Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

*NetGalley Book

Amazon Product Description:
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 full-grown 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.

My thougthts:
I couldn't get to this fast enough after finishing The Strange Case of Finley Jayne and  I was not disappointed.  I was already hooked before I finished the first page.  The author is descriptive, creative, and clever with creating both her characters and the world in which they live.  She is detailed to the point where you can literally "see" the story unfold, but never find said details tedious.  She has woven mystery and romance into a steampunk adventure.
The characters are incredible.  I can't even pretend to have a favorite, they are all so easy to love.  Each of the characters has a well-developed personality and the role they are given in the story is unique and yet vital to the others.  The relationships that unfold throughout the story fuel a wide range of emotions.  I love how they test the confines of society, sometime by their very natures.  
The depth of imagination that is required to create such a story astounds me.