main characters are uncomfortably simplistic (I mean, they're called Books and Brawn Braun, for heaven's sake) and I grew tired of their one-trick pony-rides. (See Wellington be amusingly well-bred and bookish and yet somehow not die! See Eliza be saucy and/or blow something up and scandalise him!)

And the UST was trowelled in so heavily it verged on slapstick. (Yes, the reader is supposed to want them to consummate the tension, but not because it might be more interesting than this.) It came along in between large sections of the characters individually ruminating on their feelings, history, motivations, etc. Even when we got the Big Shock about one's hidden secrets, it wasn't really that gobsmacking, because I hadn't really had that much of a chance to get attached to him. (I very nearly was. There's a brief fling with serious character involvement in the final third, but it's barely more than a flirtation amidst the orgies and whatnot. I needed more.)

Plus I'm unsure about the literary allusions (the House of Usher, Barnabas Collins, Captain Nemo). Unless you're going to do something with them, I'm not sure they should just be tossed in like literature-nerd easter-eggs.

Probably two-and-a-half stars - it's a perfectly serviceable rollicking-steampunk-adventure novel, just not living up to my self-generated hopes - but ranting about it has tipped me to the lower. ( )

The puns and dialogue were bad enough. The "person is different than they seem" cliche is bad, too. But, some of the action was enoyable. Then, halfway through the book, the female character, Braun, pretends to be a victim of abuse to gain something for a mission, and it is stated she "enjoyed acting this part" or some simliar B.S. Really? REALLY?!?!?!? I had to put it down after that. ( )