Review of Brenda Williamson's Under Her Brass Corset

Title: Under Her Brass Corset
Author: Brenda Williamson
Publisher: Carina Press
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: February 27, 2012
Rating: 2.75 out of 5

The title and cover of this novel are a bit misleading. Under Her Brass Corset appears at first glance to be a steampunk novel, but in fact it is more fantasy, with a few steampunk elements. While I found the premise of the novel interesting - an immortal captain falls for the young woman he’s been watching over since childhood - I found the book to be a bit disjointed. The book isn’t badly written; it just isn’t well written either, so I have a hard time recommending it.

Set in what seems to be Victorian England but is never really identified as such, the novel begins with Abigail Thatch making her way home alone, attempting to avoid any dangerous encounters. She meets Captain Jasper Blackthorn in what appears to be a fortuitous meeting, and there’s an instant chemistry between them. Abigail informs her new friend that her father was recently murdered during an attempted burglary, and she is unable to make the mortgage payments on the house, which will soon lead to foreclosure on her family home.

But after another burglary attempt is made, Captain Jasper Blackthorn discovers the object the thief was looking for - a globe that can point out the location of an elixir that grants immortality. The Captain is an immortal and has looked out for Abigail and her family for generations, and he realizes that this compass, long believed lost, can only attract more danger to the vulnerable Abigail. He steals the compass, little realizing that Abigail would follow him to his steam powered ship and climb aboard, insisting on joining him in his adventures. But the honorable captain finds this spirited young woman irresistible. Can he convince the skeptical Abigail of both his love and his immortality?

This novel started out with a great deal of promise. Abigail comes across as very brave in the face of daunting circumstances, namely her father’s death and the imminent foreclosure on her home. She’s very attracted to Jasper, and he is mysterious yet sympathetic. I was a bit surprised, however, by how quickly Abigail jumps into bed with Jasper. I just never felt very invested in the hero and heroine, and their romance, while steamy, didn’t draw me in. Jasper is supposed to be much, much older, yet he acts as though he’s only a few years older than Abigail. When I looked back over my notes about the book, the beginning of their physical relationship seems to be the point where the book goes downhill for me.

Once Abigail and Jasper are on his flying ship (one of the few steampunk elements in the novel), their physical relationship goes into high gear, despite Abigail’s refusal to believe Jasper’s assertions that he is immortal and that she’s related to the infamous pirate Blackbeard, who Jasper claims is also immortal. The action also picks up at this point. We learn about the elixir and its Avalon connection, and all that entails. I was surprised by what felt like a sudden shift in genre from steampunk to fantasy. I don’t particularly mind when an author mixes genres, but it felt awkward in this novel, since the book began in one genre then switched to another with little transition.

This wasn’t badly written, but it wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped. I would feel badly if a friend spent her money on this book, so I can’t really recommend it.

Review of Anthology A Clockwork Christmas

Title: A Clockwork Christmas

Authors: Stacy Gail, PG Forte, Jenny Schwartz, JK Coi

Publisher: Carina Press

Format: eBook

Source: NetGalley

Publication Date: December 5, 2011

Rating: 4 out of 5

I love reading steampunk novels, so when I saw this anthology of Christmas themed steampunk novellas for review on NetGalley, I couldn’t wait to read it. When I finally sat down to write this review, I learned that each novella is also available for individual sale, which is a really nice feature. Kudos to Carina Press for offering this option - I’d love to see more publishers offer stories in anthologies that way! That said, I felt that this anthology was a really solid collection, and I liked each of the novellas, which is unusual.

Stacy Gail’s Crime Wave in a Corset

The decision to place this novella first in the collection was excellent. Crime Wave in a Corset draws the reader in from the beginning, and you’ll soon find yourself rooting for the dubious heroine, Cornelia Peabody, thief. Cornelia’s fought her way from the streets and invents all sorts of clever contraptions to aid her robbing organizations such as the local university. Unfortunately, one of her more successful jobs, stealing a Fabergé egg, has come back to haunt her.

