The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

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author,  book reviews, book, books, characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, fantasy, fiction, Frankenstein, literature, novel, plot, read, reader, review, science fiction, scifi, Steampunk, stories, story, The Diabolical Miss Hyde, The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr, urban fantasy, Viola Carr, write, writer, writing

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Scifi, Steampunk, Mystery, Retelling

Pages: 464

Point of View: First (Eliza and Lizzie)

Released: February 10th 2015

Series: Electric Empire 1

Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)

Source: Bought

My Rating: 7/10 Stars

Warnings: Sex and some grossness (see the bad below)

My Summary:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s daughter also has the same affliction. Eliza Jekyll is a scientist and works with the police force. Miss Lizzie Hyde is a thief and likes going to rowdy bars in the bad part of town. Eliza takes a serum to prevent the change, but its starting to not work.

All magic is illegal, so she’s determined to keep her secret, but when a royal society enforcer gets involved with her latest case things get complicated.

My Review:

Let’s see how good Molly’s memory is. I read this book in April, but for some reason I didn’t write a review. (And now I’m angry with my past self.)

This book not only continues Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but Frankenstein too and there’s plenty of originality added in.

The Good:

It’s set in an alternate past, so women are still looked down upon, but both Eliza and Lizzie are strong in their own way and defy convention.

I liked the relationship between the two ‘sisters’ a lot. They started out hating one another, but they still love each other and they come to respect one another over the course of the book. (I’m afraid the sequel will ruin this though based on the description.)

The romance? There were two and oddly I liked the most messed up one the best. (I’m not sure what that says about me.) He sort of reminds me of Hannibal Lector.

This was your basic steampunk world with robots and gadgets. It was mostly sci-fi, but had some Fantasy elements too. (Werewolves, alchemy, and the fey) Eliza’s investigation tools were cool but I didn’t see the reason for the robots, they were just there. (Both her ‘pet’ robot and the guard robots standing around the city.)

Though set in a dark world there’s plenty of light fun dialogue that I enjoyed. The banter wasn’t the best, but it was still cute.

There’s more than one mystery going on and it was all well done. I wasn’t sure who did it until the second half of the book. (Though I did figure it out way before Eliza and Lizzie)

The Bad:

There was a bit of grossness in this book, the case involved women turning up without their limbs, but it mostly didn’t bother me. (And I’m quite the wimp.)

At first if was hard to understand Lizzie. The book starts in her POV and I almost didn’t buy it because of this. I got used to her though and overall I enjoyed her parts.

Verdict: a good, if weird book. (With an awesome cover!)

Have you ever written a review a bit late? This is my first attempt and I’m presently surprised by how much I remembered. (Especially considering how forgetful and scatterbrained I can be.)

Nice Dragons Finish Last By Rachel Aaron

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author,  book reviews, book, books, characters, dragon books, fantasy, fiction, heartstrikers, literature, nice dragons finish last, nice dragons finish last by Rachel Aaron, novel, plot, Rachel Aaron, read, reader, review, science fiction, scifi, stories, story, urban fantasy, write, writer, writing

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Scifi, Dragons

Pages: 315

Point of View: Third (Julius)

Released: July 15th 2014

Series: Hellstrikers 1

Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)

Mood: Fun, light, action

Source: Bought

My Rating: 9/10 Stars

My Summary:

Unlike normal dragons, Julius likes humans and spends most of his time holed in his room. His mother’s fed up with him, so one day she has him woken up, sealed in human form, and dumped in a city where there’s a bounty on dragons. If he doesn’t prove himself a true dragon in a month, she’ll kill him.

Julius hires Marci, a young mage, to assist him, but she has problems of her own. She stole something from a mobster and he wants it back.

My Review:

This book has ALL of my weaknesses! Why didn’t I read it sooner?!

A futuristic fantasy! I love when SciFi and fantasy merge and it worked great here! After a comet hit years ago, magic was reawakened and now everyone knows about it. The reawakened spirits, mages, and dragons have reshaped our world. Most of this book takes place in the city of Detroit Free Zone, a city of spirits where its illegal to pollute the water, but pretty much everything except murder is legal. The rich live in high superscrapers and then there’s the ‘colorful’ underground. The magic system was simple, but well thought out. Technology and magic mesh together to create special phones and self driven cars. It was all so cool and well done!

My favorite aspect of course was the dragons and their culture. They’re truly cutthroat and highly magical and strong. (Julius still has his strength, even if he can’t turn into a dragon with the powers of fire and flight.) His mother has dozens of children. So many that she names each clutch by a letter of the alphabet to keep them straight. A is the oldest and she’s currently on J, making Julius one of the youngest at only 24.

Julius is a great protagonist! He’s spent his life bending to his family and feeling like a weak failure, since he’s a nice dragon. (Weakness no 1, the good monster hehe!) He really grew throughout this book and not only got tougher but accepted himself. Marci’s a doctoral student who believes in very structured magic. She’s been through a lot recently, but she’s smart and tough.

Both of the main characters are awkward so that made the romance cute. She also doesn’t know he’s a dragon. (Which I loved, the whole secret identity thing! And a forbidden romance!)

The Bad:

The only thing that kept this from a perfect book in my opinion is I wanted more humor, or maybe some banter.

There were also quite a few errors in my Kindle version. (But this is a self published book)

Will I read the next one? I already am!!

I tried to get my sister to read this, since dragons are her favorite, but apparently she doesn’t like human dragons. (Picky picky)

What’s your favorite fantasy creature? Dragons are high on my list (particularly human ones) but if mages count they’re probably number one and as overused as they are I still have a weakness for vampires.