Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset

The Girl in the Steel Corset (Steampunk Chronicles, #1), by Kady Cross (*****)

From Goodreads:
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.

From Me:
I REALLY wanted to like this book. I loved the cover art and I was intrigued by the book description - I love a good tough-chick story. I even really enjoyed the characters and the world Cross created. I just couldn't get into the story. It felt like the author was trying to shove all the cool stuff she thought of into this one book rather than saving some of it for the next one (this is the first in a series). It wasn't that what was in the story was bad, there was just too much of it.

That being said, I'll still read the follow-up novel. I loved the Steampunk world and I want to see how the characters develop, particularly Finley Jayne (the girl in the steel corset). I would recommend this book for someone looking to test the waters of Steampunk, but who may not be ready to go into the full blown, hardcore Steampunk world. Though I would suggest Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate first, unless they really just wanted a YA read.

Question for those who have read the book: what in the world is "ropey hair"?