Bec McMaster

An interesting mash-up of familiar vampire/paranormal tropes that turned out to be nothing special.

Our heroine, Honoria Todd, is a scientist's daughter. Her father had been working on a cure for vampirism, but he was murdered while on the verge of a major breakthrough. Only Honoria, who worked closely with him and knows the secret to his coded diaries, can discover the secret now...but there's a price on her head. A big one.

So she's gone into hiding. She's gone to ground with her young show more sister and brother in Whitechapel, a rookery in a Victorianish, steampunk London. And the master of the rookery, the vampire Blade, thinks it's time she paid him a visit.

I really liked the setup, but KISS OF STEEL turned out a little softer/sweeter/milder than I'd been hoping for. The worldbuilding has tons of potential, and I would have liked to hear more about how Bec McMaster's version of vampirism works--the 'virus' manifests in three distinct phases, an initial 'craving' stage, a 'romance novel' stage with good looks and superpowers, and a 'horror novel' stage with decay and insanity--what the political landscape of this altered Europe looks like, what kind of scheming the ruling council of vampire Dukes get up to.

But instead of focusing on the worldbuilding or the story, both of which are full of potential, mostly we've got Blade and Honoria deciding whether or not to love and trust one another. The plot makes brief appearances, mostly to give our hero or heroine reason to make sexual demands/refuse sexual demands/offer liberties. Basically, instead of veering toward the 'urban fantasy' side of the genre, McMaster settles firmly into the 'paranormal romance' pool.

A lot of stuff disappointed me. Example: Blade is a vampire who drinks a LOT of blood. He initially draws a firm line in the sand between his sexual desires and his bloodlust. He doesn't have sex with most of the people he takes blood from, there's a difference between food and feelings, etc., etc. But soon enough, whenever he starts showing signs of bloodlust we're meant to read them as signs of arousal, as a COMPLIMENT rather than a threat, and, surprise surprise, when he's lost to hunger only the power of love can call him back to himself. I dunno...yawn? This book could have been so much more interesting.

Likewise, Honoria started out as a really self-possessed, independent woman. She carries a gun. She's not afraid to use it. She's smart, determined. She supports her family. She escapes the authorities. She's awesome!

...for about a hundred pages.

Once Honoria starts to trust Blade, her character arc takes a turn for the limp and dull. Her big moments are varying flavors of passive--she pleads for help, she leaves the room when told, she sacrifices herself, she stands back and lets the men fight over her. Sometimes she wields the power of love, which is...nice. But I preferred it when she wielded a pistol, and her wits.

I did finish the book. But this is not the series to rope me back into paranormals. show less

One thing I particularly like about this series of books is the explanation of vampires. They're called blue bloods, not only for the color of their blood, but because they form the basis of the aristocracy. (At least in England. In France, the revolution and the guillotine, took care of that.) The blue bloods live and rule, and control the spread of the "craving virus" to ensure only male members of the right families get it, which they do with great ceremony when they turn 15. The craving show more virus ("CV") count grows higher as the blue blood ages, and when it becomes too high they enter "the Fade." At that time they begin the transformation to vampire, a mindless, rotting, killer. Traditionally they're killed when they reach the fade.

Blade is a blue blood who is not a member of the aristocracy and, naturally, though they seemingly have a wordless truce with him, they'd like to see him dead. Honoria and her siblings grew up serving one of the blue blood households, but had to flee after the death of their father. Now they're living in dangerous Whitechapel, where Blade becomes the only thing that can protect them.

It's paranormal romance. Of course Blade and Honoria are attracted to each other. Blade pivots about his control, wanting her but not wanting to frighten or harm her. Honoria, once she decides what she wants, goes for it, which I quite like about her.

The thing that cracked me up in this book was what I've taken to referring to as Bulletins from Honoria's Nipples. That woman's nipples are constantly tight, taut, or tingling, and she is always letting us know. I get that it signifies sexual arousal but it happened so often I started to look forward to it as if it were an in-joke: "We interrupt this important and frightening scene to bring you an update from Honoria's nipples. Nipples, how are you doing?" show less

This book follows the same formula as the first book in the series. Stoic Todd sister, who feels she can never burden anyone else with the knowledge of her pain or sacrifices falls in love with and is loved by stoic supernatural (this time verwulfen) control freak.

The Todd sister in question is Lena, who at some time between the last book and this one decided she wanted to return to her life among the Echelon. Leo took her in as his ward, and she's been busily recreating the life she had show more before her father died and she and her siblings had to flee to Whitechapel. However, things among the Echelon aren't as good as she remembered them being. She's now old enough to take a thrall contract with a blue blood but she's finding out the younger blue bloods don't care for contracts and take what they want. (See bloodletting as the equivalent to sex for scandal in this world.) Lena's also gotten involved with a group that wants to end the blue bloods' absolute rule and--she hopes--promote equality.

The supernatural control freak is Will Carver, someone we met in the first book. He's one of Blade's lieutenants and he was also one of Blade's thralls. Will was bitten when he was five and after he turned his parents sold him and he spent his formative years being exhibited by the blue bloods like an animal. Blade saved him from that, and Will would very much like to save every verwulfen from similar fates. He gets the opportunity to do that when the blue bloods' council would like him to be on hand when they meet with a verwulfen delegation from Sweden.

