In Victorian London, Cherry St. Croix is a lady with an insatiable appetite for adventure. Her attention has been caught by a murder and her quest to solve it takes her deeper into London and further away from what Society expects her to be.
If you like Steampunk and you aren't familiar with the name Karina Cooper, I encourage you to go pick up the first in the St. Croix Chronicles, Tarnished. Go on. I will wait. OK, if you don't want to rush out right now, let me tell you about the second book in the series, GILDED. Foggy, dark and full of mystery, the steampunk elements abound in this book. Let me tell you, folks, this one is really dark. Things didn't happen the way I thought they would a lot of the times, which kept me on my toes and that's a feeling I quite like. The main character, Cherry St. Croix, is, well, a bit hard to like. I do like the fact that she was involved in the circus and learned unique skills while she was there as a child, but her constant drug use and inability to stand up for herself became a bit much. Having said that, dark isn't necessarily bad. A dark main character gives the reader a bit more to chew on, and can be very interesting. Cherry is complex if nothing else, and complex characters are terribly delicious. No simplicity here. I found myself wanting to shake her and tell her to be stronger, suck it up, at times, however, her impulsivity did keep me reading, and I finished this book in one setting. GILDED is a quick, fun read. Pick this one up if you like amazing steampunk settings and want to see the inner workings of a misguided soul. With the jaw-dropping ending, I simply can't wait to know what Ms. Cooper will guide us through in the next installment of the St. Croix Chronicles.
In the gleaming heights of Victorian London, a world of
deception awaits an unconventional Society lady whose taste
for adventure makes her a most formidable adversary . . .
Though Society demands that I make a good marriage, I,
Cherry St. Croix, have neither the time nor the interest. I
am on the trail of a murder with no victim, a mystery with
no motive, and the key to an alchemical formula that could
be my family's legacy.
Yet the world is not so kind as to let me pursue simple
murder and uncomplicated bounties. Above the foggy drift, an
earl insists on my attention, while my friends watch my
increasingly desperate attempts to remain my own woman. From
the silken demands of the Midnight Menagerie—to whose
dangerously seductive ringmaster I owe a debt—to the
rigorous pressures of the peerage, all are conspiring to
place before me a choice that will forever change my life.
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