Roderick Coddington (Coddington is NOT the best last name for a hero, imo) ambushes Cornelia in her home. That Fabergé egg belonged to his beloved Beth, who died shortly after its disappearance. He attaches a deadly timepiece to Cornelia’s wrist, and if she can’t recover the egg in a week, the timepiece will kill her.

Ms. Gail did a great job of this enemies-turned-lovers novella. At first Roderick comes across as unlikeable, even though he’s not the villain , but Cornelia is a very likeable character, and you’ll enjoy watching the two fall in love. 4 out of 5

PG Forte’s This Winter Heart

Ophelia Leonides finds herself destitute after her father’s death and forced to return to the husband who abandoned her in order to support their son, Arthur. Her husband, Dario, is part of a powerful family in the Republic of New Texacali after the Civil War, and is not at all inclined to help his estranged wife. Since he believed her to be barren, he’s even less likely to accept that Arthur’s his son, but the resemblance is undeniable. Can the marriage be saved, or will Dario refuse to accept his wife for what she is – a women with a heart and feelings.

I love reunion romances, so this was a winner for me. Once Ophelia’s dark secret is revealed, it’s very easy to see why Dario would have rejected her. The only problem I had with the novella has to do with Ophelia’s secret, which is only explained in a very vague sort of way. Steampunk technology doesn’t have to be completely explained for me (in fact, I’d prefer that it not be), but I was fairly puzzled over how Ophelia’s father had pulled off what he had. 4 out of 5

Jenny Schwartz’s Wanted: One Scoundrel

This novella doesn’t feature steampunk technology as much as the others, but I found it to be a romantic read. Esme Smith is the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Australia, and she’s an ardent suffragette. Unfortunately, she’s not able to enter the men’s clubs where much of the political debate takes place, so she decides to hire a scoundrel to espouse her views where she cannot. Her uncle introduces her to American Jed Reeve, an inventor, and he’s so intrigued by the beauty that he agrees to her scheme without letting her know that she’s mistaken about his lack of funds.

Ms. Schwartz’s novella reads more like a traditional historical romance with a few steampunk elements, but it’s delightful none the less. The more Jed learns about Esme, the more he admires her intelligence and spirit, and I enjoyed the Australian setting, and Esme is a suffragette we could all root for. 4 out of 5

JK Coi’s Far from Broken

This was darkest contribution to the collection, because the steampunk elements are used to modify injured characters, almost like a member of the Borg from Star Trek. This isn’t necessarily a new element of steampunk – I love Meljean Brook’s Iron Duke series, and many of the characters in that series have prosthetics – but I found this novella to be somewhat disturbing because of the hero’s initial treatment of his wife.

Coronel Jasper Carlisle is a spy, married to prima ballerina Calliope (Callie). While he’s away from home, his wife is tortured by his enemies, and Carlisle spirits his injured wife to a military hospital, where she’s fitted with a prosthetic eye, hand, and legs. What bothered me the most about this story is that the Coronel leaves his wife alone in the hospital for the four months of her recovery, only returning later in an attempt to salvage their marriage. I liked Callie’s character, and the world building was fascinating, but I felt like Callie should have used her new iron legs to punt her husband across the room for his abandonment, and even with the romantic resolution I was a little miffed at Carlisle. 3.5 out of 5

Early Review of Clay & Susan Griffith’s The Rift Walker (Vampire Empire #2)

You have no idea how excited I was on Friday when I made my usual run through Barnes & Noble after dinner and spotted a copy of The Rift Walker on the shelves. Actually, I kind of stood there looking at the book in a strange sort of trance, because I really didn’t believe my eyes. The book’s not supposed to be out until September, and last I checked we were still in August, although the way this summer’s been flying by I would not have been all that surprised to discover that, yes, we were in fact in September and I’d missed a few weeks. But my trusty smart phone confirmed that the long-awaited sequel to The Greyfriar is not supposed to be released until September, and yet there it was in front of me on the shelf! I somehow managed to contain my high pitched shriek of joy, snatched the book from the shelves and ran to the front to buy it, just in case the staff realized their error and tried to tackle me before I could reach the doors. Good luck with that, you latte drinking, all black wearing hipsters!!! I stayed up late last night to finish the book, and it. was. AWESOME. You know your favorite Indiana Jones movie? The one with all the heart-pounding action, romance, and a little magic? My friends, you must read The Rift Walker, because reading it is just like watching Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade. You will not be able to put it down!

