Well the premise of the book certainly piqued my interest, but unfortunately the author failed to deliver the goods.
Although it's being labeled "steampunk" in actual fact this book is set in an alternative 21st century London where an undead Queen Victoria still sits the throne, so I'd call it more of an urban paranormal fantasy --- and that's where the problems start because it seems like the author just decided to throw in a whole bunch of paranormal elements without much thought for how they would mesh, and most importantly the underlying "science" takes so much explaining it makes you wonder if the author herself really understands what she's talking about. Supposedly the Black Death created a genetic mutation in the survivors --- the "aristocracy" of Great Britain--- that over centuries turned the English nobility into vampires and the Scottish nobility into werewolves. And this mutation --- as far as I could make out --- is also regressive in some humans, and when vampires or werewolves mate with these humans they produce halfbreed offspring with some vampire or werewolf enhancements. And very, very occasionally, when the genes are just right, a full vampire or werewolf results. Which is vitally important because apparently the full vampires and werewolves have a very low success rate at birthing babies on their own.
So we have the vampires and werewolves in charge, with their halfbreed children trained to support, protect and defend the status quo. Humans survive in a state of seething rebellion not quite at the bottom of the social heap. The bottom of the heap is reserved for the goblins, the nightmare offspring of vampires mating with werewolves, monsters who lurk underground and feed on everyone else.
This is the first of a projected trilogy but Locke's writing skills are already stretched in this volume trying to do too many different things at once. It has the self-absorbed focus of a teen novel. The cover art reinforces that. The adolescent sensibility doesn't work too well with the more adult plot elements. It's particularly apparent in the humor --- the heroine's trying to be so cool and worldly-wise and yet the plot depends on her being absolutely clueless about what's going on all around her. And like too many Americans, Locke thinks all she has to do to sound "British" is to ham it up with lots of British slang.
Readers who like either paranormal romance or urban fantasy will find this one just a little too cute for their taste.
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