Karissa E. (ophelia99) reviewed on 7/10/2016 + 2527 more book reviews

I am a huge fan of steampunk novels so I was really excited to start this series. This ended up being just an okay investigative steampunk romance novel. I had some trouble engaging with the characters and the plot, but the world-building was intriguing.

On the surface this book had a number of things I love about steampunk series; the Victorian setting, interesting devices and a heroine that's torn between the underworld and a glittering high society. Unfortunately all of this just kind of fell flat for me. I had trouble engaging with and enjoying Cherry as a character and didn't find any of the surrounding characters to be all that intriguing either (in fact a week after reading this book I would be hard pressed to tell you any of the side characters' names).

The plot mainly involved Cherry tracking down a man who was eviscerating prostitutes (very Jack the Ripper). There is a love triangle between Cherry, a society man, and a man who rules part of the London below. The chemistry between the characters was just so so.

I did enjoy the idea of a London below and some of the world-building around this; that was my favorite part of this book.

Overall an okay investigative steampunk novel but not great. At the end of the book I wasn't dying to read anymore about this world or characters. There are much better steampunks series out there.

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