Any review of The Rift Walker will contain spoilers for the first book in the Vampire Empire series, The Greyfriar, so if you haven’t read the first book, you might want to read my review of it here. The Rift Walker can stand on its own, but you will definitely enjoy the book all the more if you’ve read the first in the series.

The Rift Walker picks up only three months after The Greyfriar ends. Princess Adele of Equatoria has returned to Alexandria after her ordeal in the north of Europe. Her story has become immensely popular in Equatoria, resulting in the publication of penny dreadfuls and plays depicting her kidnapping by vampires and subsequent rescue by the Greyfriar. Her American fiancé Senator Miles Clark is pressing her to set a date for their political marriage, but Adele lost her heart to the Greyfriar in his castle in Edinburgh, despite learning that the Greyfriar was in fact the vampire Prince Gareth. Senator Clark’s military expertise is vital to the humans’ plans to declare war against the vampires to the north, but his bravado and arrogance repulse Adele. She’s further horrified to learn that his plans for the north include fire-bombing as many humans in the vampires’ terrain as possible, as that will kill off their food supply and weaken the enemy. Her protests fall on deaf ears, and her father, Emperor Constantine II, orders their marriage within the next two weeks. When vampire Gareth learns that his brother Cesare plans to abduct Adele during her honeymoon, he travels to Alexandria and interrupts the royal wedding to whisk Adele away to safety.  While the Equatorians and Adele’s husband Senator Clark give chase, the lovers seek a safe haven, little realizing that their actions have allowed Equatorian Prime Minister Lord Kelvin the opportunity to seize power.

Really, this book has it all. The action is non-stop, with several storylines running at once. The vampires are uniting under Cesare, and Gareth’s attempts to protect the humans while maintaining his secret identity as the Greyfriar are becoming increasingly less effective. Princess Adele is forced to acquiesce to her father’s demands that she fulfill her duty and marry the bellicose Senator Clark, despite her reports that the humans in the north need the assistance of the Equatorians. And it becomes clear that there are several different factions seeking to control Equatoria through Adele. Her mysterious teacher Mamoru is training her to use the powers she discovered in the north, and while these powers could spell the end to the vampires, they could also mean the end of Gareth, her love.

The constant action will keep you on the edge of your seat, and I kept wondering how the political intrigue could be resolved in one book, especially since there is a third book planned. I should not have doubted the authors, because the immediate situation was resolved while still maintaining the vampire threat. The various political betrayals and underhanded dealings will leave you gasping, but you’ll also cheer when the obnoxious Clark gets his comeuppance. The authors really draw you in with this aspect of the novel, because everyone seems to have their own agenda regarding Adele and her role as future empress and vampire killer. Some of Adele’s friends prove themselves more than trustworthy, while others make you wonder if more betrayal is yet to come.

Princess Adele definitely matures in this novel, and she is a heroine you will root for over and over again. In The Greyfriar she was still a young, idealistic girl forced to revise long-accepted truths about vampires and humans, but in The Rift Walker she faces difficult choices as future empress and as a woman. She wishes to be the best ruler possible but begins to realize that her love for Gareth might not have a happy ending, since he is the only vampire who values human life. Watching her transform into the empress of Equatoria is exciting and poignant, since we know any future with Gareth will be precarious at best, and the romance with the vampire prince is as touching as it is forbidden.  Gareth is perfect hero material, and it’s a pleasure to witness his  pride in Adele’s deft choices in the face of adversity.

