Review: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar (The Steampunk Chronicles #2) by Kady Cross

Title: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar

Series: The Steampunk Chronicles #2

Previous book in this series: The Girl in the Steel Corset (#1)

Author: Kady Cross

Genre: YA, steampunk, historical

Publication date: May 2012

Published by: Harlequin Teen

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis: In New York City, 1897, life has never been more thrilling-or dangerous Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper from the clutches of a devious criminal demanding a trade-the dangerous device Jasper stole from him... for the life of the girl Jasper loves.

One false move from Jasper, and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens and tightens. From the rough streets of lower Manhattan to elegant Fifth Avenue, the motley crew of teens follows Jasper's elusive trail. And they're about to discover how far they'll go for friendship.

More than ever, Finley must rely on powerful English duke Griffin King to balance her dark magic with her good side. Yet Griffin is at war with himself over his secret attraction to Finley... and will risk his life and reputation to save her.

Now, to help those she's come to care for so deeply, Finley must infiltrate the criminal gang. Only problem is, she might like the dark side a little too much...

My rating: ★★★★☆

The gang is off to the US to help their friend Jasper, who is in some real trouble. It turns out that Jasper stole some device from some thug and now he wants it back. And said thug is threatening Jasper with Mei, a girl he cares about. I’m not gonna lie though, I was not a fan of Mei as soon as we met her. I felt bad for Jasper and the situation he was in, especially because he seemed to care about her a lot, but I just did not care for their relationship 😬

So you can imagine my complete lack of surprise when we find out that Mei was in on this whole thing from the start! This clockwork collar she had around her neck, the one that could supposedly kill her, she was able to get out of it at any point! She was just fucking with Jasper and his emotions to get this dumb device back for Dalton, the guy I suspected she was into from the start. UGH. She was suspicious right from the start.

I liked the story and the idea of Finley doing some infiltration, even if the turn of events were totally predictable. And I liked the characters (you know, besides Mei 😅). I love fierce Emily and badass Finley. And I also loved that Sam and Finley were starting to get along more. That was nice. And of course, I love Griffin. I didn’t like that he and Finley were having so many dumb fights, but they did finally kiss and it was 😍 I also loved the whole steampunk thing—the tech is very interesting and cool-sounding.

The ending was actually kind of anticlimactic because it happened off page, so that sucked. But also the thing that happened was awful and I felt so bad for both Jasper and Griffin. But overall, I enjoyed the book. (Oh, you know what else I enjoyed? The lack of Jack Dandy! Know what I didn't enjoy? Finley’s constant mention of the guy 🙄 Ugh. Okay maybe not constant, but it certainly felt that way. Lol. Love triangles SUCK.)

Updated edition:

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Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