Let me start by saying this: Finley Jayne is a badass. And I like badass girls with superhuman strength and a little bit of an evil side. Which is why I wanted to love this book, but there were a few things that stopped that from happening:First, I’ve never read Steampunk before, and maybe it’s just not my thing, but I didn’t quite understand the point of writing a novel in this genre. It seemed (to me, while reading) that a lot of the amenities, gadgets and vehicles these characters used in the story were a little too unbelievable for the late 1800’s. And like I said, maybe this is the point of Steampunk, but it was hard for me not to ask why the story itself wasn’t just set in modern times. It detracted from my believability on what was happening because I kept stopping to question whether they really would have had things like that in that time period. Second, while I liked Finley (see: badassery), the other characters kind of fell short for me. To me, Griff should have/could have been a great love interest, but I never really got the attraction. Other than the fact that he’s this rich Duke who’s agreed to take her into his home, what else was there? For as much set up as there was in the book, I felt like there could have been a little bit more devotion to the romance between the two of them. (Maybe that’s just my sappy side wishing for more swoons). Especially since Dandy was thrown into the mix to create a bit of a love triangle, it would have been nice to see Griff really want it. Or even Finley for that matter. It was more like three stick figures on a page with post-its stuck to them that said: “Girl” another that said “Love Interest #1” and lastly “Love Interest #2” but that was about as dimensional as it got.To sum it up, the story was good, but I wanted more in some parts and less in others.