The Rift Walker is an outstanding adventure that will leave you breathless. I couldn’t put the book down, and it’s going to be a long, long wait for the third installment! I thought The Greyfriar was one of the best books I’ve read this year, and The Rift Walker more than exceeded any expectations I might have had for a sequel. I highly recommend this one. Well done, Clay and Susan Griffith!

Review of Anthology Wild & Steamy by Meljean Brook, Jill Myles, and Carolyn Crane

This anthology is a quick read by three outstanding authors, and priced at $0.99, it’s a steal! I highly recommend it! 

The Blushing Bounder (Iron Seas #0.4) by Meljean Brook

I love, love, love Meljean Brook’s Iron Seas series, so I was thrilled to read this prequel about Constable Newberry, Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth’s trusty assistant. If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s set in a steampunk world in London. You can easily delve right into the novella without having read any of the other books, although I think you’ll enjoy the novella more if you have read the others. The story begins in the small flat of Temperance Newberry, an immigrant from what used to be the United States. She and Constable Edward Newberry have recently married, because he compromised her by kissing her. If that seems a bit prudish to you, you’re not alone, because it strikes Detective Inspector Wentworth as outlandish. Temperance is consumptive, and her husband moved them to London to have her infected with bugs, microscopic machines that will heal her. Thus far she’s refused to be infected, since she’s terrified of becoming a zombie after death. However, she witnesses a murder, and in the course of Newberry’s investigation, she learns to broaden her mind. This novella was a pleasure to read and a great introduction to the steampunk genre.

Vixen by Jill Myles

This novella features Miko, a kitsune, or, as she prefers, were-fox. She’s an artist living out in the countryside in an attempt to avoid her were-fox nature.  Were-foxes have voracious sexual appetites, but after witnessing her mother’s constant stream of boyfriends and lovers, Miko has decided to suppress that aspect of her nature by avoiding temptation. Her mother has other plans, however, and sends two sexy cat shifters, Jeremiah and Sam, to serve as bodyguards. It seems that Miko’s cousin was recently hunted in a fox hunt, and her mother’s worried that Miko could be next. That the two cat shifters are very attracted to Miko is just a side benefit. A cute shifter ménage story.

Kitten-tiger & the Monk (Disillusionists #2.5) by Carolyn Crane

What I most enjoy about Ms. Crane’s Disillusionist triology is the moral ambiguity. You just never know if a character is the bad guy or the good. The answer, of course, is that no one is truly one or the other, so her novels make for exciting reading, because you don’t know who to trust. The ending of her second novel, Double Cross, was a shocker, so I was pleased to see this novella since the third book won’t be published until December. I wasn’t pleased, though, when I saw that Sophia Sidway was the heroine of this novella. If you haven’t read the books, you’ll still be able to understand the novella, but you probably won’t hate Sophia quite the way I did. In fact, my reaction to Sophia’s dilemma in the novella was somewhere along the lines of “Die, Witch, Die!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Of course, I had to eat my words, because in a short novella, Ms. Crane managed to convince me that Sophia is not completely good but she’s also not as bad as I originally thought. Once again there’s more of that pesky moral ambiguity, which makes for a fascinating read, even if I’m a bit disgruntled about her salvaging Stinky Sophia.

In the novella, Sophia has been sent by the leader of the Disillusionists to another member of the team, the Monk. Sophia needs the Monk’s help so she can find the Tanglemaster. She’s sick of herself and wants the Tanglemaster to disillusion her (and he would have had my blessing, that’s for sure!). Sophia’s stunned to discover that the Monk is none other than Robert, her teenage sweetheart, whom she cruelly betrayed years ago. How the situation is resolved, plus the history behind the couple, make this one a winner.

Review of The Greyfriar, plus Links to Sales

After a fun-filled visit to family, I took a few days off from the blog to recuperate. But as you well know, no vacation would be complete without books, and I read plenty. I also decided to clear out my shelves a bit and give the Goodreads bookswap program a try, while adding to my kindle library with Amazon Sunshine deals and sales from Avon and Hachette. I’ve included some links at the bottom of this post so you can check out the sales yourself.

