100 Book Challenge - Book 38 - The Girl in the Clockwork Collar

Book 38 / 100

Book: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar (The Steampunk Chronicles #2)

Author: Kady Cross

ISBN: 978-0-373-21082-4

Pages: 368

Of course I had to get the second book in Kady Cross’s Steampunk Chronicles, who wouldn’t after the first one? And I wasn’t disappointed.

Following their friend Jasper across the ocean from London to New York, Finley Jayne and her band of misfits go head to head with a crime boss intent on using Jasper to locate the pieces of a machine. To what end? Well, that’s just one of the many things they’ll have to discover along the way.

Jasper meanwhile is in the clutches of Dalton, a ruthless man who is holding the life of the woman Jasper loves hostage with the help of a clockwork collar that will strangle her if the wrong person touches it.

As the story takes us from the rough streets of lower Manhattan to the elegant Fifth Avenue, we find Griffin King, The Duke of Greythorne at war with himself over his growing attraction to Finley, Sam, more machine than man, finds his heart being tested, and the sweet Irish Emily, who can talk to machines, finds that the streets can be dangerous if one isn’t careful.

To help her friends Finley must go undercover in Dalton’s gang. But can she pull herself away from the dark side after everything is done?

Rating… 5 out of 5 gears. While a few small bits dragged a little, overall this was a great read, I love the seamless blending of the late 1890s with the steam powered inventions, and I especially enjoyed the guest appearance by Nikola Tesla!

100 Book Challenge - Book 37 - Through the Killing Glass

Book 37 / 100

Book: Through The Killing Glass (Alice in Deadland #2)

Author: Mainak Dhar

ASIN: B007M4I6NA

Pages: 183 (I’m averaging this with book one that I previously reviewed so together they total 413 pages)

It’s been more than two years since Alice’s adventures began, over two years since she first followed a Biter with rabbit ears down a hole. With the help of the biters and the humans living in the Deadland she’s fought the Chinese Red Guard to a standstill and the survivors have begun to rebuild a society, beginning in a place they call Wonderland.

But sometimes people mistake quietness for safety and peace. When Alice is ousted from the government of Wonderland and the guard patrols reduced, it can mean only one thing. The Chinese Central Committee are beginning a new, much more insidious, campaign to take control of the Deadland.

A campaign that utilizes a new breed of Biters and Alice’s most formidable opponent yet, someone just like her, a biter/human hybrid known as The Red Queen!

Rating: 5 out of 5 Shotguns. This was a really fun journey, after the twist ending of book one, I just had to see how things ended. If you’ve read Alice in Deadland then you have to read this book. It’s an interesting take on things, and offers the reader a glimpse at how humans react and how they, more than likely, stab each other in the back at the first opportunity.

100 Book Challenge - Book 36 - Alice in Deadland

Book 36 / 100

Book: Alice in Deadland (Alice in Deadland #1)

Author: Mainak Dhar

ASIN: B006AQYAA4

Pages: 230

The end of the world came. Fifteen years ago the world was laid to waste, leaving behind it a wasteland and the remnants of the human race struggle to survive. Their plight is made terrifying by the hoards of undead Biters that attack and convert any living and moving human.

Teenager Alice has spent her life in the Deadland that was once the thriving country of India, where her education consisted of combat and survival. One day while out hunting Alice spots a Biter, wearing bunny ears, disappear into a hole in the ground. Following him, Alice finds herself in a fabled underground Biter base.

What Alice discovers there changes not only her understanding of the Biters and their origin, but it will change life for everyone in the Deadland, and maybe the entire world. The truth about the nuclear war, The Rising and the rise of the Biters could spell ruin or freedom for Alice and the other humans.

While in the base Alice comes face to face with the Queen of the Biters, and her destiny is revealed, her destiny to one day free the enslaved humans and bring peace between humans and the Biters. A destiny foretold in a prophesy by the Queen, a prophesy based upon the charred remains of the last book in the Deadland… A book called Alice in Wonderland.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Shotguns. Okay, I admit, it was a little slow to start, but the story is catchy. A dystopian tale of survival in the face of overwhelming odds, we go on the ride along with Alice as she learns the truth, and then begins the fight to bring freedom and revenge to those who need it.

I admit, this isn’t my normal faire when it comes to genres, but if dystopian tales are this good maybe I’ll have to look into other ones.