In the fifth book in the London Steampunk series, Lady Aramina Duvall is living a double life. As the Duchess of Casavian and the only female blue blood on the Council of Dukes (the ruling body of the Echelon, the London aristocracy), she has to watch her back at every turn and hide her emotions and feminine needs behind an icy veneer. Mina wants to destroy the House of Caine, but the Duke of Caine’s dashing son constantly throws her off balance. She doesn’t know if she can trust Leo Barrons, but both her heart and her body secretly wants him.
Leo is also a blue blood (a person infected with the craving vampire-like virus) and serves on the Council in his father’s stead. Along with several other people, he’s secretly planning to destroy the prince consort and end his reign of tyranny. Even though the Houses of Caine and Casavian hate one another, Leo is obsessed with Mina and can see beneath her cold, calculated shell. But then Leo is ousted from the Council and the prince consort demands his head. Believing Mina betrayed him, he fears everything he’s worked for is about to go up in smoke. Instead, it starts the revolution.
Leo and Mina have great chemistry, but there’s not a lot of romance in this book. The main plot focuses more on the revolt with the H/h’s love story second.
Leo is a strong, guilt-hardened man who’s lost everything and is determined to keep the one bright light in his life—Mina—even though he doesn’t really trust her. Though he lost so much, he gained more in return, and it was really nice seeing him finally be open with his sisters, brother, and their extended family. Leo was already one of my favorite characters, and now he’s tied in with Blade as my favorite hero.
Like most of the heroines in this series, Mina is very secretive and refuses to accept the help she needs for the longest time. Her inability to trust stems from countless betrayals in her past that makes her uncertainty and coldness understandable. Since she’s a blue blood, she has increased speed and strength, and I loved that she and Leo worked together as a team.
Blade, the hero from book one, and his rookery gang played a large role in this story, and it was great seeing him and Honoria again. I definitely enjoyed seeing Charlie and Lark together, and the wedge that finally drove between the young couple is quite heartbreaking. Will and Lena, Lynch and Rosalind, and Garrett and Perry (the other heroes and heroines from the series) had minor roles, but I understand that the book would’ve been way too crowded if everyone played a big on-page role in the revolution.
I was really looking forward to Leo’s story, but I’m a little disappointed. Though I loved all the revolt scenes as the humans and rogue blue bloods/the Nighthawks finally fought back and stood up for their rights, Leo and Mina’s relationship mimicked the stories that came before (the hero being willing to trust and start a relationship while the heroine refuses to give him a chance).
There are some unanswered questions/loose ends, the biggest one being how the humans, blue bloods, and verwulfen will coexist and make peace. That will probably be addressed in the spin-off series, but I really would’ve liked to have read what changes will be made in this book since it wraps up the London Steampunk series.
4 Stars

Disclaimer – I borrowed this ebook from the library. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape, or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion.
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Lost a half star because Tin Man broke my heart but another good installment! It will be interesting to see what would happen from here. I'm assuming a new arc, maybe with a grown-up Charlie and Lark? ( )

I’ve been waiting for this book….not long though because I finished reading the previous book in the series sometime in February.

This is the 5th book in the series and the plot and story have become pretty thick and complicated. I hope I can explain it without actually having to write a whole other book.

In previous books, Leo Barrons has been a secondary character who everyone knew would get his own book and we all noticed his interest in the Lady Aramina. There are seven seats on the council of the Echelon, the blue bloods who rule London and Leo Barrons has one of those seats or rather he has been filling in for years for his father, the Duke of Caine, who has a mysterious illness. For most of his life, Barrons has known that the man who he has called father is not his real father which makes him a bastard and if that got out, it would ruin him. His real father was a brilliant scientist in the employ of the Duke of Caine. The scientist had other children, Honoria who was in the 1st book of the series, Lena who was in the second book and Charlie who is the youngest. They all know and keep his secret.

Blue bloods are aptly named because they actually have a blue tinge to their blood from being infected with the craving virus that makes them faster, stronger and have better senses than mere humans but they are left craving blood and need to drink it to survive. They don’t have fangs so they have to cut the veins of their donors or drink from a cup usually mixed with wine. Only the elite Echelon can be blue bloods. If someone other than one of the Echelon gets infected, they are put to death unless they are a strong male who then is given the chose to either be in the Coldrush Guard who guard the Ivory Tower and the Echelon, join the Nighthawks who are the similar to police or they can choose death. Only two women have ever been allowed to live after being infected.
All blue bloods live in fear of becoming vampires where the craving virus slowly takes control of them and they turn into mindless beasts with intent only on killing.

Human women from good blood lines have one choice in life and that is to become a thrall for one of the Echelon. They flock to parties as young debutants seeking a thrall contract with one of the elite blue bloods and if they are chosen, their fathers sign a contract with the man who chooses them and they will provide blood to the blue blood in exchange for a lavish life-style. The richer the blue blood, the more thralls he has.