Easily my favorite read of the vacation was The Greyfriar by Clay and Susan Griffith. It’s currently part of Amazon’s Sunshine Sale until June 15, and is a great book! This steampunk novel features an exciting world with vampires and magic, and the characters really stick with you long after you’ve finished the novel. In 1870 the vampires organized and attacked the humans, causing the demise of western culture and forcing the humans to flee south. The novel takes place 150 years after the initial attack, known as ‘The Great Killing,’ and the humans are working together to begin a war to regain their territories in Europe and the former US. The technology of this steampunk world is entirely believable because of the devastation wrought by the vampire attack in the 19^th century, and we learn about this technology mostly through the characters’ travel and battles with the vampires.

The novel begins with Princess Adele and young Prince Simon of Equatoria traveling to the border of their lands, only to be attacked and separated by vampires. Princess Adele is captured by the vampires, but a mysterious man called the Greyfriar attempts to rescue her. When his attempt is unsuccessful, she’s carried off to London by the vampires. Her father has arranged a marriage with an American war hero, Senator Clark, who arrives in Equatoria to meet his bride, only to learn that she’s been abducted by the vampires. He mounts a rescue attempt, not realizing that Princess Adele is taking care of that herself. In London, Adele meets King Dimitry, the senile leader of the vampire hoard, and his two sons, Cesare and Gareth, and witnesses the brutality of the vampires while learning that vampire politics are as complex as those of the human world. The novel ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but the arc of the story was resolved to my satisfaction, and I really enjoyed the romance between Adele and the Greyfriar.

The novel’s strengths are many. Both the protagonists and the secondary characters are well-rounded and the writers do an excellent job of switching points of view clearly. The Princess’ interactions with the various vampires in the former Great Britain force her to revise her opinions on vampire character, allowing her to develop as a woman and the future empress of Equatoria. She learns about prejudice and finds her own strength of character, all while beginning a romance. The mystery of who is Greyfriar is resolved fairly quickly in the novel, but Adele’s growing relationship with him allows the reader to realize along with her that vampires and their relationships are as nuanced as that of humans. The steampunk elements of the novel are integral parts of the fictional world and are seamlessly integrated into the action-packed narrative. This is the first of a trilogy and I’m really looking forward to the next installment, The Rift Walker, due out in September.

Book Sale Links

Here are the promised links for the book sales. Amazon is running their Sunshine Deals until June 15. The books are for the Kindle, although you can download them to your smart phone, iPad, or computer if you don’t have a Kindle. They cost between $0.99 and $2.99, and they span lots of different genres, including romance, business, children’s lit, self-help and others. Several of the Agency Publishers have also announced sales on ebooks, but those are not being promoted as heavily by Amazon. DearAuthor.com has put together a list of ebooks on sale by Avon and Hachette, and there’s also a link to explain how you can search on Amazon by publisher. Amazon’s decision to put non-Agency ebooks on sale has generated some interesting discussion about self-publishing and Amazon’s role in promoting books. I know that the books I’ve purchased that were part of the Sunshine Deals are published in trade paperback, which means they normally cost $9.99 for the Kindle. I never try a new author for $9.99, so this has been a great way for me to try new authors relatively risk-free.

Steampunk: Sid Vicious, meet Queen Victoria

Thanks to Georgette Heyer, I’ve always been a fan of the regency romance. But in recent years I’ve started reading more paranormal and contemporary romances, and by chance I picked up Gail Carriger’s Soulless, which combines a paranormal romance with a Victorian setting. It turns out that Carriger’s novel is an excellent example of the steampunk genre. For those of you who, like me, have never heard of steampunk, Meljean Brook describes it on her webpage as “historical science fiction.”[i] Steampunk novels feature anachronistic technology that relies on steam, so you’ll see a lot of dirigibles for air travel and mechanical devices powered by steam engines. Two really great examples of the steampunk genre that I’ve read recently are Gail Carriger’s Soulless and Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke, and if you’re looking for fun, interesting books with amazing world-building, I can highly recommend both.

