*Review--The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross*

In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one...except the "thing" inside her...

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a fullgrown man with one punch....

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she’s special, says she’s one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin’s investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help—and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff’s little company of strays apart, and it isn’t long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she’s on—even if it seems no one believes her.

I received this e-ARC from NetGalley for review

Kady Cross' debut The Girl in the Steel Corset was simply amazing! As I have mentioned, I'm easing into steampunk novels, I'm already addicted to Gail Carriger and now Kady Cross makes that list as well! The story was far better than what I expected!!

There's definitely a good story line going on with Finley having this darkness inside of her, it's basically a new twist to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the new company she finds herself in is seems to put her at more ease with herself than she's ever felt before--but it does take time. For her new companions have their own dark secrets that they hide themselves.

Griffin believes that Finley can help him and friends battle the Machinist once and for all. For this man--the Machinist, has done truly evil things.

The "steampunkness" in this novel was truly great! There were times I forgot the year was 1897. I could almost believe it was present day. There were some modern technologies in the making and the machines that were around were pretty interesting to see since it is in the late 1800s.

The pacing was extraordinary as well! Hardly ever a dull moment! It's told in multiple third person p.o.v. so we get to know a little of what everyone's thinking. It wasn't confusing at all (Although with the NetGalley edition, there wasn't any spaces between paragraphs to tell you a change was coming, but it soon became apparent that we had a new narrator. Hopefully this was a just a NetGalley flaw).

There was quite a bit of love interests going on here too. The dreaded love triangle once again, but since it's the first book, the love triangle isn't as potent--that might be the right word. Finley is just getting to know these new people so it's hard to say which guy she'll choose. But there's also another love triangle going on with Emily, the quirky Irish girl who is beyond smart with machines!

This was a fabulous debut read and I was psyched to read it! Might even have to buy myself a keeper copy too! The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger too, nothing too drastic, but it basically leads you to the next book and we have that horrid wait til then! 

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to give steampunk a try! It's a nice YA version of steampunk in ways that reminded me of Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series--wherein the technological gab isn't overly complicated!

Overall rating 5/5 stars

And even though my challenge is completed, I'm still gonna count this as being apart of my 2011 Debut Author Challenge!

The Girl in the Steel Corset releases today, May 24, 2011

Be sure to check out the FREE prequel, The Strange Case of Finley Jayne as well where we get to see what shenanigans Finley got into before meeting up with Griffin!

My review for that will be up shortly!