Author: Viola Carr
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Year: Feb 2015
Pages: 440
ISBN: 9780062363084
Series: Electric Empire #1
Genre: Steampunk
Reading Time: Oct 15 - Jan 13 (I put it aside for a while)
Binding: Paperback
Goodreads
Blurb:
In an electric-powered Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a crime scene investigator, hunting killers with inventive new technological gadgets. Now, a killer is splattering London with blood, drugging beautiful women and slicing off their limbs. Catching "the Chopper" could make Eliza's career - or get her burned. Because Eliza has a dark secret. A seductive second half, set free by her father's forbidden magical elixir: wild, impulsive Lizzie Hyde.
When the Royal Society sends their enforcer, the mercurial Captain Lafayette, to prove she's a sorceress, Eliza must resist the elixir with all her power. But as the Chopper case draws her into London'd luminous, magical underworld, Eliza will need all the help she can get. Eve if it means getting close to Lafayette, who harbours an evil curse of his own.
Even if it means risking everything and setting vengeful Lizzie free. . .
Review:
Grabbed by a steampunk cover and drawn in by a mysterious blue eyed man, I'm glad I picked this one up at my local library and intrigued for the rest of the series. Not only was there fulfilling action, there was no shying from the less pleasant side of Victorian London. Whores are mentioned aplenty, but worry not, this is not another A Song of Ice and Fire book, it's mostly mentions to the true history. Carr's use of description is like poetry, beautiful and world building. I opened this book and put it back down for a long time, thrown off by the beginning a bit. I needed to get my other reads out of the way for this one before I tore through it.
We meet both sides of Eliza in the novel, Lizzie's language is rude and feisty where Eliza speaks like a real lady and shudders at bared ankles. It's refreshing to read from the different characters, explore their different voices and attitudes whilst comparing them to the other half of themselves. The build of their relationship is one I'm looking forward to seeing adapt further on in the series. Other characters were just as excellent, so many with secrets to hide that are pretty darn out there, but I'll let you find that out.
The murderer got me until maybe a chapter or two before the reveal, I'd had inklings earlier but that happened for a great many of the characters. That's true testament to Carr, I've so often recently guessed the twists and reveals in plots because I read so much of the same genre. I'm really glad I figured it out later than usual, it kept me reading faster as so much else went on around the murders.
I also love that Carr used chapter names, it can be such a building part of a story, the anticipation gets higher and the reading quicker! The next instalment is The Devious Dr. Jekyll, which I must find immediately of course . . . and, yes, they have it! Must be off, I need to get to the library!
Goodreads
Blurb:
In an electric-powered Victorian London, Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a crime scene investigator, hunting killers with inventive new technological gadgets. Now, a killer is splattering London with blood, drugging beautiful women and slicing off their limbs. Catching "the Chopper" could make Eliza's career - or get her burned. Because Eliza has a dark secret. A seductive second half, set free by her father's forbidden magical elixir: wild, impulsive Lizzie Hyde.
When the Royal Society sends their enforcer, the mercurial Captain Lafayette, to prove she's a sorceress, Eliza must resist the elixir with all her power. But as the Chopper case draws her into London'd luminous, magical underworld, Eliza will need all the help she can get. Eve if it means getting close to Lafayette, who harbours an evil curse of his own.
Even if it means risking everything and setting vengeful Lizzie free. . .
Review:
Grabbed by a steampunk cover and drawn in by a mysterious blue eyed man, I'm glad I picked this one up at my local library and intrigued for the rest of the series. Not only was there fulfilling action, there was no shying from the less pleasant side of Victorian London. Whores are mentioned aplenty, but worry not, this is not another A Song of Ice and Fire book, it's mostly mentions to the true history. Carr's use of description is like poetry, beautiful and world building. I opened this book and put it back down for a long time, thrown off by the beginning a bit. I needed to get my other reads out of the way for this one before I tore through it.
We meet both sides of Eliza in the novel, Lizzie's language is rude and feisty where Eliza speaks like a real lady and shudders at bared ankles. It's refreshing to read from the different characters, explore their different voices and attitudes whilst comparing them to the other half of themselves. The build of their relationship is one I'm looking forward to seeing adapt further on in the series. Other characters were just as excellent, so many with secrets to hide that are pretty darn out there, but I'll let you find that out.
The murderer got me until maybe a chapter or two before the reveal, I'd had inklings earlier but that happened for a great many of the characters. That's true testament to Carr, I've so often recently guessed the twists and reveals in plots because I read so much of the same genre. I'm really glad I figured it out later than usual, it kept me reading faster as so much else went on around the murders.
I also love that Carr used chapter names, it can be such a building part of a story, the anticipation gets higher and the reading quicker! The next instalment is The Devious Dr. Jekyll, which I must find immediately of course . . . and, yes, they have it! Must be off, I need to get to the library!
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