Gail Carriger’s Soulless

Ms. Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series currently includes three novels (Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless), and all three are laugh out loud funny. The first of the series, Soulless, introduces Carriger’s heroine, Alexia Tarabotti. The novel begins during a dreadfully dull ball, and Alexia is hiding in the library, only to be accosted by a vampire. Instead of being alarmed by the vampire’s appearance, Alexia is indignant that the vampire would dare approach her without a proper introduction. She chides the vamp (“Manners!”) as she defends herself with her trusty parasol by bopping him on the head, then accidentally killing him with her hair pin. To prevent scandal, she feigns a swoon when she hears others approaching, although she is more distressed that the dead vampire fell on the treacle tart, thus robbing her of a proper tea.   

In this alternate version of Victorian England, supernatural beings are an everyday occurrence. Alexia is on the shelf, as she is in her mid-twenties, half-Italian, and quite intelligent, and it is made clear to the reader that in good society, any one of those qualities would have been enough to doom her to spinsterhood. Additionally she has quite the forceful personality, which results in hilarious conversations with her asinine family and the supernatural beings in the novel. Her interactions with Lord Conall Maccon, the alpha werewolf of the London pack, are delightfully witty. He cannot understand why men are not more interested in her, since she is no shrinking violet and possesses a superb figure. That does not prevent his objecting to her attempts to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearances of rove vampires and werewolves. Alexia is determined to find some useful occupation for herself, since marriage is clearly (to her mind) out of the question. Add in Alexia’s preternatural state, which allows her to return any supernatural being to a human state with merely a touch, and you have a mix of characteristics that make for a fascinating and funny heroine. If you’re looking for a light-hearted mystery and romance, I highly recommend Gail Carriger’s Soulless!

Meljean Brook The Iron Duke

Meljean Brook’s novel also takes place in England, features steam-powered airships, and has a strong-willed heroine. However, the world in which the action takes place is much darker than that of Ms. Carriger’s novel. Two hundred years before the novel begins, an Asiatic Horde (think Ghengis Khan with technology) overtook Europe and Great Britain by infecting sugar with nanoagents called bugs. These bugs healed anyone infected with them, but they also allowed the Horde to use radio waves to control anyone infected. The British unknowingly infected themselves by consuming sugar with their tea and crumpets, which made it all too easy for the Horde to conquer England. The Horde maintained control of the population by building a tower in London that emitted radio waves that would control the bugs. These radio waves then left the person infected at the mercy of the Horde – he would remain completely aware while his body would be out of his control.

The novel begins twenty years after the titular Iron Duke, Rhys Trahaearn, sails his pirate ship up the Thames and blasts the Horde’s Tower to bits. England is now free from the Horde’s control, but most people are still infected by the bugs. The aristocrats and wealthy merchants who fled England when the Horde conquered the island have returned, uninfected. The conflict between those infected with the bugs (buggers) and those who have prospered in the New World (bounders) takes center stage when the heroine, Mina, is called from a Victory Ball celebration to the Iron Duke’s estate. Mina is a Detective Inspector with Scotland Yard, but she is also a product of her mother’s rape at the hands of the Horde during one of the Horde induced sexual frenzies. As a result, her features are clearly Asiatic, and she experiences harassment on a daily basis from Londoners still bitter over Horde occupation. Once she arrives at the Iron Duke’s estate, she discovers that a corpse has been dropped on his house from an airship, and she must solve the mystery of the man’s death while attempting to defend herself from Trahaearn’s amorous advances.

Brook has created a detailed and compelling world in her novel. Mina is a complex and principled heroine who longs to give in to her desire for the Iron Duke but knows that doing so would result in her and her family’s ruin. How Brook resolves this difficulty while the two protagonists solve the mystery and save the day makes for a fascinating read.

---

[i] http://meljeanbrook.com/blog/archives/2609