Favorites Friday 4/5/13 and The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Hey everybody! Cassia here! Sorry I haven't been keeping up with Favs Fri lately. :'( On the bright side, April is Camp NaNoWriMo! Both Max and I are doing it. She's writing one called "Lucky Me," and I'm writing one titled "The Effect." We might post our summaries later, but--at least for me--it's still early, and the summary might change. So, here's our favorites from the past...long time, and a review of The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross.

Max:
Max's favorite she recently read is Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. It's the second book in the Lunar Chronicles, and she gives it five stars! Apparently--and coincidentally--she wrote the first book in the series during NaNoWriMo 2008. See what good things can come out of forcing yourself to write a novel in a month? ;)

Cassia:
My favorite I read recently is the book you'll see the review for in a minute, The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross. It was pretty good, and I loved Griff. :D Lots of action and romance all blended together very nicely. Four stars! Oh, wait, besides Clockwork Princess. But I don't count that, because you already saw my reaction to it. So, Clockwork Princess first, The Girl in the Steel Corset next.

Tessa:
Tessa's favorite she read recently is Flash Point by Nancy Kress. She says it's about a reality TV show gone wrong. Ooooh, I have to read that. (Go on www.merryfates.com and read "Rain Maker" by Maggie Stiefvater. That reminds me of it.) Of course, I'm going to make the same exception of Clockwork Princess for her, too.

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

There has always been something...wild about Finley. A rebellious streak that shows itself more than she likes. And she can’t control it, no matter how hard she tries. When she meets Griffin King, though, that might be able to change. Then there’s also Jack Dandy. For all his felonies, he is charming, and accepts her for who she is. The darkness in her is growing stronger--and she must choose between two equally attractive young men.

A steel corset. A regular corset doesn’t sound comfortable, so a steel one? Ugh. You will never catch me in one. It’s actually described in the book, and it doesn’t sound so bad the way Cross describes it, ironically. This book is a fantasy, and if you’re wondering what it’s about, I don’t want to spoil it, so I’m not going to tell you. I will tell you that it has to do with Finley’s “dark side,” though. It is also classified as steampunk, which is the Victorian era in England, preferably London that may contain automatons, and around that time, all the energy was focused around steam engines, hence the steam in steampunk.

I quite liked Finley a lot. She’s brave and never gives up, no matter how hopeless it may seem, and just a good person overall. Cross creates a challenge with her: her dark side. It makes it hard to identify who she is, so you really have to look deep to decide. It’s a--surprise!--love triangle: Griff and Dandy both love Finley. I grew fond of Dandy, and I hope he’s in the next book. Now, Griffin...I like him better. He is a gentleman (well, so is Dandy, but in a different way), and wants to help Finley. Dandy does too, but I just like Griff better. Even the minor characters in the book are carefully constructed: Sam, Sophie, even Finley’s mother.

Cross creates a lovely historical world with incredible, almost-but-not-quite painstaking detail, and a storm of emotions that will leave the reader confused but hungering for more. Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go get my hands on the second book.

Four stars!

Goodbye for now,

Cassia