Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook Review

Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I expected to like this more than the first book because Yasmeen and Archimedes Fox were such interesting side characters in the first book. When you're in their head though...not so interesting.

It starts off well enough. It begins with an adventure. Yasmeen and Archimedes team up to search for a very valuable sketch someone stole from them. And so, they go into Horde-occupied Morocco - to the enemy.

So this is my 2nd steampunk book. And I think I just got more confused than ever. The world-building in this is...not quite complex, they just give too little details concerning it. Ok, so this is the 2nd book of the series, but I felt the same in the first book. Is it a steampunk thing that I obviously don't know about? I can't say until I read other books from this genre.

I had a lot of questions. I feel that the author just 'mentions' things, and gives vague meanings or answers. For example, Archimedes Fox's story about his father, and Yasmeen killing him - it all just flew over my head. I mean, explain, please? And then there's the Horde...I'm not even going to get started on that. First of all, WHO is the Horde? I have a very vague understanding of all this, and really don't remember very much from the first book aside from the romance. And then there's Yasmeen's origins...that flew over my head as well.

And the romance...pretty typical. Guy goes after unattainable girl, attains her by heroic performance, being different from all other guys, etc. Authors, please...try something new, would you? Hard-to-get, strong heroines are very nice and all...but at least make it enjoyable if you can't make it unique. So to say, I didn't find their interactions entertaining at all. I HAD in the first book, so that was a big disappointment.

Anywho, it was an ok read, the only parts I really liked were in the beginning, with Zenobia and Yasmeen. I was sad to see that Zenobia doesn't play a bigger role. Not a memorable read overall.

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