Review: God Save the Queen

Title: God Save the Queen
Author: Kate Locke
Series: The Immortal Empire #1
Publisher: Orbit
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC

The undead matriarch of a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath), Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day, and leeches are considered a delicacy. And a world where technology lives side by side with magic. The year is 2012 and Pax Britannia still reigns.

Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it is her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But when her sister goes missing, Xandra will set out on a path that undermines everything she believed in and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire. And she is the key-the prize in a very dangerous struggle.

My thoughts: 

I thought this was a really interesting book! I really enjoyed the world building and the development of the creatures. Locke described it kind of like an evolution and the royal families evolved into the vampires that they are in the present time in God Save the Queen. It’s a very unique take on a world with vampires, werewolves, faeries, goblins and half bloods of everything in between!

I do have to say that Xandra is a pretty awesome main character! She’s part of the royal guard and had devoted her life to protecting the members of the aristocrat. She’s also a halvie so in her case she is half vampire and half human. Or is she? In the beginning of the book, one of her sisters, who has been at Bedlam, the mental institution, has gone missing and it sends Xandra on a mission and she ends up uncovering a lot of secrets about her family and the royals.

Looking for her sister brings her to meeting a very hot werewolf and I believe he is the leader of the werewolves of Scotland. This book became very confusing for me because I didn’t know there was a glossary of terms in the back. Soon, they get to know each other very well and they become lovers which I expected to be really fun because I thought this was an adult novel. But the author just skips right over all the sexy times. I’ve read some YA novels that were more graphic than God Save the Queen.

I also thought the cover was very misleading. The girl on the front is totally decked out in awesome steampunk cloths yet the steampunk is very minimal in the book. I expected more of a Girl in the Steel Corset (same author) feel but it definitely wasn’t there. I really enjoyed the vampire skulls on the cover; those are really awesome!

Overall, I was just a little disappointed. The cover and synopsis of God Save the Queen gave me expectations that were not met in the story. But the world building was interesting enough that I gave it 3 hearts because I will probably continue the series to find out what happened with the characters!

Review- The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Title: The Girl in the Steel Corset
Author: Kady Cross
Series: Steampunk Chronicles #1
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: Purchased

In 1897 England, 16-year-old Finley Jayne is convinced she's a freak. 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 . . . that she's one of "them."

My thoughts: 

I really want to love steampunk. I do! But steampunk and I have not had the best track record. I read Clockwork Angel before I even knew there was a genre called steampunk and then realizing how much I loved it I decided to read another steampunk novel. So I picked up The Iron Thorn and it was absolutely horrendous which is why the Girl in the Steel Corset sat on my shelves for so many months. I had to get over my trauma! So I was pretty skeptical coming into this book but I’m so glad I finally picked it up!

I really enjoyed the changing of perspectives throughout this book because, honestly, Finley was not my favorite character. From Finley, we get most of the book and we get to see how she is feeling and the way that she has dealt with this alter ego or darkness that she has mysteriously had inside herself her whole life. From Griffin, we get the history of his family and coincidently, Finley’s family as well and see the results of the science experiments their fathers worked on together.

Jack is such a great character! He’s wealthy, handsome, dangerous, dark and mysterious which makes him a perfect bad boy type! But bad boy in the 19th century! So of course, there’s somewhat of a love triangle going on between bad boy Jack and good guy Griffin vying for Finley’s affections. But it’s not an annoying love triangle so it’s really a tossup between the two of them for me.

I really loved Emily and Sam! Emily has a knack for working on machines and discovers that she can even communicate with them. Sam, whom she is in love with, is gravely injured before the story starts and she replaces many of his body parts with machine. They’re so cute because they’re constantly dancing around the chemistry that they have and everyone can see it! I really hope we get to see more Emily and Sam in the next book!

The Girl in the Steel Corset is such a rich story! Not only is the main storyline a mystery about an evil man called the Machinist but the reader also gets a good amount of history and the character’s pasts. I have to give The Girl in the Steel Corset 4.5 hearts for making me fall back in love with steampunk.

In My Mailbox (17)

In My Mailbox is an awesome way to connect with our blogger and reader friends and share which amazing books we received, bought or borrowed during the week! This weekly meme is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.



Review:

The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

Bought:

Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz

Forgive My Finds by Tera Lynn Childs

Zombie Felties

Steampunk Softies: 8 Scientifically-Minded Dolls From a Past that Never Was

Won:

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (Thank you Mindful Musings!)

What did you get in your mailbox? Let me know!