But thralls aren’t the only source of blood for blue bloods because drinking straight from the vein too often can lead to vampirism. All humans have blood taxes where they have to go and give a certain amount of blood each year in places called draining factories. The prince consort keeps upping the blood taxes because of his greed and general disregard of humans.

The true leader of London should be the queen, a human, but she is just a puppet for the prince consort who is a blue blood. The prince consort who I don’t believe has ever been called anything but the ‘prince consort’ is ruthless, cruel and power hungry. Everyone fears him and what he can do to them if they oppose him. He finds ways to eliminate anything that stands in his way. He has built an army of automated mechanical soldiers called metaljackets, some who bulldoze and some who breathe fire and giant mechanical Trojan horses to crush mobs when they rise up against him. He also has the Coldrush Guards who guard the tower and his personal spies called Falcons.

Aramina Duvall, the Duchess of House Casavian is one of the only two women allowed to be a blue blood. She is one of the seven councilors of the Echelon. After her only brother’s death, her father infected her on his death bed and declared her his heir. Many opposed her and tried to murder her but she beat them all including her cousin Peter who she killed in a duel. She believes Leo Barrons’ father is responsible for her father’s death and hates both Leo and his father or so she thought until Leo got under her skin. He intrigues her and she is attracted to him which bothers her.

No one knew where Aramina stood or whose side she was on until this book. She seemed to vote mostly with the prince consort but at times surprised everyone and voted against him. In this book, we discover that she is actually conspiring with the queen who in previous books seemed to be completely controlled by the prince consort. The queen is Aramina’s best friend but even the prince consort does not know that. Together, they are trying to take power away from the prince consort so that the queen can take her rightful place as queen and give humans the rights they deserve. Aramina has been secretly working with the humanists who oppose the Echelon and building an army of mechanical Cyclops to overpower the metaljackets and Trojan horses.

Because her feelings for Leo Barrons frighten her and she doesn’t where his alliances lie, she asks the man who spies for her to find Leo’s weaknesses. He brings her photos of Charlie, his half-sibling from his biological father who looks exactly like Leo did at his age. She confronts Leo with this information and he confides in her and tells her that she can do with it what she will. She doesn’t tell him her decision but throws the file into her fireplace but her spy is actually a Falcon placed in her house years ago when her father. He gave the information to the prince consort who orders Leo to be arrested and executed. Leo thinks Aramina betrayed him so he uses her as a hostage to get away.

They are now in White Chapel which is ruled by Blade who is married to Leo’s half-sister Honoria. White Chapel is like a city of its own where outcasts, criminals and the poor live. It is surrounded by a wall that was made many years ago out of anything the people could find. The prince consort gives Blade 24 hours to give up Leo or he will have his army of metaljackets burn down White Chapel.

Now, Aramina needs to decide if she is going to trust Leo and tell him the truth about herself and her plans and help him or if she going to leave and continue her plan on her own.
Whew! I didn’t think I could get through all of that but I think I did it.
And without any spoilers….I will tell you that one of the regular characters dies in this book but I won’t tell you which one.

I liked both of the leading characters. I always liked Leo and I liked that Aramina built up a façade of cold efficiency and was pretty mysterious in other books. One thing that ruined the feel of it for me was that the author called her Mina and not Aramina from the beginning of the book. I don’t know why that bugged me so much but it did. I think it was meant to make the reader feel more intimate with her character but it made me question why, all of the sudden, she is being called “Mina” instead of Aramina. When Leo calls her “Mina” at the beginning of the book, it even states that only he ever has the nerve to call her that which makes it even stranger that throughout the book she is referred to as Mina. I think Aramina is much more sophisticated than Mina and calling her “Mina” just made her seem child-like and took some of her sophistication away. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just me.

I think was the last book in the series but I’m not really sure. The story seemed like it was concluded. Maybe there will be a spin-off series about the verwulfen or the Russian blue bloods. One can only hope.

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This is the culmination of the London Steampunk series. Not only is it steampunk, it is very steamy steampunk! The lead female character is one of the rare women blue bloods who are not only nobility but vampires. Her counterpart is a traditional blue blood, albeit with some radical beliefs. Put them together, and sparks fly!

The story is a great end to the series. But I'm not willing to abandon this alternative history quite yet, so I'll be starting the series London Steampunk: The Blue Blood Conspiracy beginning with Mission: Improper.

While I loved the book, it is only because I had read the others in the series. The cast of the other books appears in this one with not much background recap. Still, I loved it enough to pick up the entire next series. So start at the beginning of the series (Kiss of Steel) and finish with this excellent book. ( )

This was a nice ending to the series. Characters from the previous books showed up to address an overarching theme in the series, and many of their skills and connections ended up playing a vital role, which made the conclusion feel more all-encompassing and satisfying. The characters lives have been nicely interwoven in the series. This couple were definitely the stars of the book though, and seemed genuinely well suited to each other. There's an enemies to lovers angle, but it didn't go overboard where they spend half the book being awful to each other or anything, which I appreciate. They're both kind of standoffish people, but prickly people need love too =), and I feel pleased with their HEA.

Animal content warning: pet cat is murdered. =( ( )