Good story with very clever details ( )

Steampunk romance. I'm completely taken in.

Wait. This is the same person as Kady Cross?? No wonder I loved the book!

The two protagonists are complex, and I love the twist on a seven year gap in a loving but flawed marriage. Having all the politics and intrigue on the side of it was fun, too. I did feel like the murder mystery that kicked off the book really ended up taking a much more minor role than it should have, but I can understand how "husband back from the dead and wants to kill me" ends up sort of overshadowing everything else in one's life.

I hope we get to see more of this couple at some point. They really were fun to watch. (Also, it should be noted that this book is FAR more adult that Kady Cross's YA work.)

Note: I love the small side story about treating "hysteria". Such a Victorian affliction, but seeing a woman become the one working on the "problem" made for a really delightful new spin. ( )

This is the first book in the Clockwork Agents series by Cross (who also writes under a variety of other pen names). There are three books in this series and all have been released. I have had this book on my TBR pile for a while and was excited to get to read it. This ended up being a well done steampunk romance. I enjoyed it.

Arden is in an interesting situation. Her husband has been missing, presumed dead, for seven years and she has struggled to be faithful to both him and his position as a Peer of the realm. When she thinks she sees him one night on the streets she is stunned. Thing get even more complicated when she finds out his memory is gone and he has been sent to kill her.

The majority of the story focuses on a power struggle between the Wardens (who work with the Crown of England) and the Company. Arden works for the Wardens and has been consulting on a mission involving young murdered debutantes. The two storylines about the Wardens vs Company and the storyline about the murders are somewhat related. The storylines could have been put together better, at the end it was a bit confusing what the whole point was and I didn’t think the story made that much sense. So, hopefully the story elements are more well done in the next book.

There are some fun steampunk inventions throughout, so I really enjoyed those aspects. The story is fairly romance heavy but it was a well done romance. The fact that Arden and Luke are already married and are having to fall in love again and get to know each other again (after seven years apart) is very intriguing and engaging.

Overall this was a quick and engaging read. I enjoyed the chemistry and romance between the main characters and enjoyed the steampunk elements throughout. I thought that the story could have been better put together; it was a bit pointless and hard to figure out at times. ( )

Mourning for the death of her husband the heroine marks a tribute to the years of separation with a chain piercing from her nose to her ear. Shocking for Victorian England but heart warming for the reader. Suddenly one night, she's attacked by an assassin in her room only to find out that it's her dead husband. He's been stripped of his memories and feelings and been sent to kill her by a secret organization. But one look and he realizes there's something about his target that brings back repressed memories. The heroine does everything in her power to make him remember who he is and what they had. The characters were fully realized and whole people. The heroine was not an innocent widow with girlish tendencies but a mature woman who will do anything to save her husband. The hero is strong and vulnerable at the same time as he fights to figure out who he is. ( )

After reading God Save The Queen by the same author under a different pen name Kate Locke, I was expecting something just as spectacular.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Heart of Brass is a weak romance novel with a tiny bit of steampunk, and it's such a pity as well, peeps!

Arden could have been an awesome heroine. She makes fantastic mechanical inventions, she even invented a vibrating ring for women which sells like hot cakes, she assists Scotland Yard in murder investigations with the help of aether glasses that allow her to see last moments of the victim. She even wears tiny chains from her ear hooped into a ring in her nose like Indian women. Almost all female characters in this book are exotic and exciting.

If not for men spoiling everything.

In my opinion there shouldn't have been a come back for Arden's husband until the very end of the book, and there shouldn't have been emo love struggles from her friend and jealous rage from her brother-in-law when he found out that his brother is alive.

It was tiring and it wasn't helping moving the plot in any way. All Arden was thinking is how to jump in her husband's bed and how angry she was at him. So she was shouting at him and then making out with him next.

What also bothered me was that she was a functional alcoholic, and then stopped after seven years of drinking heavily, and the issues weren't mentioned enough to show the full impact of her decision on her health, there were hardly any struggles...

The plot also went nowhere. It was dragging its feet with a search for the traitor spy and with Scotland Yard's murders investigation, and then suddenly all got resolved almost like an afterthought.

You see, why I wasn't pleased with the book. Great ideas, bad execution. Not sure if I will continue with this series. Read at your own risk. ( )