Lena and Will are thrown together when she's chosen to educate him about proper Echelon behavior. They take up where they left off when she was younger, she teasing him looking for a response and he stubbornly ignoring her (or responding to her) instead of telling her the real problem. Verwulfen are forbidden to mate with human women because the virus can pass not only through their blood but their sperm.

So in some ways this was a very by-the-book romance. If only Lena and Will hadn't kept secrets things would have been settled right away. What keeps me reading is the world-building, which expands in each book, and the found family that McMaster has created. She added some new characters in this book that I'll be delighted to read about again. show less

I think I’m in love with Sir Jasper Lynch! He’s so honorable and controlled and not someone who would usually be easily played by a woman but that is exactly what Rosalind does to him. I was so mad at her for most of the book because I liked Jasper so much and I knew how hurt he would be when he found out. He’d been hurt before and a second hurt could destroy him.

We’ve seen glances of Sir Jasper Lynch, Master of the Guild of Nighthawks (the police force of London) in previous books show more in the series and he has always been reasonable and fair. He doesn’t seem arrogant like the rest of the blue bloods in London. Now, we get an in-depth look at him.

The prince consort, an evil and cruel man who uses his power to gain more power by nefarious means, has ordered Lynch to find the leader of the humanists, Mercury, who is believed to have bombed the Ivory Tower while the Echelon (the blue bloods in power over London) and the Norwegian Verwulfen were signing a treaty. If he fails to capture Mercury within three weeks, he will be executed.

Lynch has put all of his resources into finding Mercury but now has to deal with a rash of murders happening around London. Something is turning blue bloods into monsters who turn on their households and kill everyone including servants. They rip them apart as if they have turned into vampires. All blue bloods live with the possibility of turning into vampires if their CV blood levels rise to above a certain percent since blue bloods were once regular humans who had been infected with the craving virus which requires them to drink blood in order to survive. Only men from the finest of blood lines are allowed to be infected because the virus makes them stronger and faster with enhanced hearing, smell and eyesight than regular humans. At the age of fifteen, they go through their blood rites which turns them into a blue blood. Accidents happen and others become infected too. Those infected by accident are considered rogues. If they are strong enough, they get a choice to either serve in the Nighthawks which Sir Jasper Lynch started over 40 years ago or be a Coldrush Guard, who protect the Echelon and the Ivory Tower or be put to death. Almost all women who are infected are executed. Eventually, all blue bloods could turn into a mindless vampire if the CV blood levels get to high. All blue bloods levels are monitored. When a blue blood starts turning into a vampire, an ax is sent for and they are beheaded. None of the men murdering their households have high CV levels though. The only common denominator in all of the households is a sickly sweet odor and small metal balls. Lynch has to find out what is causing these men to mad and find Mercury.

Rosalind is Mercury. She is the leader of the humanists but she had nothing to with the bombing of the Ivory Tower. In fact, she tried to stop it when she found out. That is why she was at the Ivory Tower that day but she got there too late. She was trying to save her brother who was tricked into carrying the device which was disguised as a mechanical verwulfen into the tower. Now, her brother is missing and she needs to find him. She decides to infiltrate the Nighthawks to see if her brother was arrested or killed in the bombing by becoming Sir Jasper Lynch’s personal secretary. She has had a run-in with Lynch before but it was while disguised as Mercury in a mask. He saw her mechanical hand so she has to cover it with gloves…good thing gloves are the height of fashion and showing one’s hands is akin to showing a breast in blue blood society. She becomes Mrs. Rosa Marberry, a widow, so that she can be Lynch’s secretary.

It’s a dangerous game she is playing. She seduces Lynch both as Mercury and Mrs. Marberry. He is conflicted and attracted to both which is strange for him because he never falls for women…not since he was a teenager and was hurt by one. He knows he can’t have either woman though because he knows, in the end, he will not turn over Mercury to the Echelon council and therefore will forfeit his own life. It was very heartbreaking knowing this while reading the book. Rosalind has no idea though.

She does know that Mordecai, a mech, is behind the bombing. Mechs are humans who have lost a limb and have had them replaced with mechanical parts. In exchange for the parts, they are enslaved for a certain amount of time, usually 15 years, working for the Echelon in the metal yards or enclaves. People consider Mechs the lowest form of beings. Rosalind was working with some of the mechs when some of them started defying her orders and making their own plans. Mordacai was one of them. Now, she has seen Mordacai outside one of the houses where a blue blood slaughtered his family. She believes he has something to do with why blue bloods are turning into monsters and she discovers he is planning a mass murder but has no idea when or where but she has to stop it.

Once again, I couldn’t put this book down. I love this series. I wish some of the leading characters from the previous books would have made an appearance. Lena had a brief appearance but none of the others like Blade or Will were in the book. Leo Barrons was in it though and I’m sure he will have a book of his own in this series…at least, I hope.
I’ve already started reading the next book.

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