This young adult steampunk book is the latest in a series and we start in 1897 with a submersible under the river Thames being attacked by a Kraken. The tentacled creature smashes the vessel and tries to consume the crew, but Griffin, an experimenter, manages to produce an aether bubble to capture it until the Royal Society can arrive. Emily, captain of the submersible, is none too pleased with developments, but she's alive. Familiar with automaton horses and other machines, the watchers are convinced that Griffin's ability to produce the aether bubble is mechanical in origin, when in fact it is produced by mind control.

Girls properly wear corsets in the intriguing tale, GIRL WITH THE IRON TOUCH, where characters from America, Ireland and the English aristocracy mingle with Cockneys from Whitechapel. An automaton girl is made, partway between human and metal, and young Emily is kidnapped because of her talents with metal. Previously, we are told, a character called the Machinist created an automaton to replicate Queen Victoria. What skullduggery is under way this time?

I liked the contrast between expensive Mayfair, where well- dressed residents drive steam-carriages down the clean streets, and Whitechapel, grey and smoky, where residents wear dark colours to hide the dirt and drive real, thin horses and carts to carry fruit they cannot afford to eat. The word robot having been introduced later from a Czech word meaning worker, the mechanical beings in this series are referred to generally as metals. The young people have to come to terms with not only their own abilities and their enemies' plots, but also their attractions to each other, pushing them into stronger relationships.

I felt that this was something of a Fantastic Four set in a steampunk era, because of the mingling of paranormal abilities, and Kady Cross is definitely appealing to young adults who want stories that are out of the ordinary. THE GIRL WITH THE IRON TOUCH would be better read after its predecessors but could be taken as a standalone, especially if you have read other steampunk.

Book Summary

When mechanical genius Emily is kidnapped by rogue automatons, Finley Jayne and her fellow misfits fear the worst. What's left of their archenemy, The Machinist, hungers to be resurrected, and Emily must transplant his consciousness into one of his automatons—or forfeit her friends' lives.

With Griffin being mysteriously tormented by the Aether, the young duke's sanity is close to the breaking point. Seeking help, Finley turns to Jack Dandy, but trusting the master criminal is as dangerous as controlling her dark side. When Jack kisses her, Finley must finally confront her true feelings for him…and for Griffin.

Meanwhile, Sam is searching everywhere for Emily, from Whitechapel's desolate alleyways to Mayfair's elegant mansions. He would walk into hell for her, but the choice she must make will test them more than they could imagine.

To save those she cares about, Emily must confront The Machinist's ultimate creation—an automaton more human than machine. And if she's to have any chance of triumph, she must summon a strength even she doesn't